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Been a while since this was posted, just found it reading older posts.
Personally, I'm trying to find out as much as I can on all the lesser known "animal styles" of Kung Fu, whether they are Shaolin or modern Wushu or anything older.
The commonly known ones, Tiger, Leopard, Mantis, Snake, Crane, and I'll even include Zui Quan (Drunken Boxing) as it's pretty peculiar and has its own philosophy, are the easy ones to find out online or even in some bookstores. But I know there are other styles (many apparently) that were created as 'sub-styles' to each animal with a few variations. For example: Ghost Bat (apparently based on 'running in circles while fighting'), Spider (using Chin Na and rope as a weapon), 5 different sub-styles of Snake (Cobra, Asp, Viper, Python and Adder), Alligator, Shark, Scorpion, Crab, Rat, even Centipede...
There isn't, as far as I could see, any video or better explanation, so I wouldn't know EXACTLY how to replicate any of these to perfection, but for most of them I can get the general idea basing my understanding of each on the descriptions I found and mixing those concepts with techniques I know already.
I've always been a sucker for styles that resembled Animals, as I love Animals very much, but felt the styles I had studied didn't really give too much and almost stopped entirely after giving the student the main concept, leaving one to wait for more when it was just getting good..
From what I learned (not much for now) most of these styles only incorporate a short number of techniques and maneuvers, some having as little as 20 techniques, and are probably used only but those who feel a particular sub-style as something that better fits their own approach to combat and self defense.
Also, it would seem that a lot of these sub-styles were hidden away from Westerners and those that dared teaching them outside of an allowed group were punishable by death, or so rumors say... Whatever the case, it seems there's a rare few that even just know about them enough to describe the concepts by which they work, so if you have more information on them, I'd love to see it in your PDF.
I strongly feel that we SS should ALL master at least one martial art in order to be able to perfectly defend ourselves should the need arise, and knowing how many today think themselves invincible just because they may know some Muay Thai or get on a ring and perform for silly MMA or, worst of all, Krav Maga..... it never hurts to know how to cause some serious damage.
Hope to see some of your work soon, brother.
HAIL SATAN FOREVER!
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I personally dont know the specifics for styles other than the ones I practice since there is no reason for me to do so. I can for a fact verify the western exposure of kung fu did indeed effect many kung fu styles. Wing chun is one of them. Bruce Lee himself when he started teaching wing chun only knew 2 out of 6 forms. Arguable the 2 empty hand forms he learned have a majority of the principles of the system. The downside is there are 4 other forms, sources of information he completely missed out on and all the drills/training in between them. Situations like this lead to a lot of people trying to wow westerners. So a lot of misinformation was made for aesthetics and for business. Such as the infamous finger dart Which will break your fingers in many cases. Another thing is mistranslation. Different languages have things which cannot be translated. Or even cultural aspects. Cantonese is a very direct language and many moves are named after what they resemble. In the case of the finger dart in wing chun, it's called biu jee. Which loosely means darting finger. Which is a spin on a Cantonese phrase biu see. Biu see means loosely means shitting projectile. Yes shitting as in poop. As in to indicate something under pressure it just shoots out. In this case the form which biu jee is a part of, is also called biu jee and is a applicational form to use if you fucked up using the principles of the other two forms and need to recover or flee in a very bad situation. Like if you need to shit urgently and things just fly out instantly. That's literally where that comes from. And the reason for that is because Cantonese is a very direct language. Southern arts use the same terms. Like pak sao which means slap hand. And the reason for that is because the hand looks like a slapping motion. But these names hold no detail. Like how hard something should be done. Skipping little details like this lead to misinterpretation. Which result in secret sects within kung fu lineages. So it goes both ways. Some styles were fucked up due to western interest, and others closed themselves off. Another thing is traditionally these styles are only taught to Chinese. So some asian guy with bad intent can easy scam ignorant people and label it as kung fu. Just a lot of cultural things tbh.
As for lesser known styles, a lot of styles simply die out, are scams, or could be misinterpreted due to translation. Giving the benefit of the doubt, A style itself is a critique of all other systems. Pretty much a style says all others are wrong and this should be the way things are done. Or some adapt/fuse to make different systems. Like Choy lee fut. The thing is when looking at old styles which have little to no information, you can't really prove they exist nor don't exist. It's all up in the air, but it leads nowhere. There are simply more questions than answers. The real question would be if they are practical. Which is also unknown.
I think if you are interested in animal styles your best bet would be to look at shaolin styles. The shaolin was pretty much the institution which popularized and fine turned them historically.
Here are some lesser known more prominent animal styles. Dog style, lion style, monkey style, dragon style, eagle claw, tiger and crane(this is a fusion).
As for the variations, they are divided between northern, Southern, traditional, sport, and lineage.
When it comes to mixing ideas from other systems, you need to be very clear with what your doing. A lot of people can get lost by bias and desire, or even aesthetic and create things which shouldnt exist that put lives in danger. People fall in love with titles like "ancient, last, first, rare, etc". In reality it doesn't mean anything. The first of everything is always the shittiest variation, the last of something means the quality lacks, ancient just means old, rare just means hard to find. None of these title indicate whether they are practical, good, safe,etc. And since you're going by things you see online, I'm sure there's a lot of misinformation somewhere. In reality titles mean nothing. Only effectiveness. Anything you create will not be what those styles are and In any type of scenario I can think of as to why those styles are scarce, such as ineffectiveness or secrecy you will only be putting yourself in a bad position. For a system to live it needs competent practitioners. A lot of instructors for traditional systems now are bad. It's hard finding a good variation of a traditional system as of now. It's might be damn near impossible to perfectly recreate an old forgotten system by just looking on the internet.
If you want to do a martial art ask the gods for guidance. Be specific with what you want. But as a SS I can only recommend seeking the most effective and practical systems. Everything is a learning experience. You learning about all these different systems should show you there's a whole new world you can easily get lost in.
I do also have a section within the pdf that explains scams, translation errors, cultural aspects which are not acknowledged etc. So I guess that was a sneak peak lol.
But i shall leave you with this. The best animal system is a human system. A system which you will be able to fully exploit and utilize in order to persevere your life and safety. All those old systems failed to do that in some way. That's why they for the most part are none existent.
