Emei Snake.

Well, here it is, another Emei or Omei (depending on whether you say it in Mandarin or Cantonese) form – Emei Snake.

Extracted from one of my Emei forms “encyclopedia”, Emei Snake, according to the author, came from a monk and this system consists of 3 snake forms overall.

Dissimilar to most other southern snake forms which center on mainly the arms doing the coiling, twirling and darting or “spitting”  – typically with spear hands finger strikes, Emei snake uses the whole body.

From where I am looking, it reminds me of the Pak Kua system that is based on the python except that the power structure between the 2 is far apart.

Now, I have Emei snake on some of my videos and I still see a lot of that spitting action but again, it’s the whole body at work.

All coiled up and bam! – Like an arrow from a bow.

And interestingly, you get to see some unexpected kicks embedded in their forms……

Snake and kicks???

Hmmmm….. “Drawing  snake and adding legs”???

Or maybe it’s like in MuayThai where in addition to the elephant and monkey inspired techniques, you also get to see techniques like “Crocodile tail kick”.

After all, Sichuan is next to Yunnan which is next to Myanmar which in, in turn, next to Thailand…..

Errrh, just in case …. Emei is in Sichuan……

Monk jumping over wall ?

Hahahaha….. read more.

Oh no, not another one !!!

Here’s another historical style for all you who think you’ve seen or heard it all ……

QiuHe Quan – founded 200 + years ago by Fujian (Fukien) Lin Xin, this style, reportedly, is the amalgamation of Crane Boxing and other Shandong and Sichuan styles.

Looking at some of their forms, this eclectic system presents a good assortment of Fukien, Northern and Sichuan based fighting arts.

Some of their forms include:-

• Angle or Corner Battles.
• “Scooping Hand” to open 4 corners.
• 4 Corners 3 Battles.
• Yellow Snake Exiting Cave.
• Old Monk Descending Mountain.
• Butterfly Fists.
• 8 Steps postures /frame.

Interestingly, I met an old Sifu, also a traditional healer from Fujian, here in Kuching Sarawak a couple of years back.

My knee (old tournament injury) was killing me then and a friend recommended this old Sifu and his family style healing method.

After my 2^nd visit and noticing a very old rusty looking “jian” or “straight edge sword” hanging on his wall, I asked him about his background and he mentioned a Fukien style Crane that might just very well be “QiuHe”.

We were contrasting his Crane and some of the Cranes that I do and the term “frame” kept popping up in his description.

Generally more used in Hakka systems, I thought it’s curious for a Fukien style to use this so profusely.

Anyway, he also mentioned some snake forms within his Crane system and this was the portion that got my attention.

Crane and Snake ….. hhmmmmm ….. Are we talking Wing Chun or Taiji here???

When he worked on my knee, he was using a “snappy” type muscle pulling/pressing action on my inside and outside thigh.

This, I was later told, is derived from his Crane Boxing ……

Well, looks like I will be calling on this old Sifu again – knee pain or not……