Northern Shaolin (北少林)

Northern Shaolin (北少林 Běi Shàolín) is the umbrella name for the broad family of 長拳 changquan ("long-fist") systems associated, in tradition and in modern practice, with the Shaolin Monastery of Mount Song (河南嵩山少林寺). In practice it is less a single style and more a shared methodology — big extended frames, springy footwork, leaps, kicks, the standard Tan Tui drill-set + the classic Shaolin forms — within which many regional traditions and family lines all situate themselves.

The historical relationship between any given Northern Shaolin lineage and the actual monastery is murky — the monastery has been a symbolic anchor and brand for centuries, and the textual and material evidence for direct monk-to-layman transmission of fighting techniques is far thinner than the legend suggests. The arts grouped as Northern Shaolin are best understood as a stylistic family with a Shaolin self-identification, not as a single line with verifiable temple descent.

The canonical forms

A widely-shared core curriculum, present across many Northern Shaolin lines (with local variations in order, name, and content):

• 連環拳 (Linked-Chain Boxing) — the typical first form taught after Tan Tui basics.

• 長拳 (Changquan) and 短打 (Short-Striking) — the standard pair: long form and short form.

• 羅漢拳 (Luohan Boxing) — the "arhat" form, associated with the temple's Bodhidharma legend.

• 少林十路彈腿 — the Tan Tui foundation, integrated.

• 梅花拳 (Plum Blossom) — present in many Northern Shaolin curricula.

• 七星拳 (Seven-Star Boxing) — often distinguished from 七星螳螂; a Northern Shaolin staple.

• 大洪拳 / 小洪拳 (Big and Little Hong, distinct from southern Hung Gar) — among the most-trained forms in the Henan / Shandong belt.

• 炮拳 (Cannon Fist) — present across many northern systems.

Major weapons forms track the canonical northern weapons: 少林棍 (staff), 少林劍 (sword), 少林刀 (sabre), 少林槍 (spear) — each in numerous named sets.

Lineages

The "Northern Shaolin" identity is shared across many distinct lineages that don't necessarily speak to one another:

• The Henan Songshan monastic and lay tradition itself — what is presently taught at the monastery and its surrounding villages (Putian County, Dengfeng).

• The Republican-era Jingwu (精武) Northern Shaolin curriculum — what was disseminated from Shanghai's Chin Woo Athletic Association in the 1910s–1930s; this is the version that spread to Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and the diaspora generally.

• The 顧汝章 (Gu Ruzhang) Northern Shaolin Association — Gu took the Northern Shaolin core to Guangzhou and the south, training major southern teachers.

• The 萬籟聲 (Wan Laisheng) Natural Boxing (自然門) — closely Northern-Shaolin-adjacent; Wan was a major Republican synthesizer.

Primary sources — and the scholarly companion that came right after

We hold:

• 少林拳術秘訣 (Secrets of Shaolin Boxing), by 尊我齋主人 (attributed to 盧煒昌), 1915 — the foundational printed Northern Shaolin text of the 20th century. Held in the codex's Sources/northern-kungfu-manuals/. PD (pre-1929).

• 少林拳術秘訣考證 (Textual Study of the Shaolin Secrets) — the scholarly companion that came right after, methodically showing how much of the Secrets' origin narrative is invented tradition. Read these two together — the text and its critique.

• 少林宗法圖說 (Shaolin Method Illustrated) · 少林拳法圖說 (Shaolin Fist Illustrated, Zhu Hongshou) · 少林拳圖解 (Jin Yiming).

• 少林護山子門羅漢拳圖影 (Zhu Xiatian) — Luohan Boxing illustrated.

• 少林正宗練步拳 (Wu Zhiqing, 1936) — Orthodox Shaolin Lianbuquan.

• 少林秘本拳術真傳 (1936) · 少林拳術選編 (Liu Yu, 1931).

• 少林刀法闡宗 + 少林弩法闡宗 — the Ming-period weapons treatises (Cheng Zongyou lineage); we already hold the great Ming 少林棍法闡宗 in taiji-manuals/.

• 羅漢行功法 (Xu Yusheng circle) — Luohan conditioning method.

• 少林武當考 (Tang Hao, 1930) — the major Republican critical study of the Shaolin / Wudang origin claims.

• **萬籟聲 **武術匯宗 (1928, the Natural Boxing–adjacent compendium) — gray copyright (author d. 1992 → not PD until 2042). Location noted, scan not hosted.

This is among our most thoroughly-documented Northern arts. The pairing of the **1915 **Secrets with the **scholarly **Textual Study that followed makes it especially good study material — the text and its critique in one place.

Video

• 北少林派 潭腿上六路 — Tan Tui as taught in Northern Shaolin (CWS-CMA)

• 精武少林 潭腿(上六路) — Jingwu lineage

• 萬籟聲 自然門 / 武術匯宗 archival · series part 1

See also

Tan Tui (彈腿) — the foundational drill-set built into the curriculum

Cha + Hua (查拳・華拳) — sister long-fist traditions

Praying Mantis (螳螂拳) — Northern art with a Shaolin self-attribution in its 少林衣缽真傳 manuscript tradition

Northern Kung Fu Styles — Northern Shaolin's place in the broader canon

Sources

[1] Shaolin Kung Fu, Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org) — overview.

[2] 少林拳術秘訣 (1915) and 少林拳術秘訣考證 (Republican) — the foundational text and its scholarly critique, both held in the codex.

[3] Tang Hao 唐豪, 少林武當考 (1930) — the standard Republican evidential study of the Shaolin / Wudang origin claims; held in the codex.

[4] Meir Shahar, The Shaolin Monastery: History, Religion, and the Chinese Martial Arts (University of Hawai'i Press, 2008) — the standard English-language scholarly history. In copyright; cited not reproduced.