Yin Yang Chi Kung Fu

Martial Arts Research & Development Association

History 72 Shaolin Secret Arts of Monks

72 Shaolin Secret Arts of Monks

Shaolin Secret Arts of Monks From Shaolin Monastery

The 72 Shaolin Secret Arts are methods of preparing the body and the mind for action under extreme conditions (first of all, in conditions of real-life hand-to-hand combat). If you train only hand-to-hand techniques and do not pay attention to special training, you will never achieve the highest mastery and your movements will lack the real force. "The fists are like flowers, and the legs like embroidery needles", laugh the old masters at such "techniques". The 72 Arts of Shaolin are the foundation of the utmost mastery in all styles of Kung Fu.

"Seventy-two precious arts are kept in a brocade bag, they are kept like a great treasure. Eighteen of them are the essence of the famous treatises on pugilistic arts. Eighteen other arts describe in detail training methods with the use of special tools and training equipment. Wonderful methods of attaining the flexibility of the breath-chi, exercises in obtaining hardness and lightness, clenching methods are written with the blood of monks in books that are kept like a treasure in the brocade bag. One can seldom meet those who really want to do exercises with zeal: to become a real hero, one must often feel bitter taste of hard labour."

Seventy-two types of the Shaolin Arts represent an example of personal experience of monks from the Shaolin Monastery in the Songshan Mountains. This experience was obtained by hard exercises in combat arts during many epochs. The best samples of those seventy-two arts are such effective methods as qigong (chi kung), breathing exercises chi, exercises to obtain hardness yinggong and lightness qinggong, acupoint massage dienxue, clenching arts qinna (chin na), the art of setting dislocations and bones and others.

In all practices of the Seventy-two Arts at first the basic theory is studied and only then exercises are done. At first those who practice the arts train the softness of their sinews and bones and try to make agile all their joints and articulations. Then they set into motion the main breath zongli, strengthen the internal organs fu, improve blood state, consolidate body strength, control the cinnabar field and concentrate energy in it, overcome their desires and requirements. The strength spreads on the four extremities and the hundred joints and articulations, now a fighter is in command of unlimited power and he can move off one thousand jins. Your arm weighing only ten jins can move a thing weighing ten thousand jins with a stroke. Your arms are a head, your legs are a tail. Everything is permeated with a single movement, the body moves like a dragon. Teachers said: "Shaolin exercises develop forces of the whole human organism, all joints and bones; you are capable of striking with all parts of your body." There is one more saying: "The fist is the source of all arts and the leg is the base, the root of the fist." Ordinary practice of pugilism consists of seventy percent of leg training and thirty percent of fist training. If you acquire pugilism, you can use eighteen types of weapon. If you resort to all ruses of pugilism, you can fight against ten thousand fighters.

  1. MO ZHANG -the grinding palm
  2. FENG ZHANG - the windy palm
  3. Liuxin zhang - the rocket palm
  4. Chuanso zhang - the shuttle palm
  5. Tui shan zxang - the palm pushing a mountain
  6. Pi chai zhang - the palm cutting wood
  7. Chen zhuan zhang - the palm breaking bricks
  8. Jin zhusa zhang - the palm with iron grasp
  9. Jin gou shou - the iron hook-like
  10. Wa yan shou - the hand tearing out eyes
  11. Tanglang shou - the leg of an Mantodea
  12. Bai she xin shou - the hand as accurate as a spittle of the white snake
  13. Bai she xin shou - the hand as accurate as a spittle of the white snake
  14. Heihu zhua lian shou - the claws of the black tiger grasping the face
  15. She mao shou - the hand like a snake-shaped blade
  16. Bai xin shou - the hand of eight wizards
  17. Zhin cha zhi - the finger like a gold pin
  18. Zhou zhi - the bamboo finger, the finger like a bamboo stick
  19. Wu kua hongqian zhi - five fingers like red flower pistil
  20. Zhin gong zuan zhi - the piercing finger as hard as a diamond
  21. Cuan xin zhi - the finger piercing the heart
  22. Tou gu zhi - the finger punching holes in bones
  23. Yi zhi jin - the finger as hard as metal
  24. Chan si zhou - the elbow with a cord wound on it
  25. Go xin zhou - the elbow punching the heart
  26. Po yin zhou - the elbow breaking Yin
  27. Niu chan tui - the dislocated thigh
  28. Pe zhu gan - a bamboo fighting pole
  29. Gu shu pan gen - twisted roots of a dry tree
  30. Te wu gen di - the iron buffalo ploughs soil
  31. Fei mai qiao - the leg flying like
  32. Hei xian feng - the black water-spout
  33. Tie sazou - the iron broom
  34. Hou tiao qian - the monkey jumping over a wall
  35. Yian qu shui - the swallow drinks water
  36. Chang e bian yue - Sorceress Chan E ascends the moon
  37. Tian gou chi yang - the Heaven's Dog eats the Sun
  38. Ha mo zu tian - the toad drills the sky
  39. Gang jin juan - the diamond fist
  40. Shi kai hua - the stone blossoms out like a flower
  41. Zuan xin chui - the hammer punching the heart
  42. Lu kai hua - the skull blooming out like a flower
  43. Duan mu zhuang - to break a wooden stove-couch
  44. Ti jie shi - to break a stone with a leg
  45. Fang feng Zhen - Zhen releases winds
  46. Da shai dai - to strike at a sand bag
  47. Fen mu guan - the coffin broken into pieces
  48. Dai tie wa - to wear iron hoops
  49. Diao shaku - to hang trousers with sand
  50. Yue ying jian - to jump over a moon abyss
  51. Feng xuan ai - the flight from a steep precipice
  52. Feng xuan ai - the flight from a steep precipice
  53. Zuo liu xing - the rocket stance
  54. Taishan zhuan - the pole like the Taishan mountain
  55. Xin yi ba - the heart and mind clench
  56. Qi wei chuan dong - the bristling hedgehog strikes a hole
  57. Suang to yue - to embrace the moon
  58. Tie gan tui - the leg like an iron pole
  59. Kao re guo - the cauldron heated on fire
  60. Zuai ti deng - to throw down a stool by a foot
  61. Lu da gun - the ass's strike
  62. Zhai she zu - the foot digging soil
  63. Guang chuan tie bu shan - to put on an iron shirt on the naked body
  64. Wu kong fan jin dou - Wu Kong fights against sinew dislocations
  65. Tian bing xia fan - the Celestial Soldier descends the sky
  66. Da murien - to strike a man of wood
  67. Xie zi zou lu - the scorpion crawls along the road
  68. Qian jintui - the leg weighing one thousand jins
  69. Zha yan huan zuo deng - to change in an instant the stool
  70. Luohan shen gong - Luohan's