What is Kung Fu?

This is not as simple as the question may initially seem. Kung Fu doesn’t even refer solely to martial arts. It means time spent in a skilful endeavour, so really, anything can be Kung Fu – it’s about the way you practice and express your craft, more than it is about what your craft is. Kung Fu really is in everything. 

But it is used to refer to Chinese martial arts generally. Anything from Wing Chun, to Tai Chi, to Wu Shu will fall under the umbrella term of Kung Fu. There are unarmed styles, with grappling or with strikes, styles with weapons, styles more focussed on self-defence and styles more focused on sport. 

Because of this generality to the term, it is very hard to establish the ‘true’ origins of Kung Fu. There is evidence of its practice as early as the Zhou Dynasty (1111 – 255 BCE) but it may even predate this. Historically, there have been two main families of Kung Fu, originating from either the north or the south of China. The reason for the difference in the two styles? Nobody can agree. Reasons have been proposed such as the greater accessibility of weapons to the Northern Chinese, different body types between the two groups, differences in terrain or crop types, or even a greater tendency to spend time on ships. Whatever the case, we are here to examine the differences between the northern and southern styles. The true original Kung Fu style is also hard to identify, so we will pick an example from each family to demonstrate the differences. 

Northern Shaolin Long Fist

As a general rule, the northern style has more flamboyant techniques in the unarmed section and more conservative (perhaps realistic) techniques on the weapons side. In terms of the unarmed techniques, there is a much greater focus on acrobatics and kicks. This influence can be seen in the geographically close Korean martial arts, and may partially be responsible for the kick-heavy focus of Tae Kwon Do. 

To look at Northern Shaolin Long Fist more specifically, we can see a style that emerged about one thousand years ago (during the Song Dynasty, 960-1279CE). It is perhaps the most dominant style of the northern family, and the weapons used include staff, sabre, straight sword, and spear. Unarmed techniques have a great focus on kicks and long, sweeping, circular movements, leading to the common phrase ‘southern kicks, northern fists’. This focus on kicks and circular movement also lends itself to techniques launched from a greater range, and as such, more mobility in the fighting style. 

The style was originally developed in the Henan Shaolin Monastery. The monks here became so influential that Shaolin became associated with martial arts in general, whether associated with that temple or not. Eventually, Shaolin was added to the name of any Buddhist temple with a strong affinity for martial arts. Nowadays, we can see that tradition continued, and Shaolin has become synonymous with martial arts in the modern day. 

Hong Family Fist 

By comparison to the northern style, the unarmed southern style appears higher tempo and more direct. With less time jumping and flowing from one position to the next, and a greater focus on short-range aggression, a demonstration might appear more brutal and higher-paced, and more solidly grounded. If you are not familiar with the southern style, I would call Wing Chun to mind (as practised by Bruce Lee). It is more recently developed but a close cousin nonetheless. 

Hong Family Fist is one of the southern styles, with a history some three hundred years old and having been developed in the Five Elders of Shaolin Temple (with strong influence from others). The Shaolin Five Elders are legendary characters, and survivors of the original Shaolin temple (the one in Henan, as mentioned earlier) being razed to the ground by an emperor. A consensus on the date for this is hard to come by, although it is widely accepted that the temple was razed somewhere between 1647 and 1732. Whenever this occurred, the five travelled to a Southern Shaolin Temple, and there helped to develop the style into it’s own characteristic form. Since then, the style has continued to develop and find new iterations, and has provided a great deal of influence throughout the Kung Fu world. 

As for the Hong Family Fist style itself, it focuses on five different animal styles to channel aspects that training Kung Fu should help to develop. With the Tiger, Leopard, Crane, Snake, and Dragon, practitioners look to develop a wide range of attributes through the martial art. The weapons used are also more varied, with some that are perhaps a little less practical sometimes. There are the standard weapons of broadsword, straight sword, staff, and spear, but the style adds to that the fan and the umbrella, amongst other more unusual weaponry. The style is also the inverse of that practised in the north, with more flowing movements and flamboyance than the counterpart. 

Modern Iterations 

And so that brings us to the ways the art is practised today. Both the northern and southern styles survive well, but as with all martial arts the sport has diverged and developed. Styles such as Wing Chun have emerged from individual branches. Other styles like Chang Hong have combined and refined the two styles to make a more potent combination. 

Whatever style is of interest, be is old or new, they are available to study and practice. Find the style that piques your interest, and see where it can take you. For anyone interested in the Northern Shaolin Family fist or the Hong Family Fist styles, schools can be found across three continents with the Chinese Martial Arts and Health Centre so check it out.