White Crane , mother of all southern kung fu ?

 

White Crane is not just one of many southern Chinese Kung Fu styles, it is a style that many other arts claim they descended from.  What is obvious in all southern Kung Fu styles is that they indeed share many similarities in principles and techniques, especially styles from Fujian province. Most Fujian styles to untrained eye may look pretty much the same and even people involved in one of those styles can’t really separate other styles and recognize them at first glance. It is evident that Fujian styles share common origin and same goes for Guangdong styles but to a lesser degree. Although influence of some proto style from Fujian that influence development  of all southern Kung Fu is not as strong in Guangdong as it is strong in Fujian, that influence is still very strong and many foundational principles and basic body mechanics are shared thorough different styles. Of course, styles developed in different direction but common origin, as it is the case in Fujian styles is obvious for majority of Guangdong styles.

How White Crane came to the place of that proto-style remains unknown. Early history of White Crane remains unknown. Early history of the style is completely mythical without any historical evidence. Today it is wide spread opinion that the oldest White Crane style is Young Chun style from the village with the same name. In reality, we have no evidence to support that believe. Just like with all other Kung Fu styles, White Crane history could be tracked with some certainty from 1860’s after the end of Taiping rebellion. Before that time legends and myths is all we have regarding the development of the style and people involved in it. We have some evidence that White Crane as a style under that name existed prior 1850, but the technical content of that style remains unknown and the evidence surprisingly comes from Guangdong province. There are also Crane like styles in Taiwan that are brought to the island prior or in early 1850’s, but there is no clear proof for White Crane in particular. The conclusion is, there is not clear historical evidence that can prove White Crane is really the proto-style from which all other southern styles developed or at least were influenced by to a certain degree.

On the other hand, technical content of White Crane speaks in favor of that belief that this style indeed is the proto-style of most southern styles. We can see Crane techniques, principles, parts of forms or entire forms and body mechanics in most of Fujian and Guangdong styles. From purely technical perspective Crane really could the proto style we are talking about in this article.

How and why White Crane came to be what it is today in technical, social and historical terms remains unknown. What is known is the fact that all White Crane styles are extremely sophisticated, beautiful, and seemingly simple. Also mastering White Crane can allow practitioner to master most of the other southern styles in a very short time.