BSL Lyrics: Shaolin Staff

So here things get interesting.
I worked on videos of two versions of this set - the first was my Sifu Wing Lam, the second was for Sifu Chan Sau Chung (the Monkey King.) They are two different sets, but share a simliar root. Sifu Chan's seems older to me, based just on intuition. It's much shorter and simpler. We had a thread about this here a while back.
Originally, I translated this as 'nine province' after an explanation that Sifu Lam gave me. When I did the work for Sifu Chan, I went back to the characters and discovered that 'nine continents' was more correct, desptie that fact that there are only seven continents. Apparently, in ancient China, they beleived that there were nine. I suppose you could date the origin if you could figure out when that was.
I've listed both lyrics here and even in the lyrics, you can see some parallels.

GUO JOW CHAI MEI GUAN: NINE-PROVINCE EYEBROW HEIGHT STAFF
1. Pick the peach under the leaves.
2. "Sheung Jing" the immortal plays the flute.
3. Green dragon comes out of the cave.
4. Black tiger sits in the cave.
5. Fish from the stream.
6. Wave the flag.
7. Fui Sing, the god of scholars, kicks the seven stars.
8. Down strike through Wah mountain.
9. Water drips off a sloped roof.
10. Black dragon swings its tail.
11. Offer incense to the sky.
12. Black tiger sits in the cave.
13. "Sheung Jing" the immortal plays the flute.
14. Big hawk stretches its wings.
15. Fisherman rowing the oar.
16. White ape retreats, dragging the knife.
17. Flying up to the sky, holding the trident.
18. "Sheung Jing" the immortal plays the flute.
19. Green dragon comes out of the cave.
20. Black tiger sits in the cave.
21. Green dragon splashes in the river.
22. Offer incense to the sky.
23. Big hawk stretches its wings.
24. Snowflakes cover the head.
25. Turn around, down strike.
26. Fish from the stream.
27. Taoist Tai Kung fishing.
28. Round circle strike.
29. Center spear strike.
30. Left across 1000 soldiers.
31. Right across 1000 soldiers.
32. Jade belt around the waist.
33. Turn around, left right jade belt around the waist.
34. Farmer chops the log.
35. Turn around, farmer chops the log.
36. Monkey carries water.
37. Spinning plum flower.
38. Turn around, holding the pipa (chinese guitar).
39. Middle striking spear.
40. Face front, spinning plum flower.
41. Spinning staff, finish form.

Pek Kwar (Monkey King) version
General Raises the Flag
Hero Wusong Slays the Tiger
Drag the Tiger Back to the Village
Strike Up with the Staff
Immortal Han Shangzi Plays the Flute
Strategist Su Ching Bears the Sword
General Raises the Flag
Hero Wusong Slays the Tiger
Immortal Han Shangzi Plays the Flute
Left Block, Right Rebound
Fisherman Punts the Boat
Strategist Su Ching Bears the Sword
Snowflakes Covers the Head
General Raises the Flag
Hero Wusong Slays the Tiger
Immortal Han Shangzi Plays the Flute
Strategist Su Ching Bears the Sword
Jade Belt Circles the Waist
Fisherman Punts the Boat
Continuous Strikes Up
Sweep Across a Thousand Soldiers
Staff Strikes Nine Continents
White Snake Flicks its Tongue
General Leads from the Horse

well, if the extra two are Mu and Atlantis, one can surmise that the set is at least 12,500 years old. :D

on a serious note, the lyrics of the two sets do have similarities.

Shared foundation? Physical mechanics of the staff? Interesting.

Thanks for posting this stuff Gene. It's good stuff!

peace

Thats one of the things I like about Kung Fu. All the stances and movements have cool names.

http://forum.kungfumagazine.com/foru...threadid=10638

As for the pattern of the two sets, you can see similarities in the beginning and through the set in little spots. It was really fun to work on both videos, since it gave me a chance to break down the forms and compare. Rahter I should say, it gave me a chance to look at another version of a set that I already know.

Also it gave me a chance to rework my original translations. My understanding of Chinese has improved since then, as well as my sense of lyrical poetry. For example, Fisherman rows the oar and Fisherman punts the boat are the same characters in Chinese, but my second pass at it was more accurate. The character describes punting with a stick, which changes the feeling of the description of the move. Punting is more pointed, rowing is broader. Punting works a little better since it activates the staff in a different way, more powerful for the block.

in another discussion I remember NorthernShaolin mentioning that the 9 Province pole and the Pigua Broadsword were taught to YSW by Wan Laisheng. In his book, Wan Laisheng has a version of 9 Province pole (see Wushu Huizong, p. 122-129); however, it is very short (only 14 techniques), and aside from the opening move (the palm strike), it's hardly recognizable as the same set. unfortunately, in his book WLS does not give the names of the techniques, but guessing at the movements based on the names of the techniques below, i'd say that the Pigua version seems much closer to WLS' version than the BSL staff. if this really was the set that YSW learned, he must have made some considerable changes because it seems very different.

I have no explaination as to why there are differences between WLS's book and what YSW taught.

Like to add that I was told YSW traded NSL weapon sets for some Monkey hand sets with Keng Te Hai of Tai Sheng Monkey Style. YSW taught very few of his students monkey style because many of his students were too tall (or too old) to learn it properly.

In my dictionary, Jiu Zhou is 1) a poetic name for China and 2) Kyushu, Japan.

Joseph Crandall

I agree. Having all the posture names for forms like this is pretty cool. Unfortunately, I don't recognize a single one of the forms. Maybe I'm doing a different style or something then. I'd like to know the names of moves in the forms I'm learning, but we don't get those in class. The teacher demonstrates them so we can learn them and that's about it. We generally don't get a lot of other information.

Yes, the implication is China, which is why nine provinces works a little better in some ways, if you assume China had nine provinces at one time. But the character is literally translated as continents. So it's kiind of a push as to which is a better translation. Both have validity. The essential meaning is that this staff form is renown across all of China or all of the world.

What has 4 legs in the morning, 2 at noon, and 3 in the evening? READ Shaolin Ways Episode 7: Yinshougun by Gene Ching

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Yin-shou-gun
BSL-Lyrics-Shaolin-Staff