Well, despite the nature of martial arts as self defense, off the top of my head I don't know a lot of styles that focus solely on counters. A quick search through wikipedia makes me inclined to suggest a few, though:
Baguazhang is a style that focuses on flowing, circular movements to evade an opponent and generate power for their own strikes. It's become popularly known for inspiring the Air Bending style in the Avatar series. Some of its techniques also seem to focus on disrupting an opponent who charges in at you.
Wing Chun and Fujian White Crane are known for being defensive styles invented by women, who had to use redirection of force, speed, and precision to overcome the power difference between genders. My experience with Wing Chun is pretty limited to the Ip Man movies starring Donnie Yen, but I noticed in those that, whether as part of the character or the style, he never makes the first attack, and does a lot of countering movements.
Choy Li Fut might be a very good fit because it's a defensive style that is said to be excellent at repelling multiple attackers at once, which is something a bodyguard to an emperor might very well have to do. Bruce Lee claimed he had never seen anything better for defending oneself against more than one attacker at the same time, and that it was "the only Kung Fu style to travel to Thailand and not be defeated by Thai boxing," which I assume means Muay Thai. If it could defend against something like Muay Thai it HAD to have something going for it, because they're one of the most "hit like a truck" styles out there.
Baguazhang is a style that focuses on flowing, circular movements to evade an opponent and generate power for their own strikes. It's become popularly known for inspiring the Air Bending style in the Avatar series. Some of its techniques also seem to focus on disrupting an opponent who charges in at you.
Wing Chun and Fujian White Crane are known for being defensive styles invented by women, who had to use redirection of force, speed, and precision to overcome the power difference between genders. My experience with Wing Chun is pretty limited to the Ip Man movies starring Donnie Yen, but I noticed in those that, whether as part of the character or the style, he never makes the first attack, and does a lot of countering movements.
Choy Li Fut might be a very good fit because it's a defensive style that is said to be excellent at repelling multiple attackers at once, which is something a bodyguard to an emperor might very well have to do. Bruce Lee claimed he had never seen anything better for defending oneself against more than one attacker at the same time, and that it was "the only Kung Fu style to travel to Thailand and not be defeated by Thai boxing," which I assume means Muay Thai. If it could defend against something like Muay Thai it HAD to have something going for it, because they're one of the most "hit like a truck" styles out there.
