The Top 10 Shaolin Taolu Forms

The rebuilding of the Shaolin Temple in the early 1980s was a slow process. New Shaolin Monks such as Master Dao's Shifu, Shifu Shi Guosong, had to undergo strict and tough training for many years to rebuild the martial art talent.

By 1997, the Shaolin Temple was ready to announce its Shaolin Top 10 Taolu Forms. This was a special project declared by the Abbott to develop instructional videos for each of these Shaolin Top 10 Taolu Forms.

The Shaolin Top 10 Taolu Forms are:

1. Small Flooding Fist (Xiǎohóngquán)
2. Big Flooding Fist (Dàhóngquán)
3. Through the Arms Fist (Tōngbìquán)
4. Lohan Fist (Luóhànquán)
5. Long Fist (Zhǎngquán)
6. Protect Heart Fist (Xīnyìménquán)
7. Seven Star Fist (Qīxīngquán)
8. Plum Blossom Fist (Méihuāquán)
9. Cannon Fist (Pàoquán)
10. Six Unifications Fist (Liùhéquán)

The Abbott invited the top Shaolin Masters to participate and represent each of these Taolu Forms. Not surprisingly, our Shifu Shi Guosong, and the Chief Warrior Coach for the Shaolin Temple at the time, was selected.

In the above photo, our Headmaster Shi Guo Song is representing the Plum Blossom Fist (释果松). It's also a really old photo and clearly Shifu Shi Guo Song always had that charm about him :)

We hope this will inspire our students to continue to train hard and be part of our amazing heritage!