the forms are depicted in the taguo books , and the form you’re speaking of is the ‘first road.’ 3 of them are described in the books. shi de yang also covers the three roads in his vcd/dvd set.
as for this performance, one of the senior students at my school did it recently and it seemed in line with how the older man in the video did it. they each had different flavors, but the overall movements were the same. that can be said for most forms based on the way the individual practioner links certain groups of movements versus others. it will inevitably lead to different tempos that might be perceived as a different form (even though the movements are the same).
as people always say, books can only do so much. for me personally, i just like to have them for comparative documentation of material that i learn at my school. whenever i learn a form, and when’s it’s in taguo, i’ll check the book for comparison and to get some of the names of the movements, although taguo often gives generic directional names. also, the translations are not perfect, so there are sometimes awkward phrases used to describe the movements.
i also have videos of many of the same forms, so the books and vids complement one another. if you’re just interested in learning forms that you are not learning in person, i would say forget the books and get the videos, or get both.
The Taguo books hold a special position for me because I was in Shaolin when the first three were released in '95. I got my editions signed to me personally and chopped by compiler Liu Haichao. I was responsible for the first imports of these books to the USA, initially through WLE and now through www.martialartsmart.com. It’s an interesting reference but there’s really no way to learn from them. You need to know the form first, then you can reference it. The translation is clunky, but every Songshan student should have it just because it’s the most extensive English work so far…
I have worked out a good half dozen sets from Tagou books. All the martial Monk sets for starters. When I finaly got video’s on them I found I was so darn close, that the variations didn’t matter.
To work them out, you do need to have deacent Shaolin fundementals, and a very paitient mind set. It takes time to absorb, and figure out what is being done.
Also, some things are just backwards. Once that little fact reveles itself to you, it’s not hard at all.
Here’s an odd piece of research that I was working on about almost ten years ago but never published. It never really worked as an article, so Ill just let you all have it here. It’s a comparison of Xiaohongquan lyrics from three different sources.
Shaolin Gong-fu: A Course in Traditional Forms: Shiaohong’s form (Liu 1994: 47-90)
Shrinking, bending elbow and keeping one fist upward
Scorpion waving tail *4
Lion opening big mouth *
Stepping forward and pushing palm *2
Leveling two palms while stepping back *
Turning back and wrenching hands *
Stepping forward and pushing palm *
Turning back and stretching leg *
Patting instep while standing on one leg *1
Bending left elbow *
Splitting leg *
Bending right elbow *
Putting down hands
Lion opening big mouth *
Clouds covering over head *1
Seven stars *
Single whip *
Shrinking and bending elbow
Stepping forward and shooting hands *1
Patting right instep on left leg *1
Thrusting palm three times
Patting left instep on right foot *1
Thrusting palm three times
Hungry tiger seizing food
Palms intercrossing while squatting
Stepping forward and baring fists
Sidestepping
Pounding fist
Rolling hands while shrinking *
Stepping forward and thrusting palm *2
Clouds covering head
Sitting on mountain *2
Restoring to preparation posture *
Shaolin Shaohongquan (Beijing Physical Institute Publishing Co. (BPIPC))
Liu *
Cai *
Liu *
Cai *
Turn around and bump the leg
Liu *
Cai *1
Pushing down hand while sinking the body
Cai *
Cai *1
Low bow stance with arm swing *3
Tiger opens its massive jaws
Cai *1
Left cloud over head
Cai *
Cai *
Grabbing hand ties the body *1
*1
Cai *
Liu *
Scorpion tail and Tiger mouth *4
Cai *2
Cai *
Cai *
Cai *
Cai *
*1
Pushing down hand while sinking the body
Cai *
Pushing down hand while sinking the body
Tiger opens its massive jaws
Left cloud over head
Cai *1
Cai *
Cai *
Grabbing hand while sinking the body
Cai *1
*1
Liu *2
Liu *2
Liu *2
Liu *
Liu *2
Liu *2
Liu *2
Liu *
Liu *1
Jamming heart fist
Liu *1
Low groin punch
*1
Cai *2
Cloud hand coordinated with cannon punch
*2
These lyrics share identical Chinese characters. The deviations are entirely due to the different interpretations of the translators.
*1 This lyric differs by one Chinese character from the other marked noted lyric(s).
*2 This lyrics differs by two Chinese characters form the other noted lyric(s).
*3 BPIPC shares two characters with Cai and one with Liu, however Cai and Liu are completely different.
*4 BPIPC combines two of Cai’s lyrics changing “lion” to “tiger”. Classically, this movement is referred to as “Lion”.
Hanguolaohu: Cai is Cai Liuhai. That was from the book Shaolin Kung Fu, which was one of the early ones and is long out of print. If memory serves, it had diagrams (in cartoon-like monk drawings) for yijinjing, xiaohong, a gun and a dao set. I can’t remember which ones, though. If you really want to know, I suppose I could look it up.
Liu is Liu Haichao, who was the chief editor of the Taguo 5 volume set, and is a son of Liu Baoshan, so you’re sort of right on this one.
Songshan: I don’t think this is worth stickying. Only a portion of us practice Xiaohong - remember, there are other Shaolin systems beyond Songshan and I’ve already posted a lot of lyrics for BSL that I never stickied. What’s more, most English-speaking practitioners don’t really concern themselves with lyrics.
I have another lyric set for Xiaohong out of the Zhongguo, Songshan Shaolinsi Wugong Quansi Miji series that was done in 1999. It’s in Chinese though, so I’d have to translate it, and that seems like a bother right now. Maybe some other time. Or better yet, maybe one of you can do it…
do you have the singing version of the freight train Diamond-Cutter Classic? i’d love to do that with the hong 10 sylabel word or the Gao Xing Gong Minhayana. :rolleyes:
or the northern new years song which describes two shepards by a river?
and people say shaolin is all wushu and flashy and pretty…
even though it wasnt flashy..i have to admit..it did look pretty and powerful =)
i think i might change the way i do my shao hung chang now =)
he influence me on a couple of moves =)
