Shen Lung Kung Fu is a five-animal Chinese martial art created in America in the 1960's by Grandmaster Fu Xi-Wen dedicated to the goals of not only building self defense skills, but developing each person as a whole. In Shen Lung Kung Fu, the focus of training is not solely on martial techniques, but on building positive values in their students. The ultimate goal of Shen Lung, however, is not the mastery of sparring or forms; but the improvement of a person along three levels; the mind, the body, and the spirit. A Shen Lung practitioner will work for a many years attempting to attain the body of a warrior, the mind of a scholar, and the spirit of a priest.
While living in the U.S. in the 1960s, Fu Xi-Wen created a new martial art that did not carry a strictly Taoist spiritual requirement. While the school of Shen Lung Kung Fu still studies the Tao, all what required is belief in something greater than oneself. Fu Xi-Wen tailored this art so it would appeal to people in his new environment. He also replaced some of the defense systems among a different set of animals, and created a class and rank structure that would bridge Chinese traditions and instruction groups with American sensibilities. Fu Xi-Wen became Sijo (founder) and named his new art Shen Lung (Spiritual or Invisible Dragon) Kung Fu. Shen Lung Kung Fu -- born in America, and the product of Grandmaster Fu Xi-Wen -- owes many of its traditions to T'ien Lung Gung Fu and beyond. However the lineage of Shen Lung Kung Fu starts with Sijo Fu Xi-Wen.The goal of Shen Lung Kung Fu is to unite the three archetypes in harmony within a person. A major emphasis of the the art is conflict resolution. The School teaches one to seek to resolve conflict by raising it to a higer plane - moving from violence at the physical level, to rational argument at the mental level, to unity and understanding at the spiritual level.
