Kung fu animals that are pussies

[Broadsword2004]

Okay, this just peeks my interest, but it is about some of the animals used in the Chinese animal fighting systems. I am about to knock on them, so sorry, but I want to see other people's opinions on this, as I can't stand all these sites and TV martial arts documentaries claiming how superior these animal systems are. I was reading at a website (and if I am wrong here, blame the website!) that the Praying Mantis style was developed when some guy witnessed a praying mantis and a cicada fighting. The guy watched the movements of the praying mantis to develop his art. Now this is what gets me. A cicada cannot fight. In fact, it has to be one of the DUMBEST insects on the face of the planet. Some scientists even marvel that the cicada can manage to survive, which is probably only because it spends like 17 years underground and then comes up to the surface for 2 or 3 days to mate, produce offspring, and then die. All you have to do to a cicada is knock it on its back and it can't get up. So, if this story is true, there is no way it was a cicada this mantis was fighting. The mantis would have won in 2 seconds against a cicada, should the mantis even have had need to attack the cicada. Which means there couldn't have been any "fight" between the two.

Another animal that gets me in the Chinese animal systems is the tiger. The systems usign the gier act like the tiger is a brave, tough animal of the animal kingdom. The tiger is a pussy fighter of cats. It hates to fight, and it cannot fight. Against a male African lion, the tiger loses horribly 99% of the time; as a matter of fact, when the Koreans would pit tigers against African lions in the old days of their animal fights, the tiger lost so much that they had to do a worldwide search until they found the Bengal tiger, which is not in China. And the only reason the Bengal tiger ever proved to be a match to the lion was because it is so large (600 pounds) and vicious due to the fact that it lives in very confined areas and thus must be highly aggressive for food and mates. The whole reason they used tigers in the movie Gladiator even, to run out at Russel Crowe, is because well-fed tigers are like big pussy-cats. Male African lions on the other hand, would likely have killed Crowe.

And that is not baloney when people say "the heart of a lion" either, lions are brave animals, and that has been shown.

Also, what's with the monkey? Since when is a monkey an effective fighter at any animal, asides maybe a small bird or another monkey, or some human which it scratches or bites??

Now the bear, at least the grizzly bear (I don't know what kind of bears are in China) I can understand that animal in terms of fighting, the grizzly will kill a male African lion in one swoop, literally! And it will kill pretty much any other animal too, except for maybe a rhino or a hippo or an elephant (though I don't think they ever matched a bear with those). There was even a grizzly up in I think Alaska, it was a U.S. soldier who shot it, only it took the soldier his entire magazine to bring the bear down. It was like 20 feet long, super huge.

Snake I think I can believe too, they bite, this one anaconda I believe it was, bit the one side of this guy's face off.

[holyman]

Hi Brother,

We are all animals even though we call ourselves human beings and live in what we term civilisations or societies. It is so important to relate to the animal because we have become so obsessed with raping the planet of its resources and we kill for pleasure.

By relating to the animal we relate to mother nature out friend.

[pstevens]

Not to be misunderstood is that "animal styles" are more symbolic rather than literal interpretations of animal fighting. Besides, in nature, most animals avoid other speci in order to survive. There's usually a prey and a predator. If two predators are in the same vicinity, they usually avoid each other. I'm hard-pressed to believe a mantis would be fighting a cicada.

The history of many kung-fu styles are shrouded in mystery, myth or legend... Therefore, it's not surprising that some stories are a little far-fetched. However, the underlining idea is to learn how to defend yourself through innovation.

[Seismic Anamoly]

Broad19sword,

1st note:
Alot of Chinese fighting styles were probably not developed by watching an animal as some would think. If this is true, it would be a miracle. Instead, however, much of Chinese history (especially in Kung Fu) is rooted deep in oral and theatre tradition (an important note on theatre tradition folks so listen up). Just like many Native American Indians in the Americas drew on "strength of the bear" or "eyes of the eagle", so too did the Chinese use the animals to symbolize their art that best resembled them. Anyway, many Kung Fu styles were romanticized over the years the same way Americans romanticized the Wild West (much of what being a cowboy was like was nothing as pretty as pulp fiction in the early 1900's and spaghetti westerns made it out to be). This was helped by the theatre troupes moving through mainland China at the time.

2nd note:
the male lion best resembles a lazy-ass husband who sits on his ass all day while his wife cooks and cleans (not that there is anything wrong with this I dont think). Anyway, the male lion has only two functions in the pride: screw the female and protect the pride. The female is the one that does all the hunting. The female hunts for the male. The male only protects (on occassion). yes, guys our male lion counterpart has the good life.

3rd note:
My quick list of possible modern day animals that should be adopted into the martial arts world today:

The Cockroach: they can withstand raditation and still live in a microwave when you got your frozen dinner cooking. No joke-this is the animal you want to be in the event of a nuclear holocaust.

The Ant: It can lift 100 times its own weight. Sadly, it lives to only serve a female. A sad life indeed.

The Starfish: Whereas I'm not sure this classifies itself as an animal per se, it's regenative abilities would be great in combat. Especially during a knife fight.

The Horsefish: This little guy can change sex in its lifetime. I'm not sure what this adds to a martial art scenario other than a "crouching tiger, hidden drag-queen". On second thought, maybe not a good choice.

The Pigeon: Often referred to as feathered rats, the pigeon carries a butt-load of diesease that would scare off any would be assaliants.

The Platypus: Ok, now that one is just funny.

The Ringworm: ewwwwww.

[Yuan]

haha good stuff heres some o my own

The Cancer cell: An almost certain long and painful death. dont play around with this shit.

The Fly: Fast, annoying, eats rotten meat and lays eggs in dead things(reminds me of my first wife) very hard to fight against, unless ofcourse u got a can o raid on you

The Lizard: Makes fast sudden movements in combat, if he/she starts losing the fight he/she drops a limb to distract the opponent

[zirk]

I wonder how dragon style came along. Observing the dragons fight ??

The truth is that humans does not have animal traits. We do not have the claws of a tiger, nimbleness of a monkey, strenght of a bear, speed of a cobra.

I would take the stories about 'observing a cat fighting a king cobra' with a grain of salt (or whatever the english phrase is). Humans and cats does not share one common bodymovement (try jumping 3*your own hight from a standing position). So I would rather say like previosly stated that it is more of a symbolic comparison than actual mimics of the animal.

[bewing77]

Monkeys are great fighters, especially the larger ones like chimps, orangutans and gorillas. A chimp that weighs as much as a human is much stronger and faster and has great reach. They also fight using every dirty trick in the book and are one of the few animals who utilize primitive weapons.

[Bjjexpertise@be]

Oooo Oooo My turn.

Manatee:
Through many years of discipline in this art,one can easily become sexually attracted to boat motors, which may aid in killing yourself before your opponent does as to not give him the benefit of him taking your life.




The Horse:
Horses are practically blind to all objects right in front of their face so by moving your face as close to yoru opponent as possible, you can make him 'disappear'. Whether or not he will cease attacking you is a different story.

[Tom Yum]

Tortoise

Duck-Billed Platypuss

Armadillo

[Crabpuff]

Can't forget the Trouser Snake, which has both hard and soft styles. Learn the deadly technique of penetration. other techniques are backdoor, spitting snake, and playing dead.

[Tom Yum]

other techniques are backdoor, spitting snake, and playing dead.

You forgot "snake travels in valley between mountains"

[Bjjexpertise@be]

You forgot "snake travels in valley between mountains"

You also forgot "snake travles into great sucking vortex of terror."