China’s SECRET Third Kung Fu Mountain EXPLAINED - Emei Shan

You have heard of the Shaolin Temple, home to the Shaolin monks and their iconic kung fu styles in the Sean mountain range in China and the Wuang Mountain once the abode of the legendary dowist sage and inventor of Tai Chi Jang Sanfong. This is where you will find Wuang martial arts which are soft internal styles associated with Dowoism. The Wuang arts were made famous in the west by the movie Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon where they showcased the lightness skill or Chingong of Wuang practitioners. And these two places together make up the most famous kung fu mountain monasteries in China. One Buddhist, one dowist. >> If what you say is true, the Shaolin and the Wu Tang could be dangerous. >> But there is another mountain Shan made famous by martial arts novels that also has a long history with kung fu. It's also become more famous in recent years by female practitioners of er kung fu known as the er sect or er pipe. So what exactly is the story of er shan? Is it a mountain full of beautiful women who could kill you with one stab of a needle? In this video you are going to find out. This is the story of China's third kung fu mountain. [Music] And this video is brought to you by Migaku but more on that later. So, Eran is 3,099 m or around 10,000 ft tall. Located in Sushuan province, it is the tallest of the four sacred mountains of Buddhism in China. However, the mountain has strong links with both Buddhism and Dowoism as you will see. So, the story of Shan is thought to have started with a martial artist who lived on the mountain during the waring states period, a daist called Suenong. The waring states period was from 475 to 221 BC. And multiple texts state that Shiang Kong lived at this time like this one. The white monkey lord of the waring states period. His courtesy name was Ean and he was Sutu Shiang Kong of mountain. The white monkey thing came from the fact that he observed the movements of the monkeys on her mountain and imitated them creating his style of Tongbe fist and he often wore white clothes. though. White monkey totally makes sense. If you're a kung fu master in ancient China, you have to have a cool kung fu name. >> The universe has brought us the dragon warrior. What? >> Case in point, White Monkey also had sword techniques and started teaching disciples creating a style of kung fu called er pipe. Now, if this is true and this guy did come from the waring states period, then that means that the kung fu styles from her mountain predate Shaolin by 800 years or more. It challenges the saying or all kung fu styles under heaven come from Shaolin. However, that is just a theory that has been passed down. There is another theory that we'll get to in just a second. But first, if you are thinking of going to learn kung fu in China or going to China for any other reason, you will want to have a good grasp of the Chinese language. And that is why I have partnered with Migaku, a seriously powerful language learning software package with a host of features for Chinese and a load of other languages. On migaku.com, you can take their introductory Mandarin courses and then their academy level one course written by language experts that cover 80% of the vocabulary used in Chinese media. You are then ready for self-study where you can use some of the features on the Maku browser extension. One of my favorite features is the ability to hover over Chinese text online and get the meaning in English. However, Magaku goes even further than other similar software in it gives you not just the meaning, but example sentences and even has an AI that will tell you the precise meaning of the word in the context of the sentence it is being used in right now. 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Another feature I really like is the ability to scan Chinese text with your phone's camera and get an instant translation. Really useful for reading Chinese menus or signs when traveling in China or just about any Chinese text where you don't have the ability to copy and paste it. Anyway, I have been having a great time testing out Maku. It is a really strong tool for any language learner. Right now, they are offering a limited time deal for my viewers. Starting with only $10 per month, get 50% off a lifetime subscription, including all languages. Just go to migahaku.com/learnchinese now to check it out and sign up. So, the other theory as to the start of er martial arts makes them look a lot newer. In the Song Dynasty, there lived a monk called Duran Jangl. He went up to Shan to cultivate the Dao and he also studied martial arts. He supposedly wrote a book called Chenshu or the fighting arts of er but the fact that he wrote the book about martial arts from er mountain suggests that there were already martial arts being practiced there. So I kind of think calling him the founder is not very accurate. His book could just be the first instance of compiling her techniques into a formalized set in writing. Research in the 20th century has shown that there are as many as 68 different arts and 2,368 different weapons associated with Hermes mountain. But is nowhere near as wellknown as Shaolin and has always had an air of mystery about it. In fact, while Shaolin has that saying Shaolin, all the martial arts under heaven come from Shaolin, i.e. They spread their arts all over the country and created many substyles. There is a saying about that goes or martial arts do not leave the temple. They didn't actively promote their arts. They kind of kept them secret. But what even is kung fu and what is practiced on the mountain today? Well, there are many styles on mountain and there are both Buddhist and dowist temples. So the arts practiced at ur contain a fusion of Buddhist and dowist influences. You'll find animal styles like the snake or tiger. There's also white eyebrow kung fu which traces its origin to the monk or paime who is the character seen in the Kill Bill movies. >> I am proficient in Tiger Crane style and I am more than proficient in the exquisite art of the samurai sword. [Music] The real life historical figure BE spent time at Hermes Mountain. That is where he is said to have fled to after he left the Shaolin temple when it was burned down. He appears in our Shaolin five elders video which looks like this. I'll put it on the end screen of this video for you to check out. Then you also have Baguaja which is practiced on the mountain as well although it doesn't originate from there. This is a dowist style made popular by Dong Hai Truan in the 1800s that moves in circles and is a very beautiful and powerful martial art. But what about the whole idea that there is a sect of beautiful women practicing kung fu up on her mountain like what we see in some promo videos from China? Well, this is actually a fictional aspect of Shan's history and it comes from the Wua novel Tulong or the Heaven Sword and the Dragon Saber written by famous martial arts fiction author Ginyong. In the story, there is a woman named Guyang who is a powerful martial artist and at the age of 40, she becomes a Buddhist nun on her mountain and starts a kung fu sect which is called Pike. In the novels, ermes sect martial arts are best suited to women and passed down by female masters. The arts include the use of needles or er and then in addition to needles, you have straight swords or tien. In real life, er masters have talked about the characteristics of fist, not bua jang or other arts on the mountain, but the actual fist that traces its origin to sutu Kong from the waring states period. This art, like other southern styles, uses arms more than legs because it was designed for fighting in mountain and forest environments where there wasn't much space for big kicks and leaps like are characteristic in northern longfist styles. Because people from Sichuan are not as tall and have shorter arms than northern Chinese, they use finger strikes to increase their range a little bit. But since fingers are weaker than fists, they tend to aim for weak spots on the body like acupuncture points or the eyes. They have a saying or the palms and fingers go first or the palms and fingers lead. And some masters do say that because the art is making up for a smaller stature, creating advantages by lengthening the reach and hitting weak spots, this makes it a good art for women to learn. In addition to kung fu, there is one more aspect of mountain that really adds to the mystery, and that would be the Buddha light or for Guang. There are multiple photos online taken on er shenan where you can see a very beautiful and holy looking light. Chinese people believe that this is the Buddha light or forang generated by enlightened beings living on the mountain. As to the authenticity of these claims, I don't know. I'd have to go to mountain and see it for myself. But it certainly adds to the mystery of Shan, China's third kung fu mountain. All right, guys. That is the video for today. A big thank you to Migaku for sponsoring this episode. If you want to learn Chinese, do check out their system. In the links below, you can get that exclusive 50% off deal. Also, if you want to support our work, do consider joining our channel as a member. You get early access to our videos and we'll make a special effort to answer your questions when you leave a question in the comments. 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