The Five Animal Boxing of Shaolin
(Boxing of Tiger, Crane, Leopard, Snake and Dragon)

The Five Animal Boxing of Shaolin is the boxing of imitation of the movements of tiger, crane, leopard, snake and dragon. It is said that, inspired by HUA To's "Five Animal Exercise" (physical exercise in imitation of the movements of tiger, bird, deer, ape and bear) in the Period of the Three Kingdoms (220-280), Pai Yu-feng, the great boxing master of the Shaolin School in the Yen Dynasty (1206-1368), invented his five-animal boxing by integrating the movements of the five animals with Shaolin boxing. Pai Yu-feng once remarked, "the five elements of one's body, i.e., energy (or chi, the fundamental substance which maintains the functioning of the body; essence of life), is strength, breath (or chi or qi), bones and spirit (or shen) must be tempered alternatively through exercises before one can feel like a celestial being." Thus it is said that in Five Animal Boxing, the tiger boxing is intended to build one's bones, the crane boxing one's energy or chi, the
leopard boxing one's strength, the snake boxing one's breath and the dragon boxing one's spirit.