Chinese martial arts

Chinese martial arts, often called kung fu or wushu, are many different ways of fighting that have grown over many years in Greater China. These fighting styles have developed into groups, or "families," based on things they have in common. Some styles are known for exercises that copy animals, like the Five Animals.

Kung fu in Iran

There are also styles that work with a special energy called qi. These are known as internal styles. Other styles focus more on building strong muscles and keeping the body healthy, and these are called external styles.

People also often group these martial arts by where they come from, like northern and southern styles. All of these martial arts have been practiced for centuries and are still enjoyed today.

Terminology

History

Chinese martial arts began because people needed self-defense, hunting, and to train soldiers in ancient China. Fighting with hands and weapons was important for soldiers.

Mural at Shaolin temple from 1830's depicting forearm strikes and reverse kicks

Legends say martial arts started long ago, even before the Xia dynasty. Stories talk about the Yellow Emperor making early fighting methods. These stories also mention great battles and early wrestling styles.

Over time, martial arts appeared in old writings and became part of Chinese culture. Ideas like Taoism and Confucianism helped shape these arts. Martial arts grew and changed through many dynasties, with temple monks and soldiers often practicing them.

Today, martial arts are popular all over the world. They are taught more openly, and many styles are famous. Now, martial arts are enjoyed as a sport and a way to stay healthy and strong.

Styles

Main article: Styles of Chinese martial arts

Training

Chinese martial arts training has several important parts: basics, forms, applications, and weapons. Each style may focus more on one part than others. Most Chinese martial arts also value ideas about life, behavior, and health. A full training system helps teach about Chinese culture and attitudes.

Many Chinese martial arts include old ideas about health in their training. This covers understanding special body lines, pressure points, and natural treatments. It also includes exercises for health, energy, and long life. This whole-body way of training helps build inner and outer strength and overall balance.

Chinese martial arts also help keep cultural values and traditions alive. They teach respect for teachers, hard work, discipline, and never giving up. These arts often include music, special clothes, and rituals, which connect practitioners to Chinese history and culture.

Chinese martial arts are not just about fighting moves. They are a full system that mixes life ideas, behavior, health knowledge, and culture. This complete way of training helps with personal growth, understanding different cultures, and finding balance and excellence.

Basics

Basics are important in any martial arts training. Students cannot move to advanced levels without them. Basics usually include simple techniques and exercises like stances. Basic training might have simple movements done many times, stretching, meditation, striking, throwing, or jumping. Strong muscles, good breathing, and proper body movement are needed to do well in Chinese martial arts. A common saying about basic training is: “Train both Internal and External. External training includes the hands, the eyes, the body and stances. Internal training includes the heart, the spirit, the mind, breathing and strength.”

Stances

Stances are important positions used in Chinese martial arts training. They are the base for a fighter. Each style has different names and ways to do each stance. Stances can be different by where the feet are, how weight is placed, and how the body is positioned. Stance training can be done still, where the goal is to hold the stance for a time, or moving, where a series of steps is done many times. The Horse stance and the bow stance are examples used in many styles of Chinese martial arts.

Meditation

Meditation is a key part of basic training in many Chinese martial arts. It helps develop focus and mental clarity and is a base for qigong training. Through meditation, martial artists learn to control their breath, relax their bodies, and focus deeply. This kind of concentration helps them stay present in their movements and techniques, improving their responses and physical skills. Meditation also helps practitioners understand their bodies, energy flow, and inner state. Meditation is linked to qigong. Through deep breathing and thinking exercises, martial artists can better feel and guide their inner energy, or qi. This helps bring balance, harmony, and health. So, meditation helps Chinese martial artists develop their body, energy, and mind, improving their skills.

Use of qi

The idea of qi is found in many Chinese martial arts. Qi is thought to be an inner energy or “life force” that gives life to living things. It can also mean proper body alignment and good use of muscles, sometimes called fa jin or jin. Or, it can be a short way to talk about ideas that students are not yet ready to fully understand. These meanings may not all agree with each other. The idea of qi as a measurable energy, as talked about in traditional Chinese medicine, does not match what science knows about physics, medicine, biology, or human body working.

There are many ideas about controlling one’s qi energy so it can be used to heal oneself or others. Some styles believe in focusing qi into one point when attacking and aiming at special areas of the body. These techniques are known as dim mak and have principles that are similar to acupressure.

Weapons training

Most Chinese styles also train with many different weapons to condition the body and improve coordination and strategy skills. Weapons training usually starts after a student has learned the basic forms and applications. The basic idea for weapons training is to think of the weapon as an extension of the body. It has the same needs for footwork and body coordination as the basics. Weapon training starts with forms, then forms with partners, and then applications. Most systems have training for each of the Eighteen Arms of Wushu, plus special tools unique to the style.

Application

Application means the practical use of fighting techniques. Chinese martial arts techniques aim to be efficient and effective. Application includes drills where the person does not fight back, such as Pushing Hands in many internal martial arts, and sparring, which can have different levels of contact and rules.

Kung fu sword

When and how applications are taught changes between styles. Today, many styles start by teaching new students exercises where each student knows a set range of combat and technique to practice. These drills are often semi-compliant, meaning one student does not fight back, to let the technique be shown clearly. In more fighting drills, there are fewer rules, and students learn to react and respond. ‘Sparring’ is a more advanced way, which copies a fight but has rules to lower the chance of serious hurt.

Competitive sparring includes Chinese kickboxing Sanshou and Chinese folk wrestling Shuai jiao, which were once fought on a raised stage, or Leitai. Leitai were used in public challenge matches and first appeared in the Song dynasty. The goal in these contests was to knock the opponent off the stage by any means. San Shou is the modern form of Lei Tai contests, but with rules to lower the chance of serious hurt. Many Chinese martial art schools teach and follow the rules of Sanshou, using the movements, ways, and ideas of their style. Chinese martial artists also compete in non-Chinese or mixed Combat sport, including boxing, kickboxing and Mixed martial arts.

Forms (taolu)

Forms or taolu in Chinese martial arts are set series of moves put together to be practiced as a continuing set of actions. Forms were first made to keep the line of a certain style alive, and were often taught to advanced students chosen for that purpose. Forms had both direct, representative, and exercise-like forms of useful techniques that students could use, test, and train with in sparring sessions.

Today, many see taolu as one of the most important practices in Chinese martial arts. Traditionally, they played a smaller part in training for fighting and were less important than sparring, drilling, and conditioning. Forms slowly build a practitioner’s flexibility, inner and outer strength, speed and stamina, and they teach balance and coordination. Many styles have forms that use weapons of different lengths and types, using one or two hands. Some styles focus on one type of weapon. Forms are meant to be useful, practical, and applicable as well as to promote smooth motion, meditation, flexibility, balance, and coordination. Students are taught to imagine an attacker while training the form.

There are two general types of taolu in Chinese martial arts. Most common are solo forms done by one student. There are also sparring forms — planned fighting sets done by two or more people. Sparring forms were made to help new fighters learn basic fight steps and ideas and to serve as performance pieces for the school. Weapons-based sparring forms are especially good for teaching students how to use a weapon’s reach, range, and skills.

Forms in traditional Chinese martial arts

The term taolu (套路) is a shorter way to talk about Tao Lu Yun Dong (套路運動), an idea brought in recently with the rise of modern wushu. This phrase means “exercise sets” and is used when talking about sports or games.

In old Chinese martial arts, other names were used for training ‘sets or forms’:

Martial arts fan

lian quan tao (練拳套) – practicing a sequence of fists.
lian quan jiao (練拳腳) – practicing fists and feet.
lian bing qi (練兵器) – practicing weapons.
dui da (對打) and dui lian (對練) – fighting sets.

Old “sparring” sets, called dui da (對打) or dui lian (對練), were a key part of Chinese martial arts for hundreds of years. Dui lian means to train with a pair of fighters facing each other—the word lian (練), means to practice; to train; to make skills better; to drill. Also, one of these words is often part of the name of fighting sets (雙演; shuang yan), “paired practice” (掙勝; zheng sheng), “to struggle with strength for victory” (敵; di), match – the word suggests fighting an enemy; and “to break” (破; po).

Usually, there are 21, 18, 12, 9 or 5 drills or ‘groups’ of attacks and counters in each dui lian set. These drills were seen as general patterns and were never meant to be fixed ‘tricks’. Students practiced smaller parts/exchanges, one at a time with opponents switching sides in a continuing flow. Dui lian were not only smart and useful ways to pass on fighting skills from older generations, but they were also important and useful training methods. The link between single sets and contact sets is tricky, because some skills cannot be learned with solo ‘sets’, and, the other way around, with dui lian. Sadly, it seems most old fighting-style dui lian and their training ways have gone away, especially those about weapons. There are many reasons for this. In modern Chinese martial arts, most dui lian are new creations made for light tools that look like weapons, with safety and drama in mind. The job of this kind of training has gotten weaker to the point of being useless in a real way, and, at best, is just for shows.

By the early Song period, sets were not so much “single separated moves put together” but were made of moves and counter-move groups. It is clear that “sets” and “fighting (two-person) sets” have been important in traditional Chinese martial arts for many hundreds of years—even before the Song dynasty. There are pictures of two-person weapon training in Chinese stone painting going back at least to the Eastern Han dynasty.

From what older generations have passed down, the rough share of contact sets to single sets was about 1:3. In other words, about 30% of the ‘sets’ practiced at Shaolin were contact sets, dui lian, and two-person drill training. This share is shown partly by the Qing dynasty painting at Shaolin.

For most of its history, Shaolin martial arts was mostly about weapons: staves were used to guard the monastery, not bare hands. Even the more recent fighting jobs of Shaolin during the Ming and Qing dynasties used weapons. According to some traditions, monks first learned basics for one year and were then taught staff fighting so they could guard the monastery. Even though wrestling has been a sport in China for centuries, weapons have been a key part of Chinese wushu since old times. If one wants to talk about new or ‘modern’ growth in Chinese martial arts (including Shaolin for that matter), it is the too-much focus on bare hand fighting. During the Northern Song dynasty (976–997 A.D.) when platform fighting is known as Da Laitai (Title Fights Challenge on Platform) first showed up, these fights were only with swords and staves. Even though later, when bare hand fights showed up too, it was the weapons events that became the most famous. These open-ring contests had rules and were set up by government groups; the public also set up some. The government contests, held in the capital and areas, led to winners being given jobs in the military.

Practice forms vs. kung fu in combat

Even though forms in Chinese martial arts are meant to show real fighting moves, the moves are not always the same as how techniques would be used in a fight. Many forms have been made more, on one hand, to give better fighting readiness, and on the other hand to look more beautiful. One example of this moving away from real fight use is the use of lower positions and higher, stretching kicks. These two moves are not real in a fight and are used in forms for exercise purposes. Many modern schools have swapped out practical defense or attack moves for acrobatic stunts that are more exciting to watch, thus getting favor during shows and contests. This has led to talks by traditionalists about the support of the more acrobatic, show-style Wushu contests. Long ago forms were often done for fun long before the start of modern Wushu as practitioners have looked for extra money by doing shows on the streets or in theaters. Writing from old times during the Tang dynasty (618–907) and the Northern Song dynasty (960–1279) shows some sets, (including two + person sets: dui da also called dui lian) got very fancy and ‘flowery’, many mainly about looking good. During this time, some martial arts systems changed to the point that they became well-known martial art storytelling shows. This made a whole class of martial arts known as Hua Fa Wuyi. During the Northern Song time, writers said this type of training had a bad effect on training in the military.

Many old Chinese martial artists, as well as people who practice modern sport fighting, have talked about the view that forms work is more important to the art than sparring and drill use, while most still see old forms practice inside the old way—as vital to both right fight doing, the Shaolin look as an art form, as well as keeping the thinking job of the body art form.

Another reason why moves often look different in forms when compared to sparring use is thought by some to come from hiding the real jobs of the moves from people outside.

Forms practice is mostly known for teaching fight moves but when practicing forms, the practitioner focuses on position, breathing, and doing the moves of both right and left sides of the body.

Wushu

Martial morality

Traditional Chinese schools of martial arts, like the famous Shaolin monks, studied martial arts to learn important life lessons and ethics. This idea is called Wude, meaning "martial morality." It has two parts: "Virtue of deed" and "Virtue of mind."

"Virtue of deed" teaches us how to treat others and get along in society. "Virtue of mind" helps people find balance inside themselves, between feelings and wisdom. The big goal is to reach harmony, where feelings and wisdom work together peacefully. This idea is linked to ancient Taoist teachings about moving easily and naturally, called wu wei.

Deed
Concept	Name	Traditional Chinese	Simplified Chinese	Pinyin romanization	Yale Cantonese Romanization
Humility	Qian	謙	谦	qiān	hīm
Virtue	Cheng	誠	诚	chéng	sìhng
Respect	Li	禮	礼	lǐ	láih
Morality	Yi	義	义	yì	yih
Trust	Xin	信		xìn	seun

Mind
Concept	Name	Chinese	Pinyin romanization	Yale Cantonese Romanization
Courage	Yong	勇	yǒng	yúhng
Patience	Ren	忍	rěn	yán
Endurance	Heng	恆	héng	hàhng
Perseverance	Yi	毅	yì	ngaih
Will	Zhi	志	zhì	ji

Controversies

In traditional Chinese martial arts, there are sometimes disagreements and debates. Not all schools or teachers involve themselves in politics, because this can go against the values of good sportsmanship and respect. Some common topics of disagreement include questions about who belongs to certain families of martial arts, and which style is considered the best. There are also debates over history and rankings. There can be discussions about the role of different beliefs in martial arts schools. Sadly, some schools have been linked to criminal groups in the past, but this is less common today.

Notable practitioners

Many famous people have practiced Chinese martial arts.

Yue Fei was a well-known general from the Song dynasty.
Ng Mui was a legendary woman who helped start some southern martial arts like Wing Chun and Fujian White Crane.
Yang Luchan was the first to teach a style of tai chi called Yang-style tai chi in Beijing.
The Ten Tigers of Canton were ten top martial artists from Guangdong during the Qing dynasty.
Wong Fei Hung was a popular hero in stories and movies. Famous actors like Sammo Hung, Jackie Chan, and Jet Li have all played him in films.
Huo Yuanjia started a sports group and was known for fighting in matches.
Ip Man was the first to teach Wing Chun publicly. He taught Bruce Lee.
Gu Ruzhang helped spread a type of martial arts called Bak Siu Lum across southern China.
Bruce Lee was a famous martial artist and actor. He helped make Wing Chun well-known and created his own style called Jeet Kune Do.
Jackie Chan is known for mixing funny moves with martial arts in his movies.
Jet Li was a top wushu champion and later acted in films.
Donnie Yen is an actor, director, and martial artist who has won medals in wushu tournaments.
Wu Jing was part of the Beijing wushu team before becoming an actor and director.

In popular culture

Chinese martial arts have appeared in many books, dances, and shows for a long time. They are very important in a type of Chinese story called wuxia. These stories are about bravery and special fighting skills. People in Asia have loved these stories for years.

In movies and TV, Chinese martial arts became famous because of actors like Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. Their films had exciting fights and fun moments. This helped people around the world learn about these martial arts. Many modern movies and TV shows include martial arts, even if they are not just about fighting. Shows like Kung Fu taught people more about these skills.

Chinese martial arts also influenced other kinds of dance, like breakdancing. This dance started in places like New York City. Dancers used moves from martial arts in their shows and contests.