Five Animals and Karate (or all martial arts)

Yesterday while reading the latest from Rory Miller he presented some definitions to the five animals as he quotes from a gentleman named "Darren Yee." You can read the entire post here: "Paraphrased and From Memory" by Chiron

I wanted to present the particulars of that quote here:

"The Dragon is structure and breathing, all of the stuff that is really subtle but has a big effect.  The Crane is about flow and continuous movement.  The Snake is about speed and flexibility.  The Leopard is stealth and cunning.  The Tiger is power. ... You need all five of these to fight.  At some level you need cunning and power, speed and flow and the subtle things.  Every workable system has them all."

It is redacted a tad so go read the entire post. I just thought this was cool information. I particularly liked the dragon since much of my understanding of the Asian culture and beliefs that drove/drive martial arts is subtle in nature under the heading of harmony and the effects of both structure and breathing have far reaching benefits for all martial artists.

It also, to my view, provides a link to the Chinese ancestry to martial arts, i.e. all of it such as Okinawan karate and Japanese Budo.