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There are several Chinese martial arts known as Snake Boxing or Fanged Snake Style (Chinese: 蛇拳; pinyin: shéquán; literally "snake fist") which imitate the movements of snakes. It is a style of Shaolin Boxing. Proponents claim that adopting the fluidity of snakes allows them to entwine with their opponents in defense and strike them from angles they wouldn't expect in offense. Snake style is said to especially lend itself to applications with the Chinese straight sword. The snake is also one of the animals imitated in Yang family Taijiquan (T'ai chi ch'uan), Baguazhang and Xingyiquan. The sinuous, fluid motion of the snake lends itself to the practical theory that underlies the "soft" martial arts.[1]
Different snake styles imitate different movements of snakes. Some, for example, imitate the Cylindrophiidae, while others imitate the python, while some schools imitate other types of snakes, like the Cobra. There are two unrelated, Northern and Southern snake styles.
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Snake is one of the archetypal Five Animals of Chinese martial arts; the other four being Crane, Tiger, Leopard, and Dragon.[2]
The Taoist temples of the Wudang Mountains were known to have produced many snake stylists.
Snake style is based on whipping or rattling power which travels up the spine to the fingers, or in the case of the rattler, the body shake which travels down the spine to the tip of the tailbone. The ability to sinuously move, essentially by compressing one's stomach/abdominal muscles, is very important. Footing is quite grounded. The stancework is fluid in order to maximize the whipping potential of any movement. This necessitates building a strong spine to contain the power and strong fingers to convey the strike. Since breath is important to any movement of the spine and ribs, snake style is considered one of the main styles which eventually led to internal training. Snake style is also known as an approach to weapons training, the Chinese straight sword and spear in particular. There are even specialty varieties of sword blades and spear points that curve back and forth down the length of the blade in imitation of the snake's body known as snake sword and snake spear.
Snake style generally aims for weak points of the human body, such as the eyes, groin and joints.
The Southern Shaolin Temple in Fukien Province was sometimes known as "the snake temple." Snake style kung fu was practiced at this temple as well as dragon kung fu and praying mantis kung fu. Fukien temple was a refuge for the Henan Temple monks when that temple was destroyed. With them they brought all the martial arts knowledge they had.
The snake style of green bamboo viper is one of the five subsets that was taught at the Southern Shaolin Temple. This particular form of snake fist originated in Cambodia and worked its way up to China. As it was integrated into Shaolin it got more refined and sophisticated. The green bamboo viper is the snake style taught in the United States by Grandmaster Wing Loc Johnson Ng. Grandmaster Ng taught this particular snake style to Master John J. Dufresne, Master Tim Pickens, Master Ricky Pickens, and Sifu Mark Burgher. Master John Dufresne in turn has taught this particular snake kung fu to a few of his more dedicated and advanced students. Some of these students include Sifu Hugh Samples, Sifu Mark Reed, Sifu Michael O'Donnell, and Sifu Nancy Compton. There were four other snake styles that were taught at this particular Shaolin temple. The other 4 were water snake, shadow snake, king cobra, and Golden snake. These five type snakes make up the southern snake style system. Snake style kung fu is considered to be a highly advanced form of fighting due to the use of internal energy (chi) and the specialized breathing techniques.
There is also an obscure Southern Snake Style (Chinese: 蛇形刁手, pronounced as "she ying tou sao") whose grand master was Leung Tin Chu who was born in the late 19th century and became well known as he ranked 4th in one of Nanking's Martial Art examinations in late 1929. His style, inherited from Yau Lung Kong, was an amalgamation of Southern Shaolin style and Choy Gar style learned from a Choy grandmaster. He had two main disciples, his nephew Master Leung Gar Fong of Hong Kong and the late Master Chaq Ming Fong. The pugilistic style is best described as a mid-distance fighting style, using, by coincidence, some Wing Chun-like techniques in Hung Gar-like forms. That attests to the Southern Shaolin origin of this style and its close relationship to other styles originating from Southern Shaolin. In fact Yau Lung Kong first learned from the Choy's family, but he did not have the privilege to all the secrets. Being less than satisfied he enrolled himself at the Southern Shaolin temple years and later combined all that he learned into this snake style ("She Ying tou Sao"). It would best be described as a "Choy-Fut" style ("fut" means "buddha," a respectful address for deceased monks). Of course different "fut's" from the Southern Shaolin temple would pass on similar but different techniques or idiosyncratic execution of the same basic techniques. In this style of snake kung fu the force and techniques are softer than traditional southern styles. Besides straight punches and bong shou as widely used in Wing Chun, this style also employs butterfly-buddha palms, the hook, upper cut, and gui quen (back fist) as central techniques. Biu tze (thrusting fingers) techniques resembling snake attacks are the secrets, and hence, the name of this style. There are multiple kicking techniques, as varied as typical northern styles with high kicks, but also typical are below-the-knee kicks seen in southern styles. There are six fist sets, two stick sets, single sword, short double swords, and other traditional weapons.
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