The origin of Shaolin Kung fu is generally credited with an Indian monk named Tat Moh, but he is also known as Boddhidharama. He began life as a Indian prince in Southern India, but became a devout buddist, renouncing his royal heritige to take up a more simple life as a monk. in the year 520 A.D. He travled to China and settled ina monistary called Shao Lin- this means'little forest'. He was disapointed by the monks at Shao lin as they were weak and unable to withstand the rigourous ways of Buddhism, so he retierd to a cave and meditated in isolation for nine years to find a solution to the problem. When he imerged from ther cave he had deviseda set of exersises for the monks. Thses were similar to exersises that you can find in yoga and were intended to strenghen the body and mind to increase health and vitality. Theses exersises are still practiced to this day and they form the basis of all the Shaolin arts.

Southern Style Kung fu

Southern Kung fu styles can be identified by their low stable stance work and short powerful movements that combine both attack and defence. And there are many styles, but the southern styles are commanly called the five family systems. Theses are Hung, Lau, Choy, lei and Mok. theses are all family names and they were created as fighting arts and it was taught in secret and only to direct family members. This was because the sothern chinease people were in conflict with the Northen Qing Dynasty rulers. This conflict also lends its self to another famous strory about the Shaloin Temple and why it was destroyed by Qing dynasty troops. Qing emperor feared that the Monistary would help the rebales so he orderd that it be burnd down. Only five Masters of kung fu survived and they fled. this is what some experts say lead the sperad of Martial arts to other countries in the reigion.

Northen Styles

Northen styles of Kung fu tend to be more upright and elegent,the stances are more graceful yet still powerful. Also they tend to have long range fist techniques and high kicks with a lot more acrobatics. The diffrence in styles is down to geography and population density, the north is more rugged and uneven with less people, so their fighting styls could have big movements as they had space. where as the south they had less space. So their styles reflected that lack of space. Also the weapons that the north and south used reflected the use of spacrer to. eg in the North you would have long weapon forms, eg spears and Halbards where as down in the south it would be smaller and short range weapons. eg Knives and swords.