Acknowledgments
Special thanks to David Taran, Don Hopkins, and Martha Dahlen
for their generous help.
WHAT IS KUNGFU? Kungfu is a living tradition of Chinese martial arts that has been passed down from generation to generation of dedicated practitioners, for more than 1,400 years.
It is the application of a science of body mechanics and energy dynamics. Its drills, movements, techniques, and forms are the application of a deep understanding of how the body works, how power is generated, how energy is transformed—and of how fitness and longevity can be achieved.
It is a way of life and a way of fighting, a method for total self-development, as well as a collection of effective combat techniques.
It is Chinese. It is inextricably bound with elements of Chinese culture and philosophy, with Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism, as well as with ancient legends, modern heroes, and age-old traditions.
It is both sport and art. Learning kungfu means undertaking rigorous training to learn specific stances, hand techniques, and footwork, while doing kungfu is essentially artistic expression. Beauty and grace are as important as speed and power.
Kungfu is also a community. It is a family of dedicated practitioners who share a love of kungfu and who have committed themselves to one another, to the teachers before them, and to the art and its preservation.
The purpose of this book is to help a new student get started. The chapters of this book are organized roughly in the sequence of a beginner’s experience—from choosing the school, through training, to participating in tournaments. It is meant to cover the material taught in approximately the first three to six months of training, with hints of what comes beyond. We start with history because that explains how the different styles developed and with philosophy because that explains what the art is trying to teach.
We have tried to be complete and accurate, but words can only capture the shadow of the reality. As it is written in the Tao Te Ching, “The Tao that can be described is never the true Tao,” so it is with kungfu: that which you experience is the true essence, and that essence is far richer than words can describe. Good luck!
Jing: Most commonly translated as simply “respect,” this word also includes the ideas of admiration, courtesy, awe, surprise, astonishment, and discipline. With this kind of attitude, a beginner is mentally ready to learn.
THERE ARE TWO HISTORIES of kungfu. One is the history of the name, and the other is the history of the martial arts that it represents. For most of China’s history, the two characters pronounced “kung fu” meant the application of determined perseverance to accomplish some task. It could be used to describe any work at all—housework, schoolwork, practice, or job. Toward the end of the nineteenth century, people in the southern provinces (particularly Canton) adopted “kungfu” as a slang term for martial artists because they practiced so hard. When movies came out featuring these fighting artists, the term was applied to the discipline as a whole. And it stuck because it was a useful way of distinguishing the traditional fighting arts from the version being created in Mainland China for performance and competition (wushu), even though “wushu” is actually the older name and a more accurate translation for the term “martial art.”
Figure 1-1: Small section of a mural
in one of the halls of the Shaolin Temple
in Henan Province
Semantics aside, the martial arts—by whatever name—are an integral part of Chinese culture and civilization. They have developed, as the civilization has, in accordance with the social, political, and technological forces of the Asian continent for more than 4,000 years.
The earliest roots of the martial arts are in the combat sports of the Han civilization along the Yellow River. But very quickly these sports also became sources of entertainment and health exercises, and the balance between military and “folk” wushu has varied over the centuries. In times of peace interest in the martial aspects waned, and soldiers left their profession, some joining acrobatic or operatic troupes or performing in the streets. During times of political upheaval, interest in the martial arts rebounded, as even farmers needed to defend themselves from bandits and outlaws.
Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism are important components of wushu philosophy, and its connection with Buddhism has been pivotal. When Bodhidharma taught the Shaolin monks health-preserving exercises, he not only approved physical health as a necessary part of spiritual practice, but also irrevocably linked the two and established a location (the temple) to centralize the teaching, preservation, and advancement of these integrated wushu/kungfu techniques. Later, when the Manchus sacked and burned the temple, the monks and their fighting techniques were scattered, which led to the development of myriad styles of kungfu throughout Southeast Asia.
Finally, in the twentieth century, when firearms ended the military usefulness of wushu, its grace, beauty, health-giving benefits, and cultural heritage ensured its survival in China as modern “wushu” and in countries elsewhere as “kungfu.”
Very roughly,