History of SCK
This is a History of our Arts
Southern Crane Kungfu is a martial arts club based on the Southern Chinese Tiger Crane combination system. Our Style of Kungfu uses principles developed hundreds of years ago. Southern Crane Kungfu is a recognised style with direct links to China and Singapore.
Tiger
In China, the tiger is the king of the beasts. It has strength, courage and power, which is why this animal’s characteristics were developed into one of the five great ancestors of Kungfu. Tiger Style, or Tai Chor in the Chinese language, was the third Shaolin style of Kungfu to evolve. Tiger was preceded by the Lohon Style, which itself came from Chi Kung, developed in China by an Indian Buddhist monk named Tat Moh in around 520 AD.
A Chinese emperor created the Tai Chor that we study at Southern Crane Kungfu. He relinquished his title and his power so he could begin the frugal life of a monk, spending the rest of his days studying Buddhism. When he found the Shaolin Temple in the Fujian Province of Southern China that was famous for its Kungfu, he decided to stay there. The emperor began his study of the martial arts and eventually developed Tai Chor, which is sometimes referred to as the Emperor’s style.
Training in Tiger
Tai Chor develops great overall power in the practitioner with dynamic tension, solid stances and devastating medium and short range attacks. Tai Chor uses a strong but mobile walking stance and as well as strikes and swipes, a straight punch that twists prior to impact that has become the hallmark of Shaolin Kungfu. Because of this, Tai Chor can defeat the style it evolved from, Lohan style.
When Tai Chor was created, the emphasis was on generating strong bones and tendons in the practitioner. Shaolin monks observed tigers attacking and saw a fast and powerful animal that outpaced its victims before pressing them into the ground with the weight and strength of its body. This hard external strength requires tough bones and tendons in order to be able to withstand such a punishing attacking technique.
The neck and back of the practitioner must also be powerful to create the external force necessary to fight like a tiger. This is because tigers use their waists and low stances to turn, twist and generate power in combat. Therefore, Tai Chor develops a well conditioned back in the practitioner. Additionally, the fingers, palms, arms and legs of the Tai Chor practitioner are important. These areas come into play in the tiger clawing movements of Tai Chor. Similar training to strengthen these areas in Tai Chor was also used in Dragon style in ancient China, with practitioners lifting clay pots filled with gravel while maintaining their stance, or grabbing and squeezing trees to strengthen fingers, hands and arms.
White Crane
After Tai Chor style in Fujian came the Monkey style, called Tai Sheng in Chinese. This playful, entertaining style evolved from Tai Chor and was therefore able to defeat it. Yet the rolling, crouching, grabbing and plucking techniques favoured by Monkey practitioners was defeated by the style that evolved from it, White Crane.
White Crane was the last and most highly evolved of the five great ancestors of Kungfu. It is the most technically advanced style to come from the Fujian Shaolin Temple. The respect that the Chinese Masters gave this style when it was created is still prevalent today, hence it has been one of the last of the ancestral styles to have been taught to Westerners.
What makes White Crane invincible is that it sticks. When the Crane is attacked it immediately establishes contact, which we call making a bridge. If the opponent tries to attack, the Crane deflects the blow. If the opponent withdraws, the Crane follows. What it does not do is release its touch until it sees an opportunity to strike, and when it does, the Crane shows no mercy. There is no escape from the sticking wings of White Crane.
In China, the White Crane is symbolic of long life. The great bird is believed to live a long time because its body contains vast quantities of jing, which translates as essential energy, or libido. The Crane is able to create jing easily as it is a calm and contemplative bird that has great powers of concentration.
Training in White Crane
Training in the White Crane form was designed to help the practitioner develop both internal and external power. The martial artist must contain power within the body to increase strength inside and out, through internal Chi development and external bone and muscle force. Although this sounds as vigorous as the Tiger, White Crane is closer to the Snake style, in a way that it also uses techniques to overthrow and control the opponent with minimum effort. The development of concentration and focus in a Shaolin White Crane student is paramount, as that is the nature of the bird.
White Crane uses circular, soft, relaxed techniques with explosive speed and tremendous power. Short range hand techniques tend to be focused on joint locking, with long range techniques fixed on strikes to vital areas. The Crane practitioner will increase their speed and balance. This is because the Crane movements are fast and lively, using a supple, fluid waist and light, well balanced footwork. Finger tip training for White Crane’s accurate strikes, and strengthening and balancing work using ankle weights were often used in ancient China to prepare practitioners for the rigors of White Crane style Kungfu.
Tiger Crane Combination
Our style, Tiger Crane combination, comes from Fujian Province in Southern China. When the Manchurians took power in China, the Fujian Shaolin Temple was burned to the ground and the majority of the monks were massacred. However, five Masters escaped. The most famous was Hung Ee Kan, a Master of Tai Chor, or Tiger style, an unbeaten champion who was held in great acclaim for the power of his blows and the strength of his stance.
When the Temple was destroyed, Hung Ee Kan took refuge with a Chinese Opera troop, known as The Red Barge, that traveled the country in a red painted barge. Wherever the troop stopped to perform in new towns, Hung Ee Kan gathered together opponents of the Manchu’s and formed secret societies that learnt Tai Chor from the Master in preparation for the day that the Manchu’s would be overthrown. Because of this widespread dispersal of his knowledge of Kungfu, Hung Ee Kan’s Tai Chor became the ancestor of many styles of Kungfu, including Hung Gar.
Tee Eng Choon
Many years later, after Hung Ee Kan had left the Red Barge troop, the story goes that he came across an old man teaching his daughter Kungfu. He did not recognize the style of Kungfu, but appreciated its delicate movements. As he hid behind a tree watching the training sessions, Hung Ee Kan was seen by the father, who invited him to spar with his daughter.
For the first time, Hung Ee Kan was beaten. He was unable to land a single blow on the girl. She neatly and softly evaded and deflected his punches, rendering their power useless. The girl waited while he attempted to strike her, looking for a gap in his defence that she could use to make a fast and accurate strike to a sensitive point.
Hung Ee Kan wanted to learn more of this style, which was White Crane. He stayed with the girl, named Tee Eng Choon, and her family. Eventually he fell in love with Tee Eng Choon and they were married. This marriage resulted in a style that combined the best of what the two Masters had to offer, the power of the Tiger and the subtleties of the Crane. This style, tiger Crane combination, was passed through generations of Tee’s. The district of Fujian Province where the Tee family lived was called Eng Choon.
How Tee Ley Made Tiger Crane Famous
Tee Ley was a Master of the Iron Palm technique. Iron Palm is focused on training to harden the hand, to allow the practitioner to deliver more powerful blows. Tee Ley was said to only train his right hand, and whatever he gripped with that hand he could turn to dust.
In ancient China, it was customary for Masters to challenge each other to fight. The fights were held on raised platforms, named Lei Tais. Tee Ley won fame for the vast number of these fights without rules that he took part in, and the fact that he usually killed his opponent. Over time he eventually defeated all his opponents and no one else dared to challenge him. As the champion of Southern China, he decided to retire from fighting and take up shoe making.
However, years after he had retired, the champion fighter of Northern China challenged Tee Ley to fight to decide which style was best; Northern or Southern Shaolin Kungfu. Northern Shaolin Kungfu uses upright stances, high kicks and long range hand techniques, whereas Southern Shaolin Kungfu is focused on strong stances, blocking and short range hand techniques.
Tee Ley initially refused to fight as he was a cobbler and had not fought for a long time. Yet finally the constant threats from his Northern Chinese opponent forced him to agree to the competition, and he travelled north to face his challenger on the Lei Tais. Nevertheless Tee Ley understood that if he defeated his opponent the Northern Chinese would want revenge in their champion’s honour. He made preparations for a fast escape from the region on a boat. The two champions fought and soon the Northern champion lay dead at Tee Ley’s feet. His devastating knowledge of Tiger Crane and Iron Palm had destroyed the Northerner’s Kungfu. Tee Ley escaped to his waiting boat and sailed back to Southern China, a hero. News of the fight spread throughout China, making both Tee Ley and his style of Kungfu famous to this day.
Today
Southern Crane Kungfu is a branch of Kungfu that Master Ang Lian Huat taught in Singapore. To this date we have many friends in Tiger Crane Combination, White Crane and Tiger Boxing throughout the UK, China and Singapore. The standards upheld by our club are kept high through constant training and perseverance. Our students have to be taught at this high level to keep Tiger Crane Combination true to its roots for now and the next generation. This is a rare opportunity for new students to train in an authentic style of kungfu.
It is my aim to keep this style alive and true.