Chuntian Academy International

The Five Animals Style or Wu Xing, is traditionally ascribed to the Northern Shaolin Temple in Henan, however it spread to the South of China and during the turbulent years of the Qing Dynasty became part of the Southern Shaolin family, assuming many characteristics of the local styles, such as short range movements, strong stances and emphasis on force spreading from the Dan Tian. The Five Animals are dragon, tiger, snake, crane, and leopard.

Dan tian means energy field, i.e. the spot where you focus and accumulate your energy. If you are properly trained, the dan tian can be placed anywhere. Most chi kung styles place the dan tian at the qi-hai vital point, which is about 2 inches below the navel, or the guan-yuan vital point, which is about 3 inches below the navel. A few chi kung styles place the dan tian at shen-qie, which is at the navel level. Another important lower dan tian is at the hui-yin vital point, which is between the anus and the external sex organ.

Besides these lower dan tian, there are upper dan tian such as at bai-hui which is at the crown of the head, and tien-mu which is at the forehead between the two normal eyes; middle dan tian such as at tian-choong at the solar plexus, and huang-ting at the stomach; and back dan tian such as at ling-tai at the back opposite the tian-choong, and ming-men at the waist opposite the navel.

In Chinese, the names of these vital points (xue-dao), which become energy fields (dan tian) when energy (qi) is accumulated there, are both meaningful and poetic. For example, qi-hai means "energy-sea", shen-qie means "consciousness-entrance", and ming-men means "life-gate".