The Nam Yang Pugilistic Association

The Tiger Crane Combination

When the wandering aesetic Ta Mo, or Daruma Taish, as he is otherwise known, settled outside Shaolin Tze, he found that most of his disciples were too weak to withstand the austere ways of Buddhism, a life that consisted of long fasts and frugal living. To offset this, he introduced a set of exercises known as Tat Chuen. These exercises helped the monks to build themselves physically and condition their bodies and minds to adapt more easily to the rigours of the Buddhist way of life.

At a later stage basic self defence techniques were added to Tat Chuen and it was named the art of Lohan. The addition of Tiger techniques gave the art the necessary power for it to be effective. The introduction of Monkey techniques brought agility. The final addition, the Crane techniques, gave the art of Shaolin flexibility and speed and incorporated in to the system the use of “Sticking Hands”.

A long time ago, in the turbulent past of China, a man well versed in the Tiger techniques met and married a woman who excelled in those of the crane. That man was Hung Ee Kan, and his wife was Chen Eng Choon. They left the legacy of the combined knowledge of their respective arts to their offspring. The combined art of the Tiger Crane as known today was passed down by the succeeding generations.

The art of the Tiger Crane Combination is based on the theory of “Leok Heng Kew Kiang Huat” or Six Shadows and Nine Rings. The fundamentals are derived from eight basic techniques and these could be multiplied by eight to obtain 64 movements of the art. These are outlined in The Theory of Quan.

Students of the art are told to use their hands like “The Tiger washing its claws and the Crane splashing water”. Power is concentrated on the point of contact.

Basically there are four systems of hand techniques, namely drawing and pulling, thrusting, throwing, and lifting and hurling. Each could be adapted in to nine different variations to form 36 movements.

The leg techniques are likened to the movement of a wheel. Kicks are executed in quick succession, “Rolling and ever-flowing in fluidity and speed.”

Varios sets of Sam Chien techniques are practised to build up the body to withstand heavy blows. The concept is to build the body like an iron wall, enabling the practitioner to be invulnerable to an opponent’s blows.

The combination of these factors results in the practitioner having an extremely tough body and fast limbs. The idea is to be able to take an opponent’s assault without suffering any setback, which then enables one to counter with swift blows in rapid succession.

The eyes have to be conditioned to visualise a wide field of vision, and the hearing sharpened to pick up the slightest sound. The eyes have to be able to see in three directions and the ears must be able to hear the blowing of the wind.

In defence one should always remember the maxim:

“If you there’s a bridge, cross the bridge,

If there is no bridge, build a bridge,

Entice your enemy to cross the bridge, then destroy the bridge.”