Are those flamboyant moves of kung fu from the old school?
As an example of acrobatic moves in tcma I direct you to this clip of Gung Li Quan.
This style is incorporated into seveeral branches of Mantis as well as other styles, notably Eagle Claw.
This was recorded in China some years ago when there was an official government national survey of the state of MA in China.
Around 45 seconds this guy in his '50s breaks out the moves.
The first move of the form shows pretty good skill for a person of any age, not to mention some after work hobbyist 55 years old.
Nice a pistol ( one legged squat) right off the bat !
We need to remember that forms are not just about fighting skills but they were/are also sued for developing physical prowess, perhaps more so than fighting skills.
Gung Li Quan is a style.
The form Gung Li that most people learn is a form of that style.
There were a host of standardized forms before ww2 taught in the Guo Shu guan around China.
Beng Bu for Mantis
Baji or great Baji for the Baji style
The roads of Tan Tuei
The other big one was taiji.
and the list goes on, some forms were more standardized and taught at more schools, such as tan tuei and Taiji while some were only taught at some of the guo shu guan.
Many of the 2 man forms come from this era,
such as two man beng bu, baji, taiji.
[QUOTE=Oso;844471]the general though seems to be that Gung Li was a style with just one form, is that true to your knowledge?[/QUOTE]
No, it is not true to my knowledge.
Gung Li has several forms and two mperson sets and drills.
On the survey of CHina they state that gung Li is a combination of Eagle Claw and some other styles like Longfist and Shaolin. I forget all what else, but no Mantis.
The Gung Li Taught in China and showed on that short clip was also taught in taiwan many years ago.
I think the Gongliquan in question properly is one of the styles (ie Yihequan, Baguaquan, Meihuazhuang, etc) that emerges out of the cult pugilism movement during Qing dynasty.
The Gongliquan style is likely derived from the Er Lang Men. I have an article about one of its popular form, Gongli Quan, on my site.
I usually teach Gongli Quan and/or Liuhe Zhang as the basic. But these days I am also working on CCK TCPM version of Xiao Fan Che as the basic form for my own program. So for the less agile person, I would teach Gongli Quan and the light footed person would learn Liuhe Zhang instead. I don’t like to teach Gongli Quan as a beginner form eventhough it’s movements are not complicated. The reason is that to truely appreciate Gongli Quan’s applications one must have a good foundation on breakfalling and throwing/takedown, which will take about 3 months of intensive training and conditioning at least to get ready. However, I would teach it to someone coming from a southern arts background, whether he is agile or not, in order to open up his “frame”. So… One could easily take up to a year to learn Gongli Quan.
Yes I remember my sifu telling me about Gong Li Quan being a representative set of the gong Li Men system.
I wonder if there is any connectiong between the Erlangquan set that was taught in the Chin Woo?
Also it s nice to see mention of how much grappling is contained within the set. I’ve found very few teachers who delve into its applications that far. Having friends in swaijiao helped me to understand the set more deeper.
I’ve got a VCD that is based on the Gong Li Men system. I think www.plumpub.com also offers it. Will dig it out and scan the cover here.
[QUOTE=Tainan Mantis;844624]No, it is not true to my knowledge.
Gung Li has several forms and two mperson sets and drills.
On the survey of CHina they state that gung Li is a combination of Eagle Claw and some other styles like Longfist and Shaolin. I forget all what else, but no Mantis.
The Gung Li Taught in China and showed on that short clip was also taught in taiwan many years ago.
Mantis108 did some research on this I think.
Kevin[/QUOTE]
ok, cool. just another piece of history I picked up from an aberrant source.
It should not take someone several months to learn how to breakfall!
I am continuosly shocked by peoples surprise that the majority of ALL martial arts have a heavy foundation in grappling. Why would Gong Li Chuan be any different??
Jake
