What is Gulun Kung Fu?
Gulun Kung Fu is an internal branch of Shaolin Kung Fu, preserved by the Wu family of Henan, China, for over 150 years. The lineage traces to Wu Gulun (1831–1914), the last monk to pass Shaolin Temple's Mountain Gate Test, who left the Temple in 1869 to preserve the teachings in lay life.
The current lineage holder is Shifu Wu Nanfang, born December 1962. He is the 31st-generation transmitter of the Yonghua Hall (永化堂) tradition and teaches at the school on Songshan Mountain near Shaolin Temple.
The practice is slow, spiralling, and rooted in Chan (Zen) Buddhism rather than combat or performance. Its foundation is standing meditation. Its highest expression is Xinyiba (心意把), described in the lineage as martial practice and meditation as one. The tradition is distinct from external Shaolin, modern wushu, and the acrobatic display most Western audiences associate with Shaolin Temple.
As Shifu Wu Nanfang puts it:
"Shaolin itself is Chan kung fu."
Where does Gulun Kung Fu come from?
The Yonghua Hall was founded at Shaolin Temple in 1592 by Master Wuyan Zhengdao, the 26th-generation Shaolin abbot, as a research house for three disciplines: Chan Buddhism, martial arts, and medicine. For fourteen generations, the teachings passed from abbot to disciple within the Temple walls.
That pattern broke in 1869, when the Qing court's pressure on Shaolin forced the surviving abbots to send Wu Gulun out of the Temple to preserve the system in lay life. He passed the Mountain Gate Test, returned to lay life, and began the family transmission that survives today.
The 1928 burning of Shaolin Temple destroyed most of the Temple's collected manuals. The Wu family's lay branch became the living memory of what had been lost — and Wu Shanlin, Wu Gulun's son, was invited back to the Temple to retrain the surviving monks. The lineage continued through the Cultural Revolution in conditions of secrecy.
For the full account — Wuyan Zhengdao, Master Zhanmo, Wu Gulun's training, the 1928 fire, and the family's survival through the Cultural Revolution — see The Lineage.
What is Chan Wu?
Chan Wu (禅武) names what Shaolin monks had always been doing: using the body and the breath as the method by which the mind was quieted. Chan is the Chinese word for Zen, the contemplative school of Buddhism that arrived in China from India with Bodhidharma in the sixth century. Wu means martial practice. In the Gulun lineage the two disciplines are not adjacent activities but two faces of the same cultivation.
Shifu Wu Nanfang puts the question and answers it himself:
"Cultivate what? Cultivate a quiet heart. Through forming a quiet heart, then reaching the four limbs and hundred bones."
The Yonghua Hall doctrine integrates three teachings: Chan, Wu, and Yi (Buddhism, martial practice, medicine). In Shifu's framing the integration is mechanical, not philosophical. A quiet mind allows the body to relax. A relaxed body allows qi to circulate. Force arises naturally from the whole.
What makes Gulun Kung Fu internal Shaolin?
The practice begins where most martial arts do not. Not with kicks. Not with splits. Not with push-ups. It begins with standing meditation and breath.
This is the signature of internal Shaolin: start from the inside out. The Zen mind is the root of the practice. Everything the body learns to do is an expression of what the mind has first learned to be.
The mechanical work that follows — slow practice, whole-body rotation, hunyuan yiqi (unified primordial qi), softness giving birth to hardness — is what distinguishes internal Shaolin from the external traditions most Western audiences know. Force arises not from muscular contraction but from whole-body integration.
For the full mechanics — the standing meditation, the rotation principle, the foundational stances, and how slow practice produces real internal capacity — see Internal Shaolin Kung Fu.
What is Xinyiba?
Xinyiba (心意把) is the highest form of Gulun Kung Fu and the doctrinal core of the Yonghua Hall lineage. The name translates literally as heart-intention grasp: Xin (heart), Yi (mind or intent), Ba (grasp).
Within the lineage the full doctrinal name is Wushang Chan Gong Xinyiba — the Supreme Chan Skill Heart-Mind-Grasp. The form contains twelve sequences, each developing a specific bodily region. For Shifu Wu Nanfang, Xinyiba is not one form among many but the central thing the lineage is about:
"The core of our Gulun boxing is Xinyi. This is the core of our boxing.
What Xinyiba develops is named in classical Chan terms. A practitioner performing Xinyiba at the highest level has arrived at ming xin jian xing (明心见性), the illumination of the mind and the seeing of one's original nature. This is the same destination the seated meditator seeks. Xinyiba is movement that arrives at the same place.
The form is not for everyone. Shifu is direct on this:
"Xinyiba is supreme Chan skill. Gulun Kung Fu can be popularised, but core Xinyiba depends on destiny. Without affinity it cannot be learned."
A fuller treatment of Xinyiba — the mechanics, the four stages of practice, the convergence with seated Chan — is found here.
How is Gulun Kung Fu different from other martial arts?
Most people who have seen Shaolin Kung Fu have seen the external version. Red-robed monks performing on stage. Brick-breaking. The 1982 Jet Li film Shaolin Temple. The national wushu routines exported abroad.
Shifu Wu Nanfang is explicit about what those forms are and what they are not:
"Shaolin itself is Chan kung fu. There is no brick-breaking, stone-smashing, silver spear piercing the throat and so on. These are all external additions."
None of this dismisses the external styles. They are serious disciplines with their own long histories. A practitioner of modern wushu is doing serious work; the aim of that work is different.
External Shaolin forms prioritise visible power: extension, speed, athletic capacity. Gulun Kung Fu prioritises internal integration. The unification of mind, breath, and form into a single quiet movement.
The further difference is what the practice becomes at its highest stage. An external form practised for decades becomes faster, stronger, more refined. An internal form practised for decades becomes ordinary action, indistinguishable from how the practitioner eats or walks.
Who is Shifu Wu Nanfang?
Shifu Wu Nanfang (吴南方) was born December 1962 in Yangshu Miao village in the valley behind Shaolin Mountain. He began training around 1972 under his grandfather and grand-uncle. He has practised continuously for over fifty years. In 1995 he took Buddhist refuge at Shaolin Temple under Abbot Shi Suxi and was given the dharma name Shi Defang.
Around 1986, when the Jet Li film Shaolin Temple released and the Songshan area filled with new schools teaching modern wushu routines, Shifu noticed how little of the traditional material remained. He spent the following decade travelling Songshan and the surrounding villages, recovering what fragments of Gulun Kung Fu he could find.
"I used ten years to collect many of these things. The purpose was to preserve, promote and continue these Shaolin-transmitted cultural martial arts manuals."
Shifu founded the Gulun Quanfa Training Base in the 1990s and the Shaolin Chan Wu Yi Specialised College from 2007. He has trained over a thousand students from China, Europe, and elsewhere since 1988. He has been featured in CCTV's Cultural Inheritance, Season 2 (2018). He still teaches at the school on Songshan Mountain, fifteen minutes from Shaolin Temple.
The full account of his training, his teachers, and the decade he spent recovering scattered fragments of the lineage is on The Lineage.
How can Gulun Kung Fu be studied?
There are three pathways into the practice.
The first is the free online community at skool.com/gulunkungfu, which gives the eight foundational exercises, weekly live classes across European and American time zones, and a structured twenty-minute daily practice. Anyone can begin here.
The second is the full online programme, also found at skool.com/gulunkungfu (more detailed here), which gives the complete foundational syllabus, ongoing modules as the curriculum unfolds, video feedback on submitted practice, and direct access to Shifu's recorded teachings.
The third is travelling to the school on Songshan Mountain. The academy accepts students year-round, with class sizes of one-on-one to ten maximum. Daily training runs morning and afternoon. Accommodation, meals, and instruction are included in the fees. Details and current pricing are at Train in China.
Shifu's own intention sits behind all three:
"My transmission of this culture, transmission of this kung fu — I will not stop."
Frequently asked questions
What is Xinyiba?
Xinyiba (心意把) is the highest form of Gulun Kung Fu. The name means heart-intention grasp: Xin (heart), Yi (mind/intent), Ba (mastery). The form contains twelve sequences and is held by the Yonghua Hall tradition as the Supreme Chan Skill. At its highest expression, the lineage describes Xinyiba as martial practice and meditation as one, leading to ming xin jian xing: the illumination of the mind and the seeing of one's original nature.
Who is Shifu Wu Nanfang?
Shifu Wu Nanfang is the 31st-generation lineage holder of the Yonghua Hall tradition and the fifth-generation Wu family inheritor of Gulun Kung Fu. Born 1962 in Yangshu Miao village behind Shaolin Mountain, he began training at age ten under his grandfather and grand-uncle. In 1995 he was ordained at Shaolin Temple under Abbot Shi Suxi as Shi Defang. He teaches at the school on Songshan Mountain.
How is Gulun Kung Fu different from external Shaolin?
External Shaolin develops visible power: extension, speed, athletic capacity, brick-breaking, acrobatic forms. Gulun Kung Fu develops internal integration: standing meditation, slow spiralling movement, the unification of mind, breath, and body. As Shifu Wu Nanfang frames it, "Shaolin itself is Chan kung fu. The brick-breaking and stone-smashing are external additions."
What is Chan Wu?
Chan Wu (禅武) names the integration of Zen and martial practice that the original Shaolin tradition was built on. Chan is the Chinese word for Zen. Wu means martial practice. In the Gulun lineage they are not separate disciplines but two faces of the same cultivation: the body and the breath are the method by which the mind is quieted, and the quiet mind is the precondition for genuine internal force.
How can I learn Gulun Kung Fu?
Three pathways are open. Free training in the online community. The full online programme with weekly live classes and personal feedback from Shifu and Ben Lucas. Or travel to the school on Songshan Mountain to study with Shifu directly. Further questions are answered on the FAQ page.