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Russian visitors learn Taiji from Chinese Kong fu master Zhang
Maoguo, accompanied by Chinese folk music in Boao, southern China's
Hainan Province on Saturday, Nov. 3, 2007. (Photo:
hinews.cn)
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Most foreigners get a kick out of Kung Fu, but most have a
relatively superficial understanding of the ancient Chinese martial
art form.
The word, which literally translates as "great achievement", at
first meant to excel in any scholarly area - calligraphy, for
example. But over time, kungfu became an umbrella term for Chinese
martial arts, which can be cross-divided and subdivided in a
confusing variety of often-overlapping ways.
Historians are unsure of Kung Fu's origins, but it is generally
agreed upon that the Shaolin School originated in what is today
Henan province, while Wudong came from what is now Hubei
Province.
The Shaolin School is the better known of the two among
foreigners, partly because its movements are much more flamboyant.
It places greater emphasis on direct physical contact with the
opponent and taking offensive measures.
Wudong, however, is more reserved, because it has a greater
grounding in Zen tradition. Rather than focusing on wai gong
(outward movements) it more often uses jing gong (inactive
movements).
Monks from Shaolin Temple,
Henan Province, demonstrate their kungfu.
According to Wudong techniques, practitioners should wait
for their opponent to charge and then beat them to the punch.
Shaolin Kung Fu, however, advocates charging to bring the fight
your foe.?
At its best, the jing gong practitioner's movements would be
solely internal, with the practitioners' movements indiscernible as
physical motion to onlookers or opponents. It is believed to be
more difficult and time-consuming to master, but most experts in
the field agree that it's far more effective. Reportedly, the real
masters of this method can defeat an enemy with little or no
visible movement.
There is also a division between what is known as the Northern
School (bei quan) and the Southern School (nan quan) of kungfu. The
Southern School uses more fists and other upper-body attack
techniques, while the Northern School incorporates more kicks and
leg sweeps.
However, the first rule of all kungfu schools is: "You should
never fight, and should always strive for peace and harmony." And
while the art form is today known overseas mostly for showy stunts,
combat is only one of three parts that constitute the practice,
which is at least equally focused on meditation and traditional
Chinese medicine (TCM).
Today, kungfu is an umbrella term for a number of Chinese
martial arts, including taiji, bagua, wushu, quanshu and boji.
Among these, wushu is best known among foreigners, mostly
because its showiness makes it most appealing to filmmakers. The
balletic nature of wushu, for example, made it the kungfu method of
choice for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which has
become a well-known martial arts flick in the West.
Wushu was developed after the founding of New China, when the
Administration of Sports gathered kungfu masters from around the
country to standardize the martial art.
The result of their homogenized compilation of techniques was
wushu. However, many practitioners from other schools criticize it
for excluding the most important philosophical elements, such as
TCM, Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism.
(
China Daily by Erik Nilsson February 18, 2008)
