In Mandarin, ' wuxing' is the pronunciation not only of 'five animals', but also of ' five elements', the core techniques of Xing Yi Quan martial arts, which also features animal mimicry, but often with ten or twelve animals rather than five, and with its high narrow Santishi stance, these look nothing like a Fujianese Southern style found in the North. An alternate selection which is also widely used is the crane, the tiger, the monkey, the snake, and the mantis. wǔxíngbāfǎquán 五形八法拳 'Five Form Eight Method Fist'). in the absence of other animals such as the horse or the monkey as in tai chi or Xingyiquan) is either rare in Northern Shaolin martial arts-and Northern Chinese martial arts in general-or recent (cf. The five animal martial arts styles supposedly originated from the Henan Shaolin Temple, which is north of the Yangtze River, even though imagery of these particular five animals as a distinct set (i.e. 'Five Forms')- Tiger, Crane, Leopard, Snake, and Dragon. In Southern styles, especially those associated with Guangdong and Fujian provinces, there are five traditional animal styles known as Ng Ying Kung Fu (Chinese: 五形功夫) Chinese: 五形 pinyin: wǔ xíng lit. In Chinese martial arts, there are fighting styles that are modeled after animals.