The heaviest emphasis in the Northern Lights Martial Arts training curriculum comes from Northern Shaolin Eagle Claw.
Shaolin is the traditional martial art developed in the Shaolin Monastery. The monks at the monastery practiced open hand and staff fighting techniques, and were devotees of Buddhism. Later, in the 6th century, Bodhidharma visited the monastery and, seeing that the monks needed something to help them develop their concentration and strength for meditation, instructed them in techniques of physical condition and focus, including the Eighteen Lohan Hands. The martial arts established by the monks and enhanced by Bodhidharma provided a powerful foundation on which the rest of the Shaolin system was built.
Northern Shaolin refers to the system developed by Ku Yu Cheung. A member of the Ming royal family joined the buddhist monastic order during the Ching usurpation in the 17th century, and learned the skills of Shaolin. For five generations these skills were passed down until they came to Ku Yu Cheung. Ku Yu Cheung, who had also been taught by his father who was a Tam Tui specialist, inherited these techniques and codified his knowledge into a complete system. Hallmarks of Northern Shaolin are the authentic combat techniques distilled from the Shaolin training methods, in particular the iron palm and iron body skills.
Eagle Claw was founded in the Sung Dynasty, in the 12th century; it was developed for war by General Yue Fei (Gnok Fei). Yue Fei devised the “108 Fighting Techniques.” This system combined blocking and punching with intricate locks, holds, bone/joint/sinew manipulation and pressure point strikes. The general then trained his soldiers in this system, and they earned a fierce reputation for crushing all enemies in battle. In the 16th century, during the Ming Dynasty, a Shaolin monk named Li Chuen studied the 108 locking techniques of Yue Fei, and combined them with the leg and tumbling techniques of the Faan Tzi system. Li Chuen refined and compiled them to form one complete system, which is known today as Eagle Claw.
Our Northern Shaolin and Eagle Claw comes to us through Bak Shaolin Ji Ying Jow Pai as taught by Grandmaster Leung Lee Fu. The Bak Shaolin Eagle Claw organization was founded by Grandmaster Leung Chi Ma who studied with Chan Tzi Ching in Shanghai and refined by Grandmaster Leung Fu, who was trained in the Malaysian temples from the age of four and also studied with James Lau Chi Kin, second son of Lau Fat Mang.
