Nangfang Quantou
History in breif
Emperor Xuan Yuan
(The yellow emperor)
Zhang San Feng
Gung Fu has deep roots in history.
When people of ancient times created Gung Fu and the martial art, it was as natural as stars, mountains, and rivers around them.
They took images of insects, monkeys and birds as a base and imitated their movements and habits. Everything developed step by step.
When emperor Xuan Yuan (the yellow emperor) invented weapons – sabers, swords, and pikes, it gave a rise to the martial art with the use of weapons. Over time training methods became more complicated and enriched. Various currents, trends, and schools appeared. Some acquired skills superficially, put up their skills for show, some learnt the essence of the teaching, highly valued and kept it in secret. Hundreds and thousands of years passed so.
It is difficult to say now how training methods have changed as compared with ancient times.
Today, when we speak about Gung Fu and the Martial Art, we must refer to the two main trends and four schools.
The four schools are:
SAN HUANG MEN – “School of Three Emperors”,
XIN YI MEN – “School of the Unity of Outer Form and Will”,
BA GUA MEN – “School of Eight Trigrams”
YAN MEN – “School of Yan”.
Historical investigations of the two trends and the four schools showed
that SAN HUANG MEN has the most ancient history.
The founders of the two main trends are SHAOLIN and WUDAN.
The founder of SHAOLIN trend was Buddhist monk Da Mo (Bodhidharma)
who came to China in the fall of the year DIN WEI (527 A.D.) in the reign of emperor Liang Wu Di.
The Founders of the four schools
The founder of the WUDAN trend was Zhang San Feng. He was born at the time of Song dynasty in the reign of emperor Hui Zong.
The founder of SAN HUANG MEN was Ren Huang Shi, The founder of XIN YI MEN was Ji Jike.
The founder of BA GUA MEN was Dong Hai Chuan and the founder of YAN MEN was Chen Zhou Yan.
They are separated in time by hundreds and thousand years.
Buddhist monk Da Mo
(Bodhidharma)
What is Nanfang Quantou?
The foundation of Nanfang Quantou is primarily based on three teachings of Movement, Meditation and Medicine which comes from the Tao. Martial arts are rooted deeply in ancient times. Those who first created martial arts, observed the nature around them including insects, animals and birds then used these as a guide. They imitated how they moved (movement) and noted how calm yet alert, animals were after hibernation (meditation) and also their eating (medicine) habits. In this way martial arts were developed, step by step.
This type of Kung Fu was holistic. The emphasis lay on the cultivation of heart, mind, spirit and energy. The graceful, flowing physical forms, being simply a means to support an expression of what is essentially spiritual cultivation. Over time, training methods became more complex and enriched, then schools began to appear. Some acquired skills superficially, to show off their expertise, others learnt the essence of the teaching. It is difficult to say nowadays, how training methods have changed compared with ancient times.
Entrenched in the teachings of Nanfang Quantou are methods for improving mental and physical balance.
Today, when we speak of martial arts practitioners, we can question whether they really understand the training methodology. That's not to say the martial arts they study are difficult, but if all that matters is the external manifestation, forgetting about the essence; tutors and students make no progress and stew in their own juices.
Beginners to martial arts get the wrong impression, it's actually not about being stronger than others. Novices are wrongly shown that when men fight, they usually grapple and struggle with each other, then are led to believe that martial arts can overcome this! These 'art forms' lose all understanding because everything is impacted by points, grappling, throws and blows-this is the wrong way. This is where it all got lost, because strength can make a people obey but is far from being sincere. However, a virtuous person of high morals, despite his physical strength even if inferior when compared with others, wins respect-these are the morals of a martial art.
Actually the core teaching should be about building health and spirit in order to be physically and mentally powerful. The object is to live a long healthy life in balance with nature, as well as being able to protect oneself. A person who has perfectly acquired the martial arts has only to raise a hand and the enemy immediately feels fatal danger; but again it's about greatly cultivating the internal and external facets, or coming to understand all the ways in which body, mind and spirit are intimately interconnected. It is also said that, whoever can kill must also be capable of saving. The ancient people stated that practitioners of martial arts had to put the main stress on morals and virtue, rather than brute strength.
In Nanfang Quantou for the sake of better understanding complicated movements, they are separated into several parts. When encountering an enemy, you must demonstrate courage, strength, mastery, and skill. You ought to act by surprise, move swiftly and in that case you will win. The most important thing is not to lose heart-if you lost heart, you will lose everything.
Our philosophy of 'being humble and understanding each other' will create balance, thus improving human relations. Our program systematically teaches this principle, as well as techniques that are continuously passed down from teacher to trainers.
We are committed to the standardization of teachings worldwide, which ensures the preservation of living well and not just living. Nanfang Quantou has much to offer people of all ages, interests, physical abilities and walks of life. In addition to it's many physical applications, Nanfang Quantou also offers unique tools for promoting harmony and eliminating conflict in life.
Our logo incorporates four animals: Garuda, Sky Dragon, Snow Lion and the Tiger. They represent the four qualities and attitudes that everyone can develop at Nanfang Quantou. The confidence of the Tiger, the clear awareness of the Snow Lion, fearlessness of the Garuda and gentle power of the Dragon.
By learning you will gain the highest quality of self-defence, self-preservation & understanding humanity. Every person who seeks personal advancement for the purpose of growth, unity & enlightenment will have the opportunity to learn