Hakka Dragon Boxing Five Animal System of Fujian

Wǔ Shòu Quán "Five Animal Boxing"
This system originated in Longyan prefecture and can be traced back to Xu Xiuhuan, a Hakka man from Chenbei village in the Xinluo district of Longyan city.
Born in 1875 Xu developed an interest in martial arts very young in life, spending his time as a teen and young man working on a streetside food stall during the day and practicing martial arts during the evenings. Apprenticing under a local teacher named Huang Erxing he learned a local system of Plum Blossom Boxing. Later on during one of his evening practice sessions he was approached by a man from Jiangxi named Liu Chengyuan. After talking about martial arts they began to practice together. Seeing his skill Xu asked to be taken on as a student. Xu began to study Long Quan "Dragon Boxing" under Liu, eventually following him back to his native Jiangxi where he would would stay with Liu for 3 years of intensive study.
After returning home from Jiangxi, Xu began to develop a reputation for his martial skills.
In the late 1920's he was offered a large sum of money by a local warlord named Wu Hu to work under him as a martial instructor. However Xu refused any amount of money as he was at the time secretly the chairperson of the local soviet and leader of the local red guards and all of his disciples were also part of the local communist forces. In 1931 Xu travelled down the Jiulong river and visited various areas in Zhangzhou, Xiamen and Quanzhou to teach martial arts. During this period he also met and befriended that famous Quanzhou martial arts master Monk Miaoyue. After a couple years Xu returned home where he continued to teach, eventually dying in his native town in 1960.
In 1943 Xu's student Liang Wanhe founded the Longwu Tang school in Zhangzhou and shortly after opened 2 more branches in Xiamen. Later on his students opened a number of other branches of the Longwu Tang around Zhangzhou prefecture.
Today Wu Shou Quan / Long Quan is still practiced in Longyan as well as in Zhangzhou.
Oral traditions of the school claim it descended from martial arts passed on by Daoists on Longhu Shan in Jiangxi province who had in turn inherited their arts from the Wudang mountains. As is the case with most "Wudang" arts there is no documentation of this.
However a number of styles in southern China claim to come from Daoist sources around Longhu Shan and / or Wudang.
While today this style is known mainly as Wu Shou Quan "Five Animal Boxing", it is traditionally refered to under a variety of names such as Long Quan "Dragon Boxing" Longyan Ba Bu Quan "Longyan 8 Step Boxing" among others.
The five animals practiced in this system are the Dragon, Tiger, Crane, Snake, and Leopard (or Monkey).
The material taught by Liu is said to be the core of Xu's martial teachings. However he also integrated other material including material from his earlier study of the local Plum Blossom style.
Eight Step Boxing is the fundamental form and is considered to be a form of dragon boxing along with the 36 step form. Each of the other animals has their own form in addition to various other forms such as Plum Blossom 18 Steps, Lotus Flower, Eight Diagrams, Sand Fist, 8 Methods 6 Rescues, etc. Additionally a wide range of weapon sets are also passed down.