Originally Posted by
SHemmati
somehow right, somehow wrong. yes, unlike what we see nowadays, in Shaolin and other styles, fighting has always been the heart of technical trainings, in parallel with basics trainings and qigong&conditioning trainings.
but about the forms:
yes, there has been no form in the ancient times. but the Shaolin way was different. Shaolin monks made one early form, Luohan 18 Shou, before Tang dynasty (618 AD), and there are even speculations on some styles to have been created by monk Seng Chou, who lived even before Bodhidharma! then, after the Shaolin Quan Pu manual were first compiled in the Song dynasty, in 960s AD, the sets were considered as the heart of the styles, other styles that were not compiled into forms sets before those times were compiled in the Jin-Yuan times by Jue Yuan and others, before Ming dynasty. no-form approach is good for styles with limited fields of technicality, like Shuai Jiao, and also for students who don't want to learn so deep levels of kung fu wisdom. but the complete SongShan Shaolin styles and their clear and hidden contents have always been taught via the forms and their combat applications and sparring.