In the Chinese martial arts, imagery of the Five Animals (Chinese: 五形;
pinyin: wu xíng; literally "Five Forms")—Tiger, Crane, Leopard, Snake, and
Dragon—appears in many styles.
The Five Animal martial arts supposedly originate from the Henan Shaolin Temple,
which is north of the Yangtze, even though imagery of these particular five
animals as a distinct group is either rare in Northern Shaolin martial arts—and
Northern Chinese martial arts in general—or recent (cf. wuxíngbāfaquán; 五形八法拳;
"Five Form Eight Method Fist"). They are well represented (among others) in the
historically northern nei jia styles.
Shaolin first became famous because the Tang Dynasty (618–907) saw fit to
favor the monastery with its patronage as thanks for the contribution of its
monks to the Battle of Hulao. The sudden renown of the Shaolin martial arts
attracted pilgrims who came specifically to study its fighting methods. However,
the more people that sought training at the temple, the smaller the proportion
of them that had the time or the inclination to truly dedicate themselves. But
really they didn't know who to choose first and why. Some regarded the Shaolin
imprimatur as a kind of talisman that rendered years of training unnecessary.
Others only wanted to fight well and cared little for esoterica like qìgōng,
erasing over centuries the difference between the Shaolin martial arts and those
crude methods on which it was supposed to improve.
The legendary Zhang Sanfeng is said by the nei jia schools that associate
themselves with him to have trained Snake and Crane style Shaolin martial arts.
Another was Jueyuan, who in the 13th century started from first principles
with the 18 Luohan Hands, the original 18 techniques of the Shaolin martial
arts. Like those before him, Jueyuan used the original 18 Luohan Hands as a
foundation, expanding its 18 techniques into 72. Still, he felt the need to seek
knowledge from outside the confines of the temple.
In Gansu Province in the west of China, in the city of Lanzhou, he met Li Sou,
a master of "red fist" Hóngquán (紅拳). Li Sou accompanied Jueyuan back to Henan,
to Luoyang to introduce Jueyuan to Bai Yufeng, master of an internal method.
They returned to Shaolin with Bai Yufeng and expanded Jueyuan's 72 techniques
to approximately 170. Moreover, using their combined knowledge, they restored
internal aspects to Shaolin boxing.
They organized these techniques into Five Animals: the Tiger, the Crane, the
Leopard, the Snake, and the Dragon.
Jueyuan is also credited with the Northern style "flood fist" Hóngquán (洪拳),
which does not feature the Five Animals but is written with the same characters
as the Southern style Hung Kuen, perhaps the quintessential Five Animals style.
Moreover, as in the Southern Hung Kuen, the "Hóng" character (洪) in Hóngquán
actually refers to a family name rather than its literal meaning of "flood."
However, the two styles have nothing in common beyond their shared name.
Moreover, in Mandarin, "wuxíng" is the pronunciation not only of "Five
Animals," but also of "Five Elements," the core techniques of Xíngyìquán, which
also features animal mimicry (but of 10 or 12 animals rather than 5) and, with
its high narrow Sāntishì (三體勢) stance, looks nothing so much like a Fujianese
Southern style stranded in the North.
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China