少林罗汉十八手 Shaolin Luohan shiba shou, some combat methods

Arhat's 18 hands (罗汉十八手; luóhàn shíbā shǒu): known as the oldest style.
According to the historical official text of Shaolin temple, "Shaolin Kung fu Manual" (少林拳谱; shao lin quan pu), in the Sui dynasty (581-618 AD) Shaolin monks had a selected set of 18 simple movements; until the Tang dynasty (618-907 AD) the set had developed into 18 martial postures, that were combined into a form (套路; tao lu); the number of the postures increased to 36 until the early Song dynasty (960 AD); and in the Jin-Yuan dynasty (1115-1368 AD) it was developed into 173 movements; finally, in the Ming dynasty the system of the 18 hands of Luohan was completed in 18 forms, each form having 18 postures, making a total of 324 postures. In Shaolin, this style is called "inborn Luohan's 18 hands" (先天罗汉十八手; xian tian luo han shi ba shou), because it was the style with which Shaolin kung fu was born.