04/02/2026
The three branches of southern shaolin
Popular styles and their histories often give people false impressions and misperceptions die hard, especially in the AI age we're living in. I asked one AI and it said "the three major branches of southern shaolin are hung gar, choy li fut, and wing chun." False. Another AI told me "the three major branches of southern shaolin are Putian, Quanzhou, and Fuqing." Also false. Why are these wrong and what's the correct answer?
Start with the three "southern shaolin temples" of Putian, Quanzhou, and Fuqing --EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THESE IS A RECENT RECREATION! Was there an actual southern shaolin temple? I haven't seen compelling evidence of that but they built Quanzhou for marketing purposes and as a guy that also practices wuzuquan (5A) I'm not complaining. But once that was built for marketing purposes, others got in on the tourist game. $$$$$. Putian and Fuqing recently put out a call for teachers to come teach them "shaolin" and now southern temples are springing up like mushrooms. What do mushrooms get fertilized with?
Let me state this clearly so everyone gets it: WHILE THERE MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE BEEN AN ACTUAL "SOUTHERN SHAOLIN TEMPLE" THERE ARE ACTUAL SOUTHERN SHAOLIN STYLES!
The temple thing is a separate issue.
Hung gar, choylifut, and wing chun are fine systems and many people have heard of them obviously. But those aren't the only southern shaolin styles out there. Not by a long shot. ALL OF THOSE ARE CANTONESE! There are other branches of southern shaolin done outside the Cantonese category. Sorry but many school websites have this completely wrong.
And no the choy, li, mok, hung, lau (however you list them) families still don't cover it. Sorry, again.
The three main branches of southern shaolin are apparently found outside AI which simply compiles what is already out there and popular on the internet which is frequently sketchy and incomplete. This leads AI to make false assumptions and therefore, false conclusions. Garbage in, garbage out.
Southern shaolin: Cantonese, Hakka, and Fujian styles. Are there other smaller styles? Yes, but these are the three major divisions.
Cantonese styles: hung gar, CLF, wing chun, five family, etc.
Hakka: southern mantis, white eyebrow, southern dragon, wanderer style (boy do I have a story about that one!), etc.
Fujian: five ancestor, white crane, taizu (grand ancestor), etc.
ALL of these are southern shaolin systems. I personally trained CLF, hung gar, 5A, grand ancestor white crane, calling crane, and southern mantis. No, I'm not a wing chun guy. :)
Don’t just trust what the internet tells you — investigate history yourself.
