The origins of the Moving Tiger chi gung system are shrouded in mystery. No one knows who developed the system or for what purpose.

What we do know comes from Bruce Frantzis, the teacher of our Moving Tiger teachers. He learned the system in Beijing, China from 1985 to 1987. His teacher was Zhang Jai Hua, a doctor of Chinese medicine.

Zhang told Frantzis that she learned the exercises from her uncle, who was a monk in the Shaolin Temple in China's Henan Province. The Shaolin Temple is where the Indian monk Bodhidharma founded Chan (Zen) Buddhism and where Shaolin Kung Fu was developed. Apparently only high-ranking monks were taught the exercises; the system was not taught to lesser monks or outsiders. The monks used the system to increase their energy for use in meditation and martial arts.

Zhang's uncle decided to teach her only because he feared that no one in the Temple would survive the wars of the Chinese Revolution. He told her that the system had been practiced within the Temple for close to 1500 years. The Temple was founded in 496 A.D.

In the Temple the exercise system was known by the name Dragon and Tiger, and today in China it is known as Dragon and Tiger chi gung. Chi gung means energy development (chi = energy, gung = development). Some people spell chi gung as chi kung or qigong.

Frantzis believes that the exercises probably existed in some form prior to their use at the Shaolin Temple. Certain aspects of their design are more characteristic of Taoist qigong methods than of Buddhist qigong methods. Frantzis thinks that Taoist meditation masters probably introduced all or part of the system to the Shaolin Temple Buddhists.

Given available information, Frantzis believes that the Moving Tiger exercises have been practiced in their current form for at least a thousand years.

back to top