ccording to the needs of fight. When having a rest, especially when
celebrating their triumphs['traiəmf, -ʌmf]胜利, people danced to the
imitations of defending and attacking movements, stabbing, blowing
and kicking. After prolonged[prəu'lɔŋd,持久的 accumulation, the
experiences began to be raised to the level of consciousness, hence
Wushu came into being.
Brief introduction of Chinese Martial Arts武术简介
Chinese Wushu, with a history of several millennia千年, has become a
traditional Chinese culture. In feudal society, it was banned and
suppressed 镇压by rulers, but it thrived among the common people
instead of dying out. This evinces表明that the strong attraction and
vitality of Wushu in China. Wushu is characterized not only by
exterior beauty, found in postures, movements and techniques, but
also deep interior beauty, emphasizing “ life essence, vital
energy, and spirit.”
武术不仅以外在的形体美著称，如架势，动作以及技巧，而且其内在美更为独特，被称为“生活之本，力量之源”. The essence of
Wushu rests on the theories of Yin and Yang, the five elements and
eight diagrams['daiəɡræm].武术的本质是阴阳学说、五行学说和八卦理论. Styles of Chinese
martial arts can be categorized as the Northern style and the
Southern style according to the geographical regions divided by the
Huanghe River. The practice of Wushu is a hard task, it takes time
and requires arduous['ɑ:djuəs]费力的 efforts. With the development of
modern science and technology, Wushu movies and TV dramas have
become very popular. The present different schools and style of
Wushu embodies the wisdom and culture of all the ethnic groups in
China.
Taiji Boxing 太极拳
Taiji Boxing is characterized by the unification of mind, breath
and motions (body). It requires concentration of mind and calmness
of motions. “ Mind works as a commander and body a soldier;” “ When
in motion all of the body moves. When at rest, all of the body
rests.” “ Calmness is required for motion.” Simple force is not
preferred. Force is like a wheel and waist is its axis. The motions
are continuous as a circle. The breath is deep and controlled by
the diaphragm. Be concentrated, gentle and natural. Be stable as a
mountain when not moving, and be flowing as a river when moving.
The moves are characterized by roundness, softness, slowness,
stability and evenness. They are extended but very well
coordinated协调, and all are an antithetical 对立的unity of Yin and Yang
( negative and positive).
Chinese Gongfu is a very important and unique form of Chinese
culture. It can be viewed as both a popular and a classical art:
today it is very common and widespread; on the other hand, it has
had a very long developed history. Not only did it not decline and
disappear as many other facets of pre-modern Chinese culture, it
even seems to be gaining much recognition, both in its actual
practice and in its relative literature, thetics, philosophy,
psychology, etc. are more and more intriguing[in'tri:ɡiŋ]有趣的.
Chinese Gongfu possesses an important and extensive
cross-cultural跨文化的 significance. Western culture has, of course, a
great influence on the path of Chinese modernization.
Meanwhile Chinese culture is also making an impact on Western
culture; the popularity of Chinese Gongfu, including Taijiquan,
Qigong, etc., is not limited to China but has become a worldwide
phenomenon; it thus is a typical example of this reverse impact. As
it includes different aspects such as fighting exercise['eksəsaiz]
and health care, daily life and academic study学术研究, natural
state and social scope, research on Gongfu could shed a
wholly['həuli] new light on these interrelated phenomena in an
intercultural context.
think that, if the research sets out出发 from aesthetics[i:s'θetiks]
美学 perspective, people can more easily comprehend理解 the characters
of the popularity and fashion of Gongfu as 'art'; and if Gongfu
research starts with the aesthetic method, namely 'perceptually
comprehensive method', the profoundness深奥 namely multi-gradation
and multi-orientation of its intercultural significance can be
explained in a correspondingly simply way;
thus the
research on Gongfu will more effectively oppose the 'cultural
centered views', so as to raise a new subject and
even open
up a new path for modern international academia.
[,ækə'di:miə]学术界
1.Beauty of form of Wushu and Chinese Art
Many westerners find the action and routines of Chinese Wushu
(Martial Art) to be quite spectacular, but also ask if a real
Gongfu fight would look so impressive. This really involves
a
very interesting problem: Chinese Gongfu has not only
practical goals, but also embodies the pursuit and
appreciation of beauty.
2.Beauty of mood of Qigong and the wisdom of Taoist School and Chan
sect禅宗
Chinese Gongfu includes both Wushu and Qigong. In fact, the higher
level of most of Wushu (martial arts) is Qigong. Qigong exercise
has created aesthetic miracles 奇迹of life and culture, which modern
sports cannot hope to reach.
3. Being beauty of Gongfu and Tao-ontological aesthetics
Gongfu-aesthetics studies both the outside beauty of form and the
inner beauty of spirit. Moreover, it may involve ontology
[ɔn'tɔlədʒi] 本体论，存在论 (being philosophy) of beauty of life.
Chinese martial arts, known in Mandarin ['mændərin]国语 as wushu (武术)
and popularly as kungfu (Chinese: 功夫 ), consist of a number of
fighting styles that were developed over the centuries. Those
fighting styles can be classified according to common themes that
are identified as 'families' (家), 'sects' (派) or 'schools' (门) of
martial arts. Example of themes are physical exercises that mimic
['mimik]模仿 movements from animals or a history and training method
that gather inspiration from various Chinese philosophies, myths
and legends. Some styles focus on the harnessing of qi（运气） and are
labeled internal (内 家 拳), while others concentrate on improving
muscle and cardiovascular [,kɑ:diəu'væskjulə]
fitness心血管健康
and are labeled external (外 家 拳). Geographical association, as in
northern (北 拳) and southern (南 拳), is another popular method of
categorization. Each fighting style offers a different approach to
the common problems of self-defense, health, and self-cultivation修养
from a Chinese perspective.观点
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 [,ekspə:'ti:z] 专门技术 in any skill, not
necessarily martial. The Chinese literal equivalent of 'Chinese
martial art' would be 中國武術 zhōngguó wǔshù.
In its original meaning, kung fu can refer to any skill. Gōngfu
(功夫) is a compound of two words, combining 功 (gōng) meaning
'achievement' or 'merit' ['merit]优点, and 夫 (fū) which translates
into 'man', so that a literal rendering翻译 would be 'human
achievement'. Its connotation [,kɔnəu'teiʃən]内涵 is that of an
accomplishment arrived at by great effort.
In Mandarin, when two 'first tone' words such as gōng and fū are
combined, the second word often takes a neutral ['nju:trəl] 中性的
tone, in this case forming gōngfu.
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 [in'devə]努力. You can say that a person's kung fu is
good in cooking, or that someone has kung fu in calligraphy
[kə'liɡrəfi]书法; 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积极性 to do so.
Kung fu is also a name used for the elaborate精心制作的 Fujian tea
ceremony (Kung-fu cha).
The term kung fu was not popularly used in the sense of 'Chinese
martial art' until the 20th century, thus the word would be seldom
found in any ancient texts.[citation needed] The term was first
known to have been reported by the French Jesuit missionary
['miʃənəri] 传教士 Jean Joseph Marie Amiot, in the 18th century. The
term was uncommon in the mainstream主流 English language until the
late 1960s, when it became popular due to Hong Kong films, Bruce
Lee李小龙, and later the television series Kung Fu. Before the 1960s
Kung Fu was referred to primarily as 'Chinese boxing'.
In contemporary当代的 hacker ['hækə]黑客 culture the fu has been
generalized to a suffix后缀, 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'.
It is well known that Chinese gongfu is the Chinese traditional
cultures and crystallization of the Chinese wisdom, it is the main
carrier of national culture that accumulate the deep thoughts. As
fast as I know, Chinese culture is also making an impact on Western
culture; the popularity of Chinese Gongfu, including sanda
Taijiquan, 咏春，and so on, is not limited to China and become more
and more popular in the world.
I don’t know why I am so infatuated with the gongfu, maybe I am
influenced by the gongfu star, such as Bruce Lee李小龙，and his
master叶问,Bruce Lee is the master martial generation in my mind,
also carry forward the Chinese culture hero. (And he was famous for
his kungfu movies). Otherwises, I worship 叶问because of the spirit
of his self-reliance and never give up, no matter how tough the
life is. Even in the worst circumstances, he is also still pleasure
in helping others at the same time. Many years passed by, the
spirit of them still encouraged people to work hard for the
rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.
Martial arts can strengthen body, make us more strong in the
spirit, it comes from China, and belongs to the world. As a
Chinese, we are all proud of it.
