# White Crane beginner form, Lok Lik Kuen



## Flying Crane (Apr 15, 2019)




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## Xue Sheng (Apr 15, 2019)

How many empty hand forms are there in White Crane?


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## Flying Crane (Apr 15, 2019)

Xue Sheng said:


> How many empty hand forms are there in White Crane?


I’m not sure actually, and it depends on the specific lineage.

Ng Siu-chun named his adopted son, Tang Ja-Meng as his successor, but there were other students of his who were older and decided to split on their own.  I believe some forms may have been developed in the context of specific lineages.  One of our beginner forms (not one that I’ve posted) is specific to Luk Chi-Fu lineage, who was my sifu’s first teacher.  Sifu later became disciple of Tang Ja-meng. 

What I know is that Lok Lik Kuen has several variations, taught at beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels.  I’ve learned several variations, and only practice a couple of them and may have forgotten one.  Sifu told us that he has created his own version of that one as well, but I’ve not seen it and I do not know if he has taught it to anyone.

At beginner, we have a minimum of four, depending on how you count them. The really long one, chuit yap bo Kuen, which I posted a few days ago, is sometimes broken into two parts and the second part then goes by the name dai saat.  Also, a couple versions of Lok lik Kuen could be taught at beginner, so you could count perhaps six sets at beginner, but I count it as four.

Intermediate has four, including a version of Lok Lik Kuen.

Ive not learned beyond intermediate, which is still a whole lot of material, and plenty to be a teacher.

I’m not sure how many are at advanced, and disciple level, but I think about four or five each.  Sifu gave us a list of the sets, but it is packed away right now.  Also, in his book, he mentions a couple of other forms that were not on his list, so I don’t know what their status is.  And some of the forms are “little”, as in Siu Ng Ying, little five animals, which implies there is a big five animals, or else simply five animals.  I’ve not seen that kind of counterpart in the lists or otherwise mentioned, so I don’t know if some things were dropped in history, or what.

At any rate, I would say in our lineage we have about 15-20, thereabouts.   They all tend to be long, but Chuit yap bo Kuen is the longest.

We’ve got a good number of weapons too, but at east a couple were brought over by Sifu from his early Choy Lay Fut days.


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## Xue Sheng (Apr 15, 2019)

Flying Crane said:


> I’m not sure actually, and it depends on the specific lineage.
> 
> Ng Siu-chun named his adopted son, Tang Ja-Meng as his successor, but there were other students of his who were older and decided to split on their own.  I believe some forms may have been developed in the context of specific lineages.  One of our beginner forms (not one that I’ve posted) is specific to Luk Chi-Fu lineage, who was my sifu’s first teacher.  Sifu later became disciple of Tang Ja-meng.
> 
> ...



And I thought my flavor of Yang Taijiquan had a lot at 3 empty hand sets and 4 weapons sets. But it can vary in Yang Taijiquan based on lineage as well. But I guess it makes up for having fewer forms by having one empty hand form that is supposed to take 15 to 20 to 30 minutes...if you do it right


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## punisher73 (Apr 16, 2019)

Thank you for posting those!  I am a "similarities" kind of guy when viewing various forms.  Not having been trained in White Crane to know the intricacies that I may have missed, it reminded me of the Jow Gar power rotation that I am more familiar with.


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## ShortBridge (Apr 16, 2019)

This is Tibetan crane, right?


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## Flying Crane (Apr 16, 2019)

punisher73 said:


> Thank you for posting those!  I am a "similarities" kind of guy when viewing various forms.  Not having been trained in White Crane to know the intricacies that I may have missed, it reminded me of the Jow Gar power rotation that I am more familiar with.


I think it probably is.  Details may be different, but the overall approach is similar.


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## Flying Crane (Apr 16, 2019)

ShortBridge said:


> This is Tibetan crane, right?


Yes.


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## Steve (Apr 16, 2019)

Pretty paver stone driveway.


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