Shaolin Kung Fu Styles
Hong
Quan (Hong Family Boxing)
The first thing allmost
every student who wants to learn Shaolin kung fu will learn is the
'Xiao Hong Quan' form. (Xiao=Small, Hong=Red, Quan=Fist, which
makes it the 'small boxing style of the family Hong' (=red)). It
consists of al lot of the 'Shaolin Ji Ben Gong', the Shaolin
basics. The original version goes back about a thousend years, and
is still practised in its original version. The other 'Hong'
fist-form, that one sees a lot, is the 'Da Hong Quan' (Da=Big).
There are two versions of this form.The original version, about a
thousend years old, is shorter than the more recent form. The more
recent form of 'Da Hong Quan' consists of three parts, which are
usually performed as three independant forms.
Hong Quan focuses on
absorbing the adversary's energy with a soft outside and a hard
inside. Many of its forms are an important part of the Shaolin
Temple curriculum. These include xiaohongquan (small red fist),
dahongquan (big red fist), zhonghongquan (middle red fist),
laohongquan (old red fist), fenhongquan (pink fist), taizuhongquan
(first emperor fist), erluhongquan (second form red fist),
guangxihongquan (Guangxi province red fist) and changshaohongquan
(long and short red fist).
