What did original Shaolin kung fu look like?

[kal]

Are there any clips online (youtube) that give a good illustration of what Shaolin temple kung fu originally looked like?

How much of the original style(s) survive?

I'm interested to know if all the high leaps, jumping kicks, low stances, big arm motions, sweeps etc. are just a symptom of modern Wushu. Or did these kind of movements exist in Shaolin originally?

 

[exile]

Are there any clips online (youtube) that give a good illustration of what Shaolin temple kung fu originally looked like?

How much of the original style(s) survive?

I'm interested to know if all the high leaps, jumping kicks, low stances, big arm motions, sweeps etc. are just a symptom of modern Wushu. Or did these kind of movements exist in Shaolin originally?

Well, the problem is, no one know what the 'original' MAs at the Shaolin temple looked like. Almost nothing is known about what those guys were doing, or where those MAs came from. The legend of Boddhidharma teaching (proto) MAs to the Shaolin monks has now been pretty much shown to be a very recent fiction (surprise, surprise ); check out Stan Henning's article in issue 12 (this year) of Classical Fighting Arts for an exhaustive, and devastating critique of the history of this particular just-so story. And no records, none, exist for the early days of the monastery (not surprising, given the number of times it was destroyed)....

Without a time machine, you're out of luck, I fear.

 

[Touch Of Death]

Just like on "Kung Fu" with David Caradine, of course.
Sean

 

[Xue Sheng]

Well you see there is a problem with finding a video of the original Shaolin Kung fu... not a whole lot of video cameras were around in China in the 17th century. And the 17th century is when the first historic record of Shaolin appears. And if you buy into the Bodhidharma legend there were even fewer Video cameras around in the early 500s in China.

I seriously doubt anyone has any idea what the original Shaolin style looked like and if you see a video on YouTube that claims that it is I seriously doubt the validity of such a claim. I believe there are some pretty old texts that are still in existance with drawing of some early Shaolin but again you really can't get much from the drawn stills.

EDIT

Something else to take into account when researching any Chinese style based on Chinese text, book forgery has been around for a long time in China.

 

[Steel Tiger]

My first teacher, a man named Wal Missingham, went to Shaolin in the early 1980s. While there he met three very old monks, the last men to have learned proper Chan buddhism at the temple (they had been forbidden to teach anyone else). They had also learned martial arts.

Wal made a video of his visit. It is called Kung Fu Pilgrimage. In the video are two pieces that might be indicative of what Shaolin may have been like before modern Wushu. One is a form prformed by a gentlemen of about 70. It is very interesting, and I think our Karate and TKD friends might find it very familiar. The other is a sparring session between Wal and a 79 year old man. Wal said of this encounter that he simply could not land an effective blow on the monk.

This is about as close as I have come to 'real' Shaolin gongfu, and it is unlikely any of it has continued to this day at the temple.

 

[bowser666]

From my understanding, in those times , any style of MA was welcomed within the temple , so I would imagine there were probably dozens if not hundreds of styles practiced within their temple.