Ark Wong's Five Animal Style

[GreytoWhite]

When I was volunteering at the food bank today one of the clients recognized the xiantian bagua tattooed on my left arm. I'm always surprised when someone recognizes it as I usually hear, "Is that the symbol from Lost?" The fellow went on to explain that he had learned the Five Animal Style as a kid from Ark Wong.

 

Has anyone practiced this? I love the body mechanics and athleticism of Se Ming Wong in this video.

 

 

 

[GreytoWhite]

Double post somehow.

Edited January 16, 2014 by GreytoWhite

[thelerner]

Cool stuff and very martial. I've done some 5 Animal Frolics chi gung (HealingTao version). There are a couple versions of it out there. Its done slower and nowhere near as martial. Its a health practice, like a bear which connects to the kidneys etc., I notice both forms have stork, but it didn't look like the frolics version except for the very beginning. The video looked very kung fu ish to me.

[GreytoWhite]

Aye, it is a gong fu system from Southern China that combines a few Sil Lum Pai styles into one and taught in individual animals. I focus very little on anything but martial development currently, fried myself meditating a little while back, I am endeavoring to embody myself further.

 

Hint: Chuan and Quan in Northern Chinese means fist but in Southern China they use kuen.

[Brian]

Cool video. I remember that opening photo from the cover of Inside Kung Fu magazine...

[Jox]

On 1/16/2014 at 5:37 AM, thelerner said:

Cool stuff and very martial. I've done some 5 Animal Frolics chi gung (HealingTao version). There are a couple versions of it out there. Its done slower and nowhere near as martial. Its a health practice, like a bear which connects to the kidneys etc., I notice both forms have stork, but it didn't look like the frolics version except for the very beginning. The video looked very kung fu ish to me.

 

I have done Michael version too. From my experience very good set to clear the organs and meridians ...  

Edited February 19, 2018 by Jox

[zen-bear]

On 1/16/2014 at 6:37 AM, GreytoWhite said:

Aye, it is a gong fu system from Southern China that combines a few Sil Lum Pai styles into one and taught in individual animals. I focus very little on anything but martial development currently, fried myself meditating a little while back, I am endeavoring to embody myself further.

 

Hint: Chuan and Quan in Northern Chinese means fist but in Southern China they use kuen.

Hello GreytoWhite,

 

Thank you for posting the link to this footage.  Grandmaster Seming Wong's kung fu system that he inherited from his grandfather, the great GM Ark Yue Wong is one of the oldest and original Shaolin Temple arts.  We practitioners call this art Southern Sil Lum (Shaolin) Five Animals Kung Fu.  It originally mimicked the movements of the 5 animals--tiger, dragon, leopard, snake and crane.  To keep the historical record straight, the Buddhist creators of this art did not combine 5mother existing animal-based Kung Fu styles to create it.   Also known as the "Five Formed Fist" or Five Family Fist"(Ng Ga Kin).  It was conceived of 5 distinct animal fighting arts combined into one.  Other single-anmal Kung Fu styles either evolved independently of Shaolin 5 Animals kung Fu or devolved from it.  I studied this art from 1975 to 1983 from two teachers (one of them Master Douglas Wong [no relation to GM Ark Wong]) who studied under GM Ark Wong and from Master Albert Leong, later a highly successful Hollywood stuntman and action actor, who learned 5 Animals Kung Fu directly from GM Ark Wong alongside his friend, Seming Wong.  Throughout the 70's and 80's, Al Leong swept the trophies and medals in forms competitions at all martial arts tournaments with his  Sil Lum Combination First Form and his self-created Kuan Dao (halberd) form.  His were the favorite Kung Fu demonstrations of American Kenpo karate founder Ed Parker who always asked Albert to demonstrate at his annual International Karate Tournament in Long Beach.

I do not consider myself a master of So. Sil Lum 5 Animals Kung fu.  But I practice and preserve one of the capstone forms of this art:  the 350-movement "Five Animals Form", which begins with a salutation with 70 movements/techniques that itself has an introduction of 14 movements that demonstrates 2-4 movements of each of the 5 animals in this order:   tiger, dragon, leopard, snake and crane. The rest of the form's salutation features a tiger sequence followed by crane sequence.  Then the actual Form itself consists of 32 dragon movements, 73 tiger movements, 81 snake movements, 66 leopard movements, and 68  crane movements. 

 

Yes, GM Seming Wong demonstrates advanced body mechanics unique to 5 Animals Kung Fu style-- conditioned over a lifetime of practice.  High athleticism is inherent and built into this classical system's forms and martial applications.  Advanced practice is also shamanistic, where one imbues oneself with not just the energy but the spirit of each of the five animals while he plays or "acts" each one.  Each of the five animal forms condition and highly develop a corresponding aspect of the human physiology:  bones, muscles, sinews, energy, and spirit (shen).  Each of the five animals moves energy differently in terms of physics on the plane of mental control.  For example, the Snake style enables one to focus and deliver energy to a point in space.  I personally witnessed Grandmaster Ark Wong during downtime after a demo our school  (Sifu Doug Wong's) did in  in Las Vegas in 1977, "enlighten" a younger classmate of mine, Juan Ferlini, but pointing his "snake hand" at Juan's "third eye" and most lightly and softly touching  the center of his brows, caused Juan to pass out on the bed in the hotel room briefly.

 

btw, if you want to recover from any kind of meditation burn-out and try a authentic Taoist monastic system of healing Qigong, visit the lively worldwide discussion thread here on daobums on Ehrmei Mountain Flying Phoenix Heavenly Healing Chi Kung ("Fei Feng San Gung").  It's been going on for 9 years, 660,000+ views and 4,530+ postings. I am the sole 7th generation preserver of Flying Phoenix Qigong and have been answering all questions posted on this thead since it was founded by an very enthused practitioner using my DVD series.

 

Thanks again for posting.  Most refreshing to see GM Seming's form.

 

Sifu Terry Dunn

[GreytoWhite]

Sifu Dunn,

 

Thanks for elucidating and clarifying the style for me. This post is about four years old. I have since gone on to learn the xingyi five elements, some Jiang baguazhang, and am now studying material from the Dragongate Sanctuary out of Hawai'i.

Matt