Kaiyuan Temple Boxing Damo San Zhan

Kaiyuan Temple Luohan Boxing
Demonstration by senior Kaiyuan Quan master Ke Hanzong of "Damo San Zhan" from the Kaiyuan Luohan Boxing system and the Zhen Tou "Leading the Array" section of the Qinglong Yanyue Dao form from the Shuang Fa Tang Gongbu militia weapons system.
According to oral tradition this lineage of boxing was founded by famed 33rd generation Kaiyuan temple ascetic monk Qiao Yun in the late Ming dynasty.
(he built a small hut at the top of a mountain pass and spent the day giving tea to tired travelers and night studying the sutras, and presumably practicing boxing. As far as I'm concerned he sounds like a cool guy.)
The modern lineage can be traced back to the martial monks Bi Lang（1878~1949）and Fu Ming （1880~1940）who inherited the tradition from the senior teachers of the Tongyuan Shrine. From there the tradition was passed down to various students with lay monastic student Hong Changbo（1925~1992）being appointed the gate keeper of the next generation of Kaiyuan boxing.
Located in Longxi county in the Xiangcheng district of Zhangzhou prefecture, the Kaiyuan temple at it's peak was one of the largest temples in Fujian and was famed for it's collection of Tang and Song dynasty art. As the largest and one of the oldest temples in the region, the monks of Kaiyuan were known to preserve a wide variety of ancient traditional arts.
However the temple was looted and burned by the Taiping army in 1864.
After the destruction of the temple many of the monks spread out into the many local subsidiary temples and shrines that were under the jurisdiction of Kaiyuan temple.
As a result of this there are a number of martial skills, medical skills and recipes, and performance arts such as cymbal and clay pot juggling, meteor hammer performance, staff juggling, and acrobatics that spread from the Kaiyuan temple after it's destruction to the smaller local temple, shrines, and hermitages in the area and in many cases from there to the local folk culture.
Today the main martial lineages of Kaiyuan temple trace to the Tongyuan Shrine where a number of Kaiyuan monks and lay monastics who were skilled in the traditional boxing and weapon arts of the temple had settled after the destruction of the main temple.
Most Kaiyuan Quan lineages trace to this shrine as does one of the main Da Zun Quan lineages of Zhangzhou.
Kaiyuan Temple Boxing practices San Zhan as it's core as well as Shi Zi Quan (+ Shape Boxing), 3 roads of Plum Blossom Boxing, individual and combined forms for the five animals (Tiger, Dragon, Snake, Crane, Monkey), Zhen Shan Fu Hu Quan "Guarding Mountain Tiger Subduing Boxing", Luohan Fu Hu Quan "Luohan Subduing Tiger Boxing", Luohan Xingxiang Quan "Luohan Shape Boxing", Luohan Xinxiang Tui "Luohan Shape Legs", and Long Zhao Jingang Zhi "Dragon Claw Vajra Fingers" forms.
Like many styles in Zhangzhou Kaiyuan Boxing has inherited some of the extensive repertoire of the Gong Bu military camp system of weapon arts. However there are also a few weapons known to be passed down directly from the Kaiyuan temple as well.
The Kaiyuan temple lineage weapon sets are the Naobo "Cymbals" (cymbals were widely used in southern China for festivals, rituals, and martial deonstrations. As they were often carried in these charged crowded environments where fighting was common various martial lineages learned to use the cymbals, often sharpened on the edges, as weapons) Fangbian Chan "Convenient Shovel" AKA "Monk's Spade", and Damo Hu Shen Gun "Bodhidharma Self Defense Staff".

[@TeaSerpent]

Please read the complete video description for information on the style on this and all videos in my channel.

[@The-Contractor]

Relaxed and clean. I much enjoy watching the "old ones" perform.

[@jelleverstraaten9662]

Very cool! It's so interesting to see such strong similarities between arts which are unrelated (thinking of Goju-ryu karate at the moment). The open hand form looks amazing and seem to be very hands on in terms of application. Thanks for the amazing material and service you're providing.

[@kevionrogers2605]

Actually it is related to Goju Ryu. If you read the description this is a form of Fujian Monk Fist. Fujian Crane Kung Fu is one of the animals styles mentioned also its two main forms are crane forms.