In the Chinese martial arts, imagery of the Five Animals (五形, wuxíng; literally "Five Forms") - Tiger, Crane, Leopard, Snake, and Dragon - appears predominantly in the Southern styles.

After Tamo departed Honan, there was a period of some years with little innovation in the training of monks. Shaolin were always encouraged to develop new skills that would give them an advantage over attackers. As monks practiced their new skills, they found tremendous inspiration from observing the local wildlife. Shaolin believed that nature had many lessons to teach those who would pay attention. Meditating upon the actions of animals had already become central to Shaolin, so familiarity with the defensive habits of the creatures was a natural outcome of such observations. The monks also named individual techniques after specific moves of animals.

By the 1760s, the Temple's arts would be known almost exclusively by the names of various animals, thought a few other styles - notably Buddha Hand, Wing Chun, and Lohan - would also come from Shaolin. By tradition, gung fu from Shaolin is generically referred to as the five-formed fist. The more ancient aspects of the five-formed fist are the Crane, Tiger, Leopard, Snake, and Dragon styles.

Animal: Dragon
Element: Fire
Strong Against: Tiger
Weak Against: Crane, Leopard
Strategy: The Dragon is a primarily defensive animal and the strategy of the Dragon deals with the yielding to and redirection of committed force. While the element associated with the Dragon is Fire, the properties of the Dragon are similar to that of air, yielding to and flowing around anything that passes through it. Transitions are made in a proper, fluid manner. The simplest application of Dragon strategy is to move off of the line your opponent is attacking on. More refined, and risky uses of Dragon strategy involve purposely leaving an opening and moving just enough to appear to be just out of reach of your attacker, thus giving him the illusion of impending success and the encouragement to continue his committed action. Smoothness helps disguise these kind of attacks, making it extremely difficult for an adversary to effectively counter. This continuation of the action is what allows the offensive side of the to Dragon manifest itself by either redirecting that energy in a different direction or exaggerating the original path of travel. This is often done with a push, sweep, or throw. The two aspects of the Dragon are like opposite poles of a magnet, one side draws energy in, often increasing in intensity as it draws near, while other repels that energy causing to fly away with an equal or greater force than was originally used to bring it close. The Dragon is not self-propagating, meaning it requires the committed action of your opponent to be viable. The Dragon defeats the Tiger by using the Tiger’s committed force against itself, but is defeated by the Leopard because of the absence of the committed action that sustains it. Dragon is essentially an internal, Qi cultivating method, but initial training is far more similar to a hard, external style than a delicate approach. In learning the moves, the student will strike hard, block hard, and stomp into each position.

Animal: Tiger
Element: Metal
Strong Against: Crane
Weak Against: Dragon
Strategy: The opposite of the Dragon, the Tiger is all about strong offense. Tiger strategy emphasizes the proper sudden use of extreme committed force and the importance of body structure and alignment. A trained Tiger can still move with tremendous committed force and remain on balance and in control of his body. The Tiger’s goals are to explode forward with your entire body when advancing and to cause the maximum damage possible with each individual strike. The Tiger subscribes to the “Freight Train” theory, meaning that once the opponent starts to retreat, he is in essence “stuck on the tracks” and will continue to retreat until he hits something or something hits him. The Tiger takes this opportunity to increase his attack until he overcomes and defeats his opponent. The defense of the Tiger is just as offensive - one that meets force with force. Its primary weapons are the closed fist and the tiger claw while kicking maneuvers are usually low to middle range kicks of great power. The Tiger defeats the Crane by exploding through its styles of keeping distant, but is fooled by the elusiveness of the Dragon. One studies Tiger to develop bones, muscles and tendons.

Animal: Crane
Element: Wood
Strong Against: Snake
Weak Against: Tiger
Strategy: The Crane is a defensive animal and has inspired what may be considered as the most elegantly beautiful of all the Chinese Kung Fu systems. It uses hands, feet, knees, elbows, shoulders and hips in its arsenal of striking techniques. By combining both soft and hard power, the style is renowned for its rapid hand techniques, its strikes executed in conjunction with grabs, and its devastatingly effective pressure point attacks. It also emphasizes firm yet evasive footwork. The Crane uses full extension of the limbs during combat for long-range striking, particularly with your longest weapons, your legs. This is accompanied by the positioning of the body in such a way that the defensive weapon, your foot, is as far as possible away from the your vital targets, i.e. leaning backward. This puts a stress on balance and kicking. The Crane responds to short-range combat by unleashing it's short-reaching but powerful strikes, such as knees and elbows. The Crane’s tendency to move directly away from an incoming threat makes it easy prey for the Tiger. The main principles of the White Crane style are really quite simple and direct, although extremely difficult to perfect. There are four main principles to remember: to hurt, to evade, to penetrate, and to intercept.

Animal: Snake
Element: Earth
Strong Against: Leopard
Weak Against: Crane
Strategy: The Snake is “middle child” of the Five Animal Fighting Theory and in a way is the most diverse. The Snake can be offensive or defensive, and uses both striking and grappling. The striking aspect, or viper, part of the Snake is like the Tiger, in that it seeks to cause the most damage possible with a single strike, but instead of using the brute force of the Tiger the Snake stresses targeting and weaponry to deliver a focused strike to a vital, and usually small area. Because of the focus on targeting and weaponry the strike is often a straight, piercing action in which a limb moves forward but the body does not. This allows the Snake to be direct and quick while limiting his vulnerability to counter attack. This obviously has benefits in both offense and defense, allowing for a quick preemptive strike or a sudden, devastating counter. The grappling, or constrictor, aspect of the Snake is just as versatile. It is necessary for the Snake to be very focused and not easily distracted by his opponent, while remaining sensitive to where his body is and what is being done to it. The constricting aspect of the snake can be use defensively at a distance by trapping and tying up an attacking limb or riding the limb back to its source. The Snake defeats the Leopard by either delivering an encounter ending strike before sustaining too much damage, or by constricting around the Leopard and taking away its constant motion. The Snake is ineffective against the Crane, because it can’t close the distance to employ its techniques. The two universal aspects of snake techniques are pin-point open-hand strikes and twisting arm postures to disguise one's line of attack.

Animal: Leopard
Element: Water
Strong Against: Dragon
Weak Against: Snake
Strategy: Like the Tiger, the Leopard is an offensive animal. The main weapon is the Leopard fist. The fist is formed in such a way that it can jab, rake or crush on any surface without alteration, striking soft points in the anatomy and structural weak points. The Leopard uses speed and angulation to bury his opponent in a multitude of attacks that seemingly hit all at the same time, or at least in a nonstop rapid-fire barrage. The fact that each individual attack is much weaker than someone using Tiger is balanced with the thought that the effect of the actions combined simultaneously is greater than the sum of the effects felt if each action were separate. Leopard strategy deals with more than just being physically fast, by going further to acknowledge that speed is relative. The Leopard increases its apparent, or perceived, speed by attacking on different and often obscure angles. One skilled in Leopard will use both hands and feet to attack multiple targets at once using every possible linear and circular path, up, down, left, and right, snapping out and darting back only to be sent out again on another route. The intended result is an opponent that can’t defend everywhere at once and instead just freezes and does nothing. This is part of the defensive strategy of the Leopard, as well as not staying in one place for longer than a blink of an eye and using shifting body movements and footwork to both evade and set up the next wave of strikes. In actuality, the defense of the Leopard is a secondary byproduct of its overwhelming, ever-changing application of offense. Because the Leopard does not commit itself to any one action it is strongest against the Dragon's fighting style. The Leopard’s reliance on multiple attacks and constant motion make it vulnerable to the vital strike and grappling attributes of the Snake. Goals of the Leopard style are to develop muscle speed for external strength, use the Leopard fist for penetration, and lower body springing power.