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List of Chinese martial arts
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Kung fu Wushu San Soo
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Shaolin Temple Wudang Mountains
Historical people
Bodhidharma Dong Haichuan Huo Yuanjia Wong Fei Hung Wu Ch'uan-yu Yang Lu-ch'an
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Hong Kong action cinema Wushu (sport) Wuxia
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Kung fu or gongfu or gung fu (功夫, Pinyin: gōngfu) is a Chinese term often used by speakers of the English language to refer to Chinese martial arts. Its original meaning is somewhat different, referring to one's expertise in any skill, not necessarily martial. Map of eastern China and Taiwan, showing the historic distribution of Mandarin Chinese in light brown. ... Pinyin, more formally called Hanyu Pinyin (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; Pinyin: ), is the most common variant of Standard Mandarin romanization system in use. ... Kung fu redirects here. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... The hundreds of different styles and schools of Chinese martial arts (中國武術) are collectively called Kung Fu (功夫), Wushu (武術), Kuoshu (國術), or Chuan Fa (拳法), depending on the persons or groups doing so. ... WÇ”shù, in Simplified Chinese Wushu (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: wÇ”shù  ; Cantonese: mou5söt6) literally means martial art. It is a more precise term than the widely used term kung fu, which can mean either martial art or skill: a craftsperson or artisan could be said to have... San Soo is a form of Chinese martial arts also known as Kung Fu San Soo and San Soo Kung Fu. ... , Main gate of the Shaolin Monastery in Henan, China. ... wudang or wudangquan, see Wudangquan. ... Bodhidharma (or Tat Moh)(fl. ... Dong Haichuan (董海川) was born on the 13th of October 1797 in Zhu village, Wen An County, Hebei Province, China and died on the 25th of October 1882 in Beijing. ... This is a Chinese name; the family name is 霍 (Huo) Huo Yuanjia (Chinese: ; pinyin: ) (c. ... This is a Chinese name; the family name is Wong. ... Wu Chuan-yu or Wu Quanyou 吳全佑 (1834-1902) the founder of the Wu Style Tai Chi Chuan was from an aristocratic Manchurian family that was famous for its martial skills. ... Yang Lu-chan 楊露禪 Yang Lu-chan or Yang Luchan, 楊露禪, also known as Yang Fu-kui 楊福魁 (1799-1872), born in Kuang-ping (Guangping), was an influential teacher of the soft style martial art known Tai Chi Chuan in China during the second half of the... Hong Kong action cinema is the principal source of the Hong Kong film industrys global fame. ... Gun (staff) event at the 10th All China Games Wushu (Chinese: ; pinyin: ; literally martial arts), also known as modern wushu or contemporary wushu, is both an exhibition and a full-contact sport derived from traditional Chinese martial arts. ... WÇ”xiá (traditional Chinese: ; simplified Chinese: , Mandarin IPA: , Cantonese Pinyin: mou5 hap6), literally meaning martial (arts) heroes, is a distinct quasi-fantasy sub-genre of the martial arts genre in literature, television and cinema. ... Pinyin, more formally called Hanyu Pinyin (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; Pinyin: ), is the most common variant of Standard Mandarin romanization system in use. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Kung fu redirects here. ... A skill is an ability, usually learned and acquired through training, to perform actions which achieve a desired outcome. ...

History

According to the legend of Chan (Zen) Buddhist monk Bodhidharma, kung fu also has its origin in India. The Indian monk named Bodhidharma Sardili (also known as Da Mo in Chinese) traveled from India to China around 500 CE. It is said that he visited Shaolin monks in the Henan Province. While there, Bodhidharma awed the resident Chinese monks with his mastery of meditation. The secret was physical discipline which Bodhidharma saw lacking in the monks. He trained them in exercises designed to strengthen the body and thus their endurance. According to legend, Bodhidharma had attained such a level of control that he was able to bore a hole through a wall simply by staring at it for a number of years in meditation. These series of exercises the monks used made the kung fu they had learned from travellers sojourning in the temple over the centuries faster, stronger and sharper than that practiced outside the temple, gaining them widespread acclaim throughout China. This is why Bodhidharma is credited with spreading Chan (Zen) Buddhism to China and for super-charging the Sil Lum/Shaolin methods of kung fu. For other uses, see Zen (disambiguation). ... Bodhidharma (or Tat Moh)(fl. ... Not to be confused with the unrelated provinces of Hainan and Hunan Henan (Chinese: 河南; pinyin: Hénán; Wade-Giles: Ho-nan), is a province of the Peoples Republic of China, located in the central part of the country. ...

The term kung fu was not popular until the 20th century, thus the word would be seldom found in any ancient texts. The term was first known to have been reported by a Westerner, French Jesuit missionary Jean Joseph Marie Amiot, in the 18th century and was known little in the mainstream English language until approximately the late 1960s, when it became popular because of the Hong Kong films, especially those by Bruce Lee, and later Kung Fu - the television series. Before that it was referred to primarily as "Chinese boxing". Kung Fu, as it is written here, refers to the general term of Chinese martial arts. Shaolin Kung Fu refers to the style that was developed in the Shaolin temples. (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... Seal of the Society of Jesus. ... For other uses, see Missionary (disambiguation). ... Jean Joseph Marie Amiot (1718 - 1793), a French Jesuit missionary, was born at Toulon in February 1718. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Martial arts film is a film genre that originated in the Pacific Rim. ... Bruce Lee (traditional Chinese: ; simplified Chinese: ; Pinyin: Lǐ XiÇŽolóng; Cantonese Yale: Léih Síulùhng; November 27, 1940 – July 20, 1973) was a Chinese-American martial artist, philosopher, instructor, and martial arts actor widely regarded as the most influential martial artist of the 20th century and a... Kung Fu (1972-1975) was an award-winning American television series which starred David Carradine. ... Ever since 1669, when Huang Zongxi first described Chinese martial arts in terms of a Shaolin or external school versus a Wudang or internal school,[1] Shaolin has been used as a synonym for external Chinese martial arts regardless of whether or not the particular style in question has any...

Translation and usage

Nowadays, the most common use of the term kung fu is when referring to Chinese martial arts in general. Thus, when someone says they study kung fu, they likely mean they study one of the many styles of Chinese martial arts. (An alternative term might be "Zhongguo wushu" (中國武術, literally China martial art)). The original meaning of kung fu is quite different, and is hard to translate as there is no English equivalent. In short, 功夫 (gōngfu) means "achievement through great effort" or simply virtue. It combines 功 (gōng) meaning achievement or merit, and 夫 (fū) which translates into man. In Mandarin, when two "first tone" words such as gōng and fū are combined, the second word often takes a neutral tone, in this case forming gōngfu. WÇ”shù, in Simplified Chinese Wushu (Simplified Chinese: ; Traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: wÇ”shù  ; Cantonese: mou5söt6) literally means martial art. It is a more precise term than the widely used term kung fu, which can mean either martial art or skill: a craftsperson or artisan could be said to have... Hawaiian State Grappling Championships. ... This article is on all of the Northern and Southwestern Chinese dialects. ... A Tonal language is a language that uses tone to distinguish words. ...

Originally, to practice kung fu did not just mean to practice Chinese martial arts. Instead, it referred to the process of one's training - the strengthening of the body and the mind, the learning and the perfection of one's skills - rather than to what was being trained. It refers to excellence achieved through long practice in any endeavor. You can say that a person's kung fu is good in cooking, or that someone has kung fu in calligraphy; saying that a person possesses kung fu in an area implies skill in that area, which they have worked hard to develop. Someone with "bad kung fu" simply has not put enough time and effort into training, or seems to lack the motivation to do so. Kung fu is also a name used for the elaborate Fujian tea ceremony (Kung-fu cha). Cooking is the act of preparing food. ... Contemporary Western Calligraphy. ... The Fujian tea ceremony (Chinese: 功夫茶; pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Kung-fu cha), is a specific way of preparing tea -- specifically oolong, although sometimes used also for black teas. ...

There is a curious contemporary twist on this meaning in the hacker culture: there the fu has been generalized to a suffix, implying that the thing suffixed involves great skill or effort. For example, one may talk of "script-fu" to refer to complicated scripting. It is unknown whether this was consciously based on the original, broader meaning of the term or whether it was a simple wordplay on the less general Western notion of "kung fu". To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Look up FU in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Scripting languages (commonly called script languages) are computer programming languages that are typically interpreted. ...

In Japanese, the characters for kung fu (功夫) retain an approximation of their Chinese reading, and are pronounced kanfū (カンフー). Chinese martial arts in general are also referred to as chūgoku ken (中国拳) or chūgoku kempō(中国拳法), which translates literally to "China fist" and "China fist law," respectively. (Kempō is a generic term for a punching/striking art of Chinese origins.)

In Korean, kung fu means Chinese Martial art but a word that sounds similar is gongbu (공부), which means "study."

Related terms

While the term Kung Fu is used globally as a generic term for the Chinese martial arts — such as Shaolin Kung Fu — certain Chinese words may be used to denote some specific aspect of a style. These words are often based on the theme of the human hand. A common term is the Mandarin word quan or chuan (拳, Cantonese: kuen, Japanese: ken), meaning fist, which conveys the sense of a style of boxing or striking, as in Shaolin Quan (Young Forest Fist) and Wing Chun Kuen (Eternal Spring Fist). The word "chuan", however, may not always denote boxing; Tai Chi Chuan (Supreme Ultimate Fist), for instance, contains the word "chuan" but does not focus on striking in common practice. The term chang or zhang (掌), meaning palm, is also seen, an example being Bagua Zhang (Eight Trigrams Palm). Another similar word is shou (手), or hand, as in Sanshou (Loose Hand or Free Hand). For the style associated with Gu Ruzhang, see Northern Shaolin (martial art). ... For other uses, see Hand (disambiguation). ... This article is on all of the Northern and Southwestern Chinese dialects. ... This article is on all of the Yue dialects. ... Wing Chun, occasionally romanized as Ving Tsun or Wing Tsun (literally spring chant and alternatively as forever spring, or substituted with the character for eternal springtime[1]) is a Chinese martial art that specializes in aggressive close-range combat. ... Tai chi chuan (Traditional Chinese: ; Simplified Chinese: ; Hanyu Pinyin: tàijíquán; Wade-Giles: tai4 chi2 chüan2) is an internal Chinese martial art often practiced with the aim of promoting health and longevity. ... BāguàzhÇŽng is one of the major internal (a. ... This article or section is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... The leitai of the 2004 China National Sanda Championships Sanshou (Chinese: 散手, lit. ...

Some words refer to an art's origin or tradition. One term is pai (派), denoting a school of thought or system, as in Tien Shan Pai, Bak Mei Pai, Bok Fou Pai and Ying Jow Pai. This is related to the Japanese term ryuha (流派, Mandarin: liúpài), meaning "mainstream school of thought". Some martial arts of Southern China use the Cantonese word gar (家, Mandarin pinyin: jiā), meaning family, as in Hung Gar and Lau Gar (Hung Family, Lau Family), among others. Tien Shan Pai (天山派) is a northern style of Kung-fu which originated in the Tien Shan mountains of northwestern China. ... Bak Mei (Chinese: 白眉, literally White Eyebrows; also known as Pai Mei, Pei Mei, Bai Mei, Pak Mei, and Bak Mei Pai) is said to have been one of the legendary Five Elders — survivors of the destruction of the Shaolin Temple by the Qing Dynasty imperial regime (1644–1912) — who, according... For the military operation, see Operation Eagle Claw. ... A RyÅ« (流) is any school of a Japanese martial art. ... Alternative meaning: In geology, North China (continent) and South China (continent) were two ancient landmasses that correspond to modern northern and southern China. ... Hung Gar, also known as Hung Kuen or Hung Ga, is a southern Chinese martial art associated with the Chinese folk hero Wong Fei Hung, who was a master of Hung Gar. ... Lau Gar (Traditional Chinese: 劉家; pinyin: Liú Jiā; Yale Cantonese: Lau4 Ga1; literally Lau Family) is one of the five major family styles of Southern Chinese martial arts and is attributed to Lau Sam-Ngan (劉三眼; pinyin: Liú SānyÇŽn; Yale Cantonese: Lau4 Saam1 Ngaan5; literally Three Eyed Lau), who is... In Southern Chinese folklore, the Five Elders (Chinese: 五祖; Pinyin: ; Yale Cantonese: ng5 jou2) are survivors of the destruction of the Shaolin Monastery by the Qing Dynasty (1644–1912). ...

Philosophy

There are various philosophies around the term kung fu, suggesting a deeper meaning. The following is an example of such a philosophy: For other uses, see Philosophy (disambiguation). ...

For a process to truly be kung fu, the following three elements must be present:

• Motivation
• Self-discipline
• Time

Motivation is the basic driving force, and without it, kung fu can never be reached. It means both interest and the will to do something; a person who is forced to do something is not truly motivated. A motivated person, on the other hand, has interest in learning: they have a goal.

It is important to note a difference between the various types of motivation: A person can be motivated to do something, because if they do not they will be punished. Money can also lead to motivation, because you know that doing something will give you more money. However, the motivation kung fu comes from an interest and an inner desire to learn and develop, in which the goal is not an external gain, like avoiding punishment or earning money, but an internal one, with the only reward being knowledge, skill, strength and wisdom. This motivation can be inspired, but not controlled, by other people.

Self-discipline is closely related to motivation, but refers to the effort and patience required to actually get something done, and to get past obstacles that might appear on the way towards one's goal. While motivation is the mental state of wanting to do something, discipline is required to put motivation into action: A person might want to do something very much, but lacks the required amount of discipline to get started. Without this, motivation will lead to nothing.

It is true that a competent instructor can assist a person by providing discipline, helping that person to get past obstacles. This is good, but will not last forever, and in the end, it is always up to the person herself to put her thoughts into action.

Time is essential for finding one's motivation and self-discipline, and to actually accomplish something by making use of them, but motivation and self-discipline are also important to make a person willing to put time into accomplishing their goal: to prioritize.

In later stages, once motivation and discipline have become an integral part of a person's life, it is important not to stop spending time on practice. This is said to be a very important aspect of kung fu: Many ancient Chinese philosophers and martial artists consider time the most valuable commodity in a person's lives, as time cannot be replaced. By finding interest in and putting effort and time into every action, one will make the best use of time, and live a happy and productive life. A philosopher is a person who thinks deeply regarding people, society, the world, and/or the universe. ...

See also

• San Soo
• Wushu (term)
• Wushu (sport)
• Martial arts
• Fu
• [1]