by salcanzonieri on Fri May 06, 2022 2:17 pm
I got the info about Li Sou from various sources
1 - The Shaolin Da Quan (4 volumes Shaolin encyclopedia) - from contact with, back in the 1990s, the writer and compiler 'Shi De Qian, now deceased.
2 - from people I knew in the 1990s that were learning at ShaoLin and in the Dengfeng and other villages, such as Baifeng DaoRen, Josh (same person you know), Dr. Russ Bo, LFJ, Tea Serpent, and a few others that were doing research with me for my book that I knew from the Kung Fu Forum. We did extensive research in the all the forms practiced at Shaolin and their origins and their connections to other styles.
3 - from Tong Bei research that Stephen Yan did from locating various Quan Pu held on by families that had ancestors that studied at Shaolin.
4- From Chinese language books, which are mentioned in the following from my book:
Shaolin Xiao and Da Hongquan 少林洪拳 – This style focuses on absorbing the adversary’s energy with a soft
outside and a hard inside. These sets are an important part of the Shaolin Temple curriculum. The book Shaolin Quanfa
少林拳法 states that Monk Jue Yuan (覺遠) met Lǐ Sǒu (李叟) and Bai Yufeng (白玉峰) and later introduced Li’s
teaching into the temple, including mastery of Hong Quan, of the staff (Gunshu 棍术), Qinna 擒拿, etc. This is the
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origin of the two Taolu currently practiced in the Songshan Shaolin schools, which were later spread and preserved in
the local villages. Some villages already had practiced Hong Quan sets before they had even reached Shaolin and are
still practiced today.
Bai Yufeng, Li Sou, and Jue Yuan played important roles; Jue Yuan was an ex-military layman who took a fancy
to martial arts. Later he became a monk at the Shaolin Temple, dedicating himself to the study of boxing positions.
Soon he started his search for other famous masters. In Gansu Province in the west of China, in the city of Lanzhou,
he met Li Sou (李叟, “old man”, whose real name was Li Yuansou 李元叟), a Henan master of Da Hong Quan “Big
flood fist”. Li Sou accompanied Jue Yuan back to Henan, to Yang Tong Fu Temple in Luoyang, to introduce Jue Yuan to
Bai Yufeng, who was born in Shanxi province (which neighbors Shaanxi), at Taiyuan. Bai was a master of an internal
method from Luoyang Tong Fu Chan Si Monastery. The three of them, plus Li’s son, went to the Shaolin.
Jue and Bai Yufeng developed the “18 Stuffs of Luohan/Arhat”, increasing the number of movements from 18 to
72, and then to 173. They collected fragments of almost completely neglected patterns, put them to order and perfected
them. Bai Yufeng also created the Imitation Boxing, which mimicked the movements of the tiger, the leopard, the
snake, the crane, and the dragon and other animals for a total of 12. Ten sets were preserved and the others were not
finished by the time of his death.
According to the 17th century book, The Shaolin Secrets, Li Sou was also very skilled at martial arts, especially at
Da Hong Quan and the staff. His forms were taught at the Shaolin Temple. Li Sou left his Hong Quan to Shaolin, which
still practice Xiao and Da Hong Quan to this day. After ten years, Li Sou left the Shaolin Temple, as a parting gift he
created some sets of Hong Quan just for Shaolin. Li Sou made these sets of Shaolin Hong Quan (that are now called
‘Hong’ as in ‘Flooding’ or ‘Flowing’ Fist) by mixing postures from Da Hong Quan’s Taizu Chang Quan and Pao Quan
routines with postures from the 18 Luohan Quan.
Note: It is said that the original “Coiling Long Fist” martial art practiced in the Hongdong area of Shanxi is very
closely related to the Da Hong Quan that Bai Yufeng and Li Sou practiced, which spread there from Henan originally.
This is before Hongdong Long Fist merged with the Chen village version of Tongbei Long Fist that was introduced
there much later. This original Da Hong Quan was an internal martial art (as described earlier in this book) and had
been influenced by the Neijia Quan practiced in nearby Sichuan province. Practitioners from Sichuan often exchanged
martial information with people in neighboring Shanxi province. Shanxi is considered by Zhaobao Taiji Quan
practitioners as the source of the Taoist 13 Postures that was taught in the 1500s by ‘Wang Linzhen’ to people in Henan
(the Dong, Li, and Chen families, whose ancestors were ALL originally from the Hongdong, Shanxi area originally).