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It´s a great joy to announce that Grandmaster Wong will be teaching the famous "Hua To´s Five Animal Play" Qigong method in Barcelona (May 8th 2014).
This will be the first time ever Grandmaster Wong teaches this Qigong (Chikung) exercices overseas.
We are grateful and proud that Sifu has chosen Barcelona for this world premiere.
Needless to say that it´s an opportunity not to be missed by Shaolin Wahnam instructors and students, and for any person interested in the wonderful benefits of Chikung.
Sifu Wong has agreed to answer 10 questions on the Hua To´s Five Animal Play in a special Q&A Series, so I encourage you to ask interesting questions (as you always do) on this special method.
Meanwhile, as an introduction, I´ve compiled various Grandmaster Wong´s comments about the Huato Five Animal Play (or Five Animal Frolics as it´s also called):
I was different from other traditional good students. I read a lot of kungfu classics, and had frequent discussion with my sifu on kungfu philosophy. I read about a kind of chi kung developed by the great Chinese physician, Hua Tou, called Five-Animal Play where practitioners moved about in what we would now call self-manifested chi movement
The Five-Animal Forlic is a famous chi kung exercise first developed by the great Chinese doctor called Hua Tuo about 2000 years ago. The movements of this type of chi kung are represented by five animals, namely the bird, the deer, the monkey, the tiger and the bear.
At first people thought that Hua Tuo invented Five-Animal Forlic by observing the movements of these five animals and then formalized them into chi kung patterns. But later archaelogical and other evidence suggests that practitioners of this type of chi kung went into self-manifested chi movements, which Hua Tuo generalized into five groups represented by the five animals.
Why are there five distintive movements? It is because they are manifested by five different natures of energy issuing from the five major internal organs. Energy from the heart is manifested in movements which resemble those of a bird, from the liver those of a deer, from the spleen those of a monkey, from the lungs those of a tiger, and from the kidneys those of the bear.
For convenience, chi kung exercises can be classified into two main groups: dynamic chi kung and quiescent chi kung. Dynamic chi kung exercises can be sub-divided into dynamic patterns and self-manifested chi movement, and quiescent chi kung exercises can be sub-divided into stationary breathing and meditation. Please note that the division is arbituary and for the sake of convenience.
Actually the term “dynamic patterns” was coined by me when I wrote “The Art of Chi Kung”. I was trying to help readers have a better understanding of the vast variety of chi kung exercises by providing some structured guidelines. I derived the inspiration of the term from a genre of Taoist chi kung exercises collectively know as “dao yin”, which literally means “guide and lead”.
These “dao yin” exercises are usually performed with the practitioners standing, although there are also “dao yin” exercises performed with the practitioners sitting in a lotus-position. The physical movements of the practitioners guide and lead chi to flow. The “Eight Pieces of Brocade”, which correspond to the first eight of our Lohan Hands, is a good example of “dao yin” chi kung.
While “dao yin” sounds poetic in Chinese, translating the term literally as “guide and lead exercises” does not make much sense. So I translate the term figuratively as “dynamic patterns”, because these exercises belong to the sub-group of “dynamic chi kung”, and the exercise are performed as patterns.
Traditionally, the 18 Lohan Hands were not known as “dao yin” exercises. They were just known as “18 Lohan Hands”. Unlike Westerners who like to classify things into neat groups, the Chinese are not so keen on classification. But as “The Art of Chi Kung” was written with Western readers in mind, I classifed 18 Lohan Hands as “dynamic patterns”, as opposed to “self-manifested chi movement”, both of which form the two sub-groups of “dynamic chi kung”.
A good example of “self-manifested chi movement” is “Five-Animal Play”. Traditionally, “Five-Animal Play” was not known as self-manifested chi movement. It was just called “Five-Animal Play”. The term “self-manifested chi movement” is translated from the Chinese term “zi-fa-dong gong”, which word-by-word means “self-manifest-move-art”. This term was coined in modern times, and was not found in classical chi kung texts. It refers to a genre of chi kung where practitioners move about spontaneously and vigorously due to internal chi flow induced by appropriate external movements.
Other schools do not know that chi flow is so important. Even if they knew, they do not have the skills to do it.
From these two reasons, we can go to other subsequent reasons. Why do other schools not know that chi flow is so important? Why do they not have the skills to have chi flow?
Chi flow was a top secret. It was not explicitly explained in the past, like the way we do in our school.
There was also the question of linguistics. In chi kung classics the concept of chi flow was described as "xing qi", which literally meant "circulate energy". In modern language, "chi flow" could be translated as "qi liu", but the term "qi liu" was not mentioned in chi kung classics. "Xing qi" was mentioned but not explained in detail like the way we do.
Chi kung practitioners in the past did have chi flow, but they did not realize it and their chi flow movements were not as vigorous as ours, except those who practiced a type of chi kung called Five-Animal Play.
Five-Animal Play, however, was not widely practiced. Five-Animal Play exercises were prescribed by chi kung healers to patients to overcome illness rather than practiced by chi kung practitioners on their own for health, vitality and longevity.
It´s a great joy to announce that Grandmaster Wong will be teaching the famous "Hua To´s Five Animal Play" Qigong method in Barcelona (May 8th 2014).
This will be the first time ever Grandmaster Wong teaches this Qigong (Chikung) exercices overseas.
We are grateful and proud that Sifu has chosen Barcelona for this world premiere.
Needless to say that it´s an opportunity not to be missed by Shaolin Wahnam instructors and students, and for any person interested in the wonderful benefits of Chikung.
Sifu Wong has agreed to answer 10 questions on the Hua To´s Five Animal Play in a special Q&A Series, so I encourage you to ask interesting questions (as you always do) on this special method.
Meanwhile, as an introduction, I´ve compiled various Grandmaster Wong´s comments about the Huato Five Animal Play (or Five Animal Frolics as it´s also called):
I was different from other traditional good students. I read a lot of kungfu classics, and had frequent discussion with my sifu on kungfu philosophy. I read about a kind of chi kung developed by the great Chinese physician, Hua Tou, called Five-Animal Play where practitioners moved about in what we would now call self-manifested chi movement
The Five-Animal Forlic is a famous chi kung exercise first developed by the great Chinese doctor called Hua Tuo about 2000 years ago. The movements of this type of chi kung are represented by five animals, namely the bird, the deer, the monkey, the tiger and the bear.
At first people thought that Hua Tuo invented Five-Animal Forlic by observing the movements of these five animals and then formalized them into chi kung patterns. But later archaelogical and other evidence suggests that practitioners of this type of chi kung went into self-manifested chi movements, which Hua Tuo generalized into five groups represented by the five animals.
Why are there five distintive movements? It is because they are manifested by five different natures of energy issuing from the five major internal organs. Energy from the heart is manifested in movements which resemble those of a bird, from the liver those of a deer, from the spleen those of a monkey, from the lungs those of a tiger, and from the kidneys those of the bear.
For convenience, chi kung exercises can be classified into two main groups: dynamic chi kung and quiescent chi kung. Dynamic chi kung exercises can be sub-divided into dynamic patterns and self-manifested chi movement, and quiescent chi kung exercises can be sub-divided into stationary breathing and meditation. Please note that the division is arbituary and for the sake of convenience.
Actually the term “dynamic patterns” was coined by me when I wrote “The Art of Chi Kung”. I was trying to help readers have a better understanding of the vast variety of chi kung exercises by providing some structured guidelines. I derived the inspiration of the term from a genre of Taoist chi kung exercises collectively know as “dao yin”, which literally means “guide and lead”.
These “dao yin” exercises are usually performed with the practitioners standing, although there are also “dao yin” exercises performed with the practitioners sitting in a lotus-position. The physical movements of the practitioners guide and lead chi to flow. The “Eight Pieces of Brocade”, which correspond to the first eight of our Lohan Hands, is a good example of “dao yin” chi kung.
While “dao yin” sounds poetic in Chinese, translating the term literally as “guide and lead exercises” does not make much sense. So I translate the term figuratively as “dynamic patterns”, because these exercises belong to the sub-group of “dynamic chi kung”, and the exercise are performed as patterns.
Traditionally, the 18 Lohan Hands were not known as “dao yin” exercises. They were just known as “18 Lohan Hands”. Unlike Westerners who like to classify things into neat groups, the Chinese are not so keen on classification. But as “The Art of Chi Kung” was written with Western readers in mind, I classifed 18 Lohan Hands as “dynamic patterns”, as opposed to “self-manifested chi movement”, both of which form the two sub-groups of “dynamic chi kung”.
A good example of “self-manifested chi movement” is “Five-Animal Play”. Traditionally, “Five-Animal Play” was not known as self-manifested chi movement. It was just called “Five-Animal Play”. The term “self-manifested chi movement” is translated from the Chinese term “zi-fa-dong gong”, which word-by-word means “self-manifest-move-art”. This term was coined in modern times, and was not found in classical chi kung texts. It refers to a genre of chi kung where practitioners move about spontaneously and vigorously due to internal chi flow induced by appropriate external movements.
Other schools do not know that chi flow is so important. Even if they knew, they do not have the skills to do it.
From these two reasons, we can go to other subsequent reasons. Why do other schools not know that chi flow is so important? Why do they not have the skills to have chi flow?
Chi flow was a top secret. It was not explicitly explained in the past, like the way we do in our school.
There was also the question of linguistics. In chi kung classics the concept of chi flow was described as "xing qi", which literally meant "circulate energy". In modern language, "chi flow" could be translated as "qi liu", but the term "qi liu" was not mentioned in chi kung classics. "Xing qi" was mentioned but not explained in detail like the way we do.
Chi kung practitioners in the past did have chi flow, but they did not realize it and their chi flow movements were not as vigorous as ours, except those who practiced a type of chi kung called Five-Animal Play.
Five-Animal Play, however, was not widely practiced. Five-Animal Play exercises were prescribed by chi kung healers to patients to overcome illness rather than practiced by chi kung practitioners on their own for health, vitality and longevity.
Thank you all for your interesting questions, I expect a few more coming...and I´m very eager to read Sifu´s answers!
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