Wahnam Cloud Hands Grasp Sparrow Set: 10 Questions to Grandmaster Wong

[Luo Lang]

Cloud Hands Grasp Sporrow Q/A 1-Part 3

Cloud Hands Grasp Sporrow Q/A 1-Part 3

(Continued from Part 2)

Perhaps the most important factor, which is also the factor that many people overlook, is the presence of mind. You may know the combat applications of Cloud Hands against any attack, and actually have practiced them well with your cooperating classmates, but if you become nervous or panicky when an opponent attacks you, you will throw all your knowledge and training to the winds and fight frantically like an untrained person.

This is a major weakness of most kungfu practitioners. It is not without good reasons for the saying that the highest kingfu is at the level of mind, and being relaxed when facing a fearsome opponent is one of its many aspects.

An effective way to have presence of mind in combat is to earn it through years of rough sparring with other martial artists or through actual fighting. A more civilized way is to train sparring with your classmates with a lot of threat.

So far the explanation of how Cloud Hands can be effective against any attack is academic. It would be useful to examine some practical aspects of how Cloud Hands can be used against various attacks.

Attacks can come in countless ways, but all of them can be classified into four categories: striking, kicking, felling and chin-na. We shall choose a typical example for each category.

Suppose you face your opponent using the pattern, “Playing the Lute”, with your right hand and right leg in front. Your opponent rushes in with a “Black Tiger Steals Heart”, using a left Bow-Arrow and a right punch.

As his punch nears, move your right leg backward to an appropriate space and simultaneously ward off his right punch with your right arm, rotating your waist in a clockwise direction, and push him away with your left hand to your right side or to your back. You may, if you like, strike him instead of pushing him away.

You face your opponent using the same “Playing the Lute”. He moves in with a right side kick.

Shift your body slightly backward to avoid the kick, and simultaneously sweep your right hand in an anti-clockwise direction downward with your open palm facing your right, then quickly turn your hand upward with your open palm now facing your left so that you hold his leg, cover his two hands with your left hand, and swiftly move your right foot to place it behind his left foot, and fell him backward with a forward push of your hands.

Now your opponent moves forward and attempts to fell you using “Carry Tiger back to Mountain”, or “Fell Tree with Roots” in Shaolin Kungfu.

Move your left leg slightly backward in a small arc to reverse his leverage advantage, simultaneously hold his right wrist with your left hand, and hold his left upper arm near his shoulder with your right hand to prevent him from striking you, move your right hip in contact with his right hip to act as an anchor, and rotate your waist in an anti-clockwise direction while pushing his left shoulder backward with your right hand to fell him backward.

Your opponent moves in to grip your right wrist with his right hand, and your right elbow with his left hand in an attempt to apply a chin-na grip on your right arm using the pattern “Old Eagle Catches Snake”.

Relax your right arm, make a small anti-clockwise circle and move it like a snake so that your right arm presses his two hands against his own body, and simultaneously move your right leg forward behind his right leg, place your right hip against his body as an anchor, rotate your waist in an antic-clockwise direction, and fell him backward with your right hand using the pattern “Carry Tiger Back to Mountain”.

All these counters use the movements of Cloud Hands.

Does this mean that if one wishes to encounter any attack, he needs to learn only Cloud Hands and no other techniques?

As explained above, it is not just the technique of Cloud Hands that enables a master to encounter any attack. He needs combat skills, internal force, wide understanding of combat applications, good stances, effective waist rotation, good timing and spacing, good judgment, and being perfectly relaxed when facing opponents. He acquires these requirements gradually through practicing combat applications of many techniques.

Hence, if he just learn the combat applications of Cloud Hands against any attack, even if they knows them, he will not be able to apply them effective in combat because he lacks the other requirements.

(Part 4 follows)

[Luo Lang]

Cloud Hands Grasp Sporrow Q/A 1-Part 4

Cloud Hands Grasp Sporrow Q/A 1-Part 4:

(Continued from Part 3)

Cloud Hands came from the great Zhang San Feng himself. He was honored not just as the first patriarch of Taijiquan but also as the first patriarch of internal kungfu.

Zhang San Feng was a great Shaolin master, a fact not many people realize. Before him, Shaolin practitioners first practiced the physical form of Shaolin Kungfu. Those had become proven themselves to be worthy, they were taught nei kung, or internal art, which is now more commonly called chi kung, or energy art. When a few of them had become advanced, they were taught meditation, or a training of mind.

After graduating from the Shaolin Temple in Henan, Zhang San Feng retired on the Wudang Mountain in Hepei to continue his training to attain Enlightenment, which he did. As he was a very advanced Shaolin practitioner, he performed his Shaolin Kungfu in chi flow and a meditative state of mind.

After completing a set, he remained at standing meditation when he would sway gently and blissfully, known as Flowing Breeze Swaying Willows, and sometimes going into graceful movements in chi flow, poetically described as Flowing Water Floating Clouds, which was later shortened to Cloud Hands.

Zhang San Feng had a few students, but they were not at his high level. They could not perform kungfu movements in chi flow. So Zhang San Feng stylized these originally spontaneous movements of Cloud Hands into definite forms so that his students could practice them with uniformity and continuity as a set. In other words, instead of performing spontaneous chi flow movements of Cloud Hands which varied from time to time which Zhang San Feng did but which his students initially could not do, he taught his students definite forms derived from the spontaneous movements, arranged in a routine so that the students could learn them systematically.

In this way the students could learn a kungfu set of patterns which contributed to their health, vitality, longevity and spiritual cultivation as well as for combat. This original set was called Thirty Seven Pattern Long Fist. It was so called because there were 37 patterns, and all the patterns were performed in a continuous flow as if they were one long pattern. “Fist”; here means a kungfu set.

This was Shaolin Kungfu, and to differentiate it from the Shaolin Kungfu practiced at the Shaolin Temple on Song Shan or Song Mountain in Henan, which was later called Songshan Shaolin Kungfu or Henan Shaolin Kungfu, the Shaolin Kungfu practiced on Wudang Mountain was called Wudang Shaolin Kungfu, later shortened to Wudang Kungfu. Centuries later it evolved into Taijiquan, and to differentiate it from other styles of Taijiquan, this original Taijiquan practiced on Wudang Mountain is now called Wudang Taijiquan.

Hence, Wudang Taijiquan evolved from Cloud Hands, i.e. the spontaneous movements in chi flow poetically described as Flowing Water floating Clouds. The series of movements which later formalized into Grasping Sparrow’s Tail was also called Cloud Hands.

Grasping Sparrow’s Tails consisted of a few patterns, but gradually this collection of patterns was expanded to more patterns which formed various kungfu sets. The set in Chen Style Taijiquan, which formed the base of our Wahnam Taijiquan set called “Flowing Water Floating Clouds”, and the 108-Pattern in Yang Style Taijiquan also contain patterns called “Cloud Hands”.

Hence, the term “Cloud Hands” may refer to a pattern, a sequence similar to Grasping Sparrow’s Tail, or a set like Flowing Water Floating Clouds. In the same way, in Shaolin Kungfu the term “Black Tiger Steals Heart” may refer to a pattern, a sequence like the first of the 16 combat sequences, or a set like the first combat sequence set.

In the 1970's China promoted kungfu, called “wushu” in Mandarin Chinese, not as a martial art but as a sport. A committee of Taijiquan masters composed a set, which was mainly based on Yang Style Taijiquan, for competition purposes. This set was called the 24-Pattern Simplified Taijiquan Set.

Although it was named “Simplified”, it is a beautiful set comprising all important Taijiquan patterns. “Cloud Hands” is a significant pattern performed many times to form a sequence in this set. However, in modern wushu tradition, internal force, combat application and spiritual cultivation are not taught in this set. Wushu championships are accessed by solo demonstration of the set.

When I first taught Taijiquan in our school, I used this 24-Pattern Simplified Set. But, of course, in our Shaolin Wahnam tradition, we pay much importance to internal force, combat application and spiritual cultivation. While teaching this set at the St Petersburg Taijiquan Festival on 2nd November 2012, I suggested that we found a more poetic name for this set. Kevin posted my suggestion on our Shaolin Wahnam Discussion forum. Christina suggested "Grasping Sparrow with Hands Like Clouds". I modified it to "Cloud Hands Grasp Sparrow". Zhang Wuji provided the Chinese character for the complete name of the set to be "Wahnam Cloud Hands Grasp Sparrow Tai Chi Chuan Set".

This is a brief historical background of where Cloud Hands came from and how it evolved into a set in our school. The pattern “Cloud Hands” can be used to encounter any attack if he also has the other requirements like skills and judgment. The sequence “Cloud Hands”, represented in Grasping Sparrow’s Tail, form the basics of all Taijiquan techniques. The set “Cloud Hands Grasp Sparrow” embodies all the important benefits that practicing Taijiquan will bring, namely good health, combat efficiency and spiritual cultivation.

<End>

[DarkCosmoz]

Thank you Sigung. Wow.

[DarkCosmoz]

Dear Sigung,

If we wish to train the combative aspects of Taijiquan during solo practice of the "Cloud Hands Grasp Sparrow" set, should we emphasize focusing and exploding internal force from the wrist and shoulders instead of the waist?

Thank you,
Stephen

[Mark Blohm]

After graduating from the Shaolin Temple in Henan, Zhang San Feng retired on the Wudang Mountain in Hepei to continue his training to attain Enlightenment, which he did. As he was a very advanced Shaolin practitioner, he performed his Shaolin Kungfu in chi flow and a meditative state of mind.

Incredible!

[Luo Lang]

Very nice indeed :-)

[sancrica]

Thank You From the Heart Sifu

Dear Shaolin Wahnam Family,

I believe that one of the qualities that I value most about Sifu is the capability in offering me endless lessons along my path. These lessons keep me always humble and make me a better student.

In the past, I was never a good student in anything. I always had a passion for learning but it was very difficult to find a good master or teacher in whatever I was trying to learn. Without a good master or teacher, I was lossing quite often my motivation and failing in learning whatever I was meant to learn.

In this post, Sifu gave me a big lesson. It is always his generosity that opens my heart until a point that I can clearly see that he is leading me towards my way home. I really miss being at home and Sifu is getting me there. How do I know that Sifu is leading me home? From direct experience.

I look back now and see all the improvements that I have done so far. I can see now how lost I was in my past. I don't really know how Sifu did but he did rescued me and created a better life for me.

When I see the love that Sifu offer us in every of his actions I cannot avoid start crying. But this crying is not a sad but a joyful one. It is the crying that I child has when his mother is taking care of him after he got hurt. It is the crying of trusting for the first time without being afraid of getting hurt. It is the crying of letting go from past and recovering from old wounds. It is the crying of gratitude for having a second chance in life. It is the crying for understanding that miracles are real and can happen to me too.

I just really hope that I can be a very good student and learn as much as I can from Sifu. Long time ago I understood that Sifu is always going to the core, to the essence. For that, it is always worth it to invest my resources on learning from him. I know that his teachings are valid for all aspects in my life.

This is the first time in my life that I have been able to keep a job for two consecutive years. I have to thank Sifu for that (and also Sije for being always there for me). My job wasn't easy as I was working in customer service. Some days, it was so difficult that only my Chi Kung and Taijiquan practice could save me from quitting. Every single day I was able to erase the negative effects that my job had. Dealing with customers can be quite energy consuming. I was able to come with a smile every morning thanks to my practice. I can assure that, without my practice, this would not have been possible at all.

Thanks Sifu for being always a living example of what you teach. Many wonderful things are yet to come. :-)

With Love, Care and Shaolin Salute,

Santiago

[Luo Lang]

So my big thank you with a big hug goes to Santiago. It's worth to mention that mindful interesting questions often bring more than expected answers in a marvellous way.

[Mark Blohm]

Later Riccardo Salvatore told me that Manuel said to him, “I don’t know what happened, but Sifu was like an axis. Each time I moved in to attack, I was spiraled away.”

It reminds me of what Robin Siheng said to me after Sifu was demonstrating an application with him during the Special Wing Choon Course in Penang. I believe the words were, "He's like a wheel."

[Evelyn B]

Wow! Thanks to Sigung for this incredible and profound answer! After reading this I actually can't believe this is only the first answer in this series! What a treasure the Q&A series are

Thanks to Santiago Sipak for the question and to Roland Sipak for this thread! ^_^

[JasD]

Awesome thread, Thank you. Looking forward to more answers

[Guest]

Very interesting thread , thank you for starting Roland Siheng. If I am not to late I would also like to try to squeeze in a question,

Dear Sifu,

When practising foot work, waist rotation and moving in stances, I sometimes add the Double Tiger Claws whilst moving in stances, rotating the Tiger Claws with each step.

After a period of time when the chi flow is becoming stronger I sometimes find the Double Tiger Claws changing into similar movements as Cloud Hands. I have also experienced this once in chi flow. I started thinking that Cloud Hands originated from the Double Tiger Claws.

Is there some connection of the Double Tiger Claws and Cloud Hands?

If all things would be equal in terms of progress, who would have the most force, a Shaolin Kungfu practitioner who practises Iron Wire and Double Tiger Claws, and then starts practising Cloud Hands,
or a Tai Chi Chuan practitioner, who practised Cloud Hands from the start?

Thank you,

Tim

[Luo Lang]

Cloud Hands Grasp Sporrow Q/A 2-Part 1

The fanastic answers continue:

Cloud Hands Grasp Sporrow Q/A 2-Part 1

Question 2

What are the advantages and disadvantages of selecting the Wahnam Cloud Hands Grasp Sparrow Set over the Yang 108 pattern set as specialist set for a Special Intensive Combined Taijiquan/Shaolinquan course in Malaysia?

Kevin


Answer

Before answering the question, it is helpful to have a better understanding of the term “specialist set” or “specialized set”, as the term used by us has changed its meaning over time due to our progress. This description also reveals the development of our Shaolin and Taijiquan syllabuses.

In the first advanced combined Shaolin-Taijiquan course in July/August 2005 where only senior instructors were invited, no special sets were selected but we used Shaolin Kungfu and Taijiquan against other martial arts, like Judo, Grappling anw Wrestling when Kai Uwe, who is an expert in these areas, taught many counters.

In the second advanced course in September 2005, five Shaolin sets, namely “Tiger-Crane”, “Dragon Form”, “Dragon-Tiger”, “Five Animals” and “Monkey”, were selected as “specialized sets” for closer study. They were called “specialized sets” because the core Shaolin syllabus at that time (and is still now) was the Basic 16 Combat Sequences. Course participants, having completed the 16 combat sequences, chose one of the five sets for further study.

The 16 Shaolin combat sequences were composed by me, and were based on the 12 Shaolin combat sequences at the Shaolin Wahnam Association in Sungai Petani, Malaysia in the 1980s. The 12 combat sequences were also composed by me to meet an expedient need, which was to enable students to apply kungfu patterns for combat in about 3 years instead of 15 years or more.

When I first learned Shaolin Kungfu from Uncle Righteousness, I learned mainly forms, which was the norm then and is also the norm now, except that some schools today introduce random free sparring using Boxing gloves and Kick-Boxing techniques into their schools. I was, however, quite outside the norm. I engaged in free sparring with my classmates, but was unsystematic then, and sought martial artists of other kungfu schools and other martial arts for free sparring.

Even at this early stage I remained undefeated, not because I was good but because I was smart. Unknown to me then I used Sun Tzu’s philosophy of knowing myself and knowing my enemy. Although I was not good, my opponents were worse.

When I learned from Sifu Ho Fatt Nam, the emphasis was on force training and combat application. My kungfu performance improved tremendously. I still sought other kungfu practitioners and other martial artists for free sparring, and I could defeat them easily, often within three moves but sometimes I allowed them to go on for fun.

Again I was smart. Usually I could anticipate my opponents’ moves, and responded accordingly with counters I had prepared and practiced well beforehand. Infrequently, if their moves were outside what I had prepared, I just let them pass. Most attacks were stereotyped. If you prepare 10 counters well, you can handle more than 80% of attacks.

My path to using kungfu for free sparring was orthodox. I first learned kungfu forms – a lot of them. Then I engaged in free sparring, and tried to use the kungfu forms I had learned. This was unmethodical. When I learned from Sifu Ho Fatt Nam, I made a huge jump in my learning process. Instead of figuring what kungfu patterns to use while sparring, my sifu taught me basic counters against common attacks. This saved me a lot of time and effort. But I still had to learned my forms first – Four-Gates and then Shaolin Bagua Set (which was different from the Baguazhang we now have in our school).

So when I taught at the Shaolin Wahnam Association in Sungai Petani in the 1980s, I used this method. The first kungfu set I learned from Uncle Righteousness was Tiger-Crane, and the first set I learned from Sifu Ho Fatt Nam was Four-Gates. I found Tiger-Crane too sophisticated for beginning students, so I used Four-Gates as the fundamental set which every student had to start with, like what occurred at the southern Shaolin Temple at Quanzhou before it was burnt by the Qing Army in the 1850s.

After Four-Gates, students could select one of the following: Bagua, Flower Set, Triple Stretch and Taming Tiger. Meanwhile I also taught 12 Shaolin combat sequences. This sped up the students’ ability to use kungfu patterns for free sparring from 15 years to 3 years. It took me about 15 years before I could use kungfu patterns to spar efficiently. This was actually not too bad, considering that most kungfu practitioners today could not use kungfu patterns to spar at all regardless of how long they had practiced or taught kungfu. Some of them use a semblance of Kick-Boxing.

(Part 2 follows)

[Luo Lang]

Cloud Hands Grasp Sporrow Q/A 2-Part 2

Cloud Hands Grasp Sporrow Q/A 2-Part 2:

(Continued from Part 1)

I made another huge jump in using kungfu patterns for sparring when I first taught Intensive Shaolin Kungfu Courses in 2000s. Instead of teaching kungfu sets first, which is the norm, I started with the 16 Shaolin combat sequences, which were improved from the earlier 12 combat sequences.

There are some differences between the new set of 16 sequences and the earlier set of 12 sequences. The new set is more systematic and comprehensive as follows:

Sequences 1 to 4 – Combat skills.
Sequences 5 to 8 – Striking.
Sequences 9 to 12 – Kicking.
Sequences 13 to 16 – Felling and Chin-Na.

Originally I planned to have 20 combat sequences, with Sequences 17 to 20 emphasizing on chin-na. At that time videos were unknown; even photographs were not widely used. We could only complete 12 sequences comfortably and often had to rush through Sequences 13 to 16 which actually focused on felling. As chi-na was also included in Sequences 13 to 16, I left out Sequences 17 to 20.

These sequences were linked together to form sets, as follows:

Sequence 1 to 4 – Black Tiger Steals Heart
Sequences 5 to 8 – Fierce Tiger Speeds through Valley
Sequences 9 to 12 – Happy Bird Hops up Branch
Sequences 13 to 16 – Fell Tree with Roots

Sequences 17 to 20 are linked to form a set called Fierce Tiger Descends Mountain, and as we did not have sufficient time to learn it at an Intensive Shaolin Kungfu Course, it was assigned to be a selective set, the meaning of which will be explained subsequently.

Before we attempted the combat sequences, we learned basic Shaolin patterns. 4 attack patterns and 4 defend patterns were linked to form a set called Lohan Asks the Way.

A parallel development occurred in Taijiquan. I also had 12 Taijiquan combat sequences when I taught at Shaolin Wahnam Association in Sungai Petani in the 1980s. These earlier 12 sequences were Taijiquan version of the 12 Shaolin sequences. The attack and defence were similar, but instead of using Shaolin techniques I used Taijiquan techniques.

Our present 12 Taijiquan combat sequences, however, were not derived from the earlier ones, but were evolved from my teaching of Pushing Hands and Striking Hands in Intensive Taijiquan Courses. As students systematically progressed from Pushing Hands to Striking Hands, discernable patterns emerged which I linked together to form the new 12 Taijiquan patterns.

The 12 sequences were linked together to form 4 Taijiquan sets as follows:

Sequences 1 to 3 – White Snake Shoots Venom
Sequences 4 to 6 – Green Dragon Shoots Pearl
Sequences 7 to 9 – Black Bear Sinks Hips
Sequences 10 to 12 – Carry Tiger Back to Mountain

Before attempting these combat sequences, we learned some basic Taijiquan patterns, which could be summed up in the sequence, Grasping Sparrow’s Tail.

The patterns were combined with some other basic patterns like Single Whip, White Crane Flap Wings, Green Dragon Shoots Pearl and Cross-Hand Thrust Kick to form a set called Cloud Hands. Although this is the shortest Taijiquan set in our school and therefore easy to learn, it incorporates all important techniques and skills of Taijiquan. It is the Taijiquan counterpart of Shaolin Lohan Ask the Way.

When I first taught Taijiquan in our school, I used the 24-Pattern Simplified Taijiquan Set, which is now called Cloud Hands Grasp Sparrow in Wahnam Taijiquan. There are also other Wahnam Taijiquan sets, like Yellow Bee Sucks Pollen, which is a condensation of the 12 combat sequences into 8 sequences, and Old Eagle Catches Snake, which is a crystallization of the 12 sequences into 4 sequences.

There are also the 108-Pattern Yang Style Taijiquan Set, and the Flowing Water Floating Clouds Set, which incorporates the essence of Chen Style Taijiquan. To top it all there is the Wudang Taijiquan Set, which is the climax of Shaolin Kungfu development and the source of all styles of Taijiquan.

Hence, we were quite revolutionary. Instead of starting with classical Shaolin or Taijiquan sets, which students today learn mainly for demonstration but are unable to apply them for combat, we started with combat sequences composed by me, and students were able to apply them for combat in a matter of months instead of years which some exceptional students could do. Our students also have benefits of health and spiritual joys that other students may not have.

This relatively long background is not only interesting as it describes how our kungfu sets developed, but is also necessary to understand the meaning of the term “specialist set” or “specialized set”.

(Part 3 follows)

[Claudien S]

Amazing

Thank you Sifu. I don't have words to describe how deeply touched I am when reading these answers.

Thank you Roland Sihing for posting

Best regards,
Claude