Shaolin vs Wudan: from External Martial Arts to Internal Martial Art

[I:https://healthclub90.com/storage/2011/07/AlCase6.jpg]It’s odd, but many people think that there is a huge difference between the external martial arts and the internal martial art. They think that there is some kind of war going on between Shaolin and Wudan, that Shaolin stylists lay in wait for Tai Chi Chuan students. Nothing could be further from the truth.

There is an evolution from hard to soft, or from internal to external. This evolution can easily be traced, and in both time and geometry. Understanding this progression will make you a better martial artist, and a much more knowledgeable one.

Shaolin was the first of the martial arts. Before then it was probably just practice killing people mindlessly. Shaolin, however, elevated the fact of killing to an art form, and exposed the truth of the human spirit in its teachings.

Both Wing Chun Kung Fu and Preying Mantis developed at about the same time, and probably from Shaolin. Though there are differences in these arts, they worked on the notion of shifting the arms in the same direction as the attack. They brought about the idea of guiding the attack, thus initiating the pathway towards the softer arts.

Interestingly, the truly soft arts, such as Tai Chi Chuan and Pa Kua Chang, evolved at different rates and in different fashions. Tai Chi, if you believe certain histories, evolved over a thousand years, eventually making its way to the Wudan mountains. Pa Kua Chang, on the other hand, regardless of the histories, was probably the joining of Shaolin and a rare religion which espoused walking in a circle and chanting.

Pa Kua Chang practices circle walking, or evading, and thus the body is shifted away from the attack. There is a commonality between moving the body away, and developing the characteristics of chi energy in the soft arts. The progression of Pa Kua Chang is highly illustrative of this.

Tai Chi Chuan, on the other hand teaches one to maintain a specific position in space, and makes the body go away from the attack. This seems to be an even more direct and stronger link, though this statement in no way reflects on which art is superior. When viewing the various eastern disciplines, and putting them in a more logical sequence, one should never raise one art over another, but rather view them as parts of the same puzzle.

In conclusion, there is a definite progression from ’emptying the body’ to ’emptying the mind,’ and to the abilities manifested by a soft martial artist. This is the progression from hard to soft, or from internal martial arts to external martial art of which I speak. And, one should study all arts, compiling and categorizing them into one art, and this would be the true and complete fighting discipline.

To fully understand this progression from Shaolin to Wudan head on over on over to Monster MArtial Arts.