White Crane boxing is thought to have originated in Yongchun County, Fujian province. This rare video from the 1980's shows footage of Yongchun White Crane Boxing.
In Ming Dynasty during the years of Jia Zheng (嘉政), there were twenty-four people from my town -Yong Chun (永春)- setting off to the exterior of North Gate of the Fu Zhu Family in Fu Jian Sheng (福建省福宁府北門外). Their mission was to learn the martial arts of Bai He(白鶴拳法) from Fang Qi Liang (方七娘), the daughter of Mr. Fang Cheng (方撐). They had learnt from her for two years. My ancestor, Pan Dui Jin (潘堆金) was one of the twenty-four members. He subsequently returned to Yung Chun to pass on this martial arts to Pan Sai Yu (潘賽玉)、Pan Da Ren (潘大壬)、Pan You Cheng (潘有成) and Pan Yue Zhao (潘月照). These five persons were proficient in Bai He, expert at the surgeries of broken tendons and blood clotting, and were renowned throughout the province. They had attracted quite a lot of pupils and later on had passed on their martial arts to Pan Dun Chi (潘敦池)、Pan Shen En (潘深恩)、 Pan Li Qiu (潘利秋) and Pan Zhen Tuan(潘貞團)。Pan Zhen Tuan is my elder uncle. When I was eleven years old, I followed him to learn Bai He and at the same time had practised duo-fighting for three years with my schoolmate, Huang Yi Bian (黃奕扁). When I was fifteen, I studied arteries and veins in Chinese medicine with Ruan Guo Xing (阮國興). When I was eighteen, I opened a dispensary for bone-fractures in Chi Shui Street (赤水街). When I was thirty-three, Yao Ming Qiao (姚明僑), the fifth son of the millionaire Yao Zhang(姚樟) who lived in the riverhead of Da Pu Fu(達埔洑) in Yong Chun, had donated money to the Ping Lu Province (平魯縣) in Guang Dong (廣東). As the province magistrate was very fond of martial arts, he invited me to teach martial arts in his two halls. In eighty days I was granted two hundred dollars. In 1928, when I was forty-seven, I set off for Nan Jing (南京) to participate in the examination for the First National Martial Arts, which had lasted for one month. Then Mr. Zhang Zhi Jiang (張芝江), the Head of the halls, personally urged me to travel to the areas around Malaya(南洋) to spread Chinese martial arts. Thanks to Mr. Zhang, I first arrived at Malaysia, and with the decision of Mr. Chen Jia Geng (陳嘉庚) I had led performances and taught in many states and provinces. Later on, a national martial arts school was found within the Singapore Commercial Remedial School, and I was appointed as the Acting Head for the national martial arts school and had coached eighteen (18) disciples. At that time there were totally three hundred and twenty (320) pupils. When I returned to my motherland, I had established a Chinese martial arts school for three years in the shrine of Weng Gong(翁公祠) in Wu Li Street (五里街) in Yong Chun. People of all walks of life in Yong Chun knew about it. Eventually, Pan Dun Chi (潘敦池)、Pan Shen En (潘深恩)、 Pan Li Qiu(潘利秋) and Pan Zhen Tuan(潘貞團), etc. went to teach in the major province Jiang Xi(江西省), and passed on the martial arts to quite a number of pupils.
- Narrated by Pan Xiao De(潘孝德) - [ Ссылка ]
