What is the cause for Northern and Southern Chinese kung fu differences?

Question

When I hear anyone talk about a specific Chinese martial art, it falls into either a Northern Chinese or Souther Chinese style. I have learned that the general differences between the Northern and Southern styles is that Northern styles have more legwork, acrobatics, and jumping moves. Contrastly, Southern Chinese kung fu systems focus more on short moves and stable stances.

If Chinese martial arts fall into either of these categories, what is the explanation for it? Since the divide is geographical, are the development of Chinese kung fu systems related to regional, environmental factors? What are the historical roots that would also influence the development of these two general categories of Northern versus Southern?

Answer 1

Northern styles have more legwork, acrobatics, and jumping moves. Contrastly, Southern Chinese kung fu systems focus more on short moves and stable stances.

Actually, that describes the differences between the unarmed techniques, to an extent the weapons forms are the other way around. The way I heard it (at least 20 years ago, and I have forgotten the source) was that the Northern Chinese were more likely to be armed, so their weapons techniques tended to be more practical, since they were more often needed, while their unarmed techniques tended to be flashy.

The Southern Chinese tended to be less often armed, and when they were it was with shorter, more concealable weapons, so their unarmed techniques were more important and more practical, while their longer weapons forms tended to be stuff for showing off and for general development in training, rather than for practical use.

Answer 2

A good part of the answer seems to genetics, distance, and culture.

Northern Chinese people are, on average, inches taller than people of Southern China. Body breadth, skin coloring, and other patterns of physicality are often cited as being clearly different North to South. Different physical builds naturally lead toward different athletic expressions.

China is also geographically enormous. One has to cross ~1,000 miles (~1,500km) to get from the Northern Shaolin Temple at Zhèngzhōu to the Southern Monastery at Fujian, or to another at Quánzhōu. (Whether you believe these sites are the "true" sources of whatever style is another matter.)

Prior to the advent of modern vehicular transportation, 1,000-mile distances would have been inherently isolating, naturally leading to independent development and regional divergence (see also Dave Newton's answer). There'd be good reasons to have strong differences even if they spoke the same language. Which they don't.

Considering the different physical builds, different languages/cultural history, and regional distances, it's surprising that we think of Chinese martial arts in as unified a way as we do.

Answer 3

Geography, population differences, influences, etc. Same reasons everything is different over space.

For example, one reason I've heard is that southern styles were influenced by ship-board fighting, for which large, sweeping moves are contra-indicated, and short, stable stances are a necessity because of deck motion. Oceans in the south, mountains in the north; southern styles would tend towards being influenced by where a lot of fighting took place, and the people fighting.

Once trends are set in motion, they tend to snowball on themselves. A cooking ingredient becomes regionally popular, more regional dishes will use it. Variations on the theme are created and propagate. Sometimes something moves outside of a region. Sometimes a foreign region influences local flavors.