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Big_E · Joined: 22 Nov 2004 Posts: 130 Location: Richmond, VA

From: www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kung_Fu

Kung fu or gongfu (pinyin: gōngfu) is a well-known Chinese term used in the West to designate Chinese martial arts. Its original meaning is somewhat different, referring to one's ability in any skill, not necessarily martial. Many consider wushu a better term for Chinese martial arts, as it translates directly into martial art.

History
The term kung fu was first known to have been reported by a Westerner, French Jesuit missionary Jean Joseph Marie Amiot, in the 18th century and was little known 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".

Spelling
Part of the confusion around this term comes from the many ways the Chinese characters can be romanized, as Chinese romanization systems have evolved much in the past years.

Here are some of the most common versions in use today:

Kung fu is undoubtedly the most widely spread. It uses the Wade-Giles romanization system; a system that many consider obsolete today.
Gongfu is the Hanyu Pinyin romanization. With tones included this would be written gōngfu. Even though Pinyin is currently the official system of romanization of the People's Republic of China, the spelling "gongfu" is not widely used. Pinyin is, however, a popular system used for many other similar Chinese terms, such as Qigong (instead of Ch'i Kung in Wade-Giles).
Gungfu or gung fu is a Cantonese version using Yale romanization. This spelling was made popular by Bruce Lee during the 1970s.

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 train kung fu, they likely mean they train in one of the many styles of Chinese martial arts. The original meaning of kung fu is quite different, and is hard to translate as there is no English equivalent. In short, (gōngfu) means "achievement through great effort" or simply virtue. It combines (gōng) meaning achievement or merit, and (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.

Although the term was originally used solely in reference to Chinese martial arts, 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.

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.

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".

As many Japanese martial arts have originally evolved from Chinese martial arts, Japanese people use this word in their native pronunciation of "koufu" (Kanji:, Kana) to describe a building site laborer

From: martial-arts-info.com/ma_kung_fu.php

Kung Fu is a broad term that is used to describe all martial arts of Chinese origin. Kung-Fu existing under many different names throught China's history. Initially Kung Fu was called Ch'uan Fa (fist way).

The Shaolin monastery housed many fugitives from justice, and many warriors turned monk, which sets the roots of Kung Fu in the Shaolin Temple in Northern China. In fact there were five different Shaolin temples in five districts, and so five distinct styles of Shaolin Kung Fu developed.

Martial arts historians stress that Kung-Fu did not start at the Shaolin temple, but simply began to flourish under Shaolin's influence. Kung-Fu became eventually categorised into Northern and Southern styles. In the south, Cantonese people pronounce Kung Fu as gung-fu. Southern styles use low stances and kicks and strong hand techniques because they are shorter and stockier than Northern (Mandarin) people. The Northern systems are characterised by stylish and difficult patterns and acrobatic legwork, presumably because it was colder in the North so hand movement was restricted by thick robes and the mountaineous terrain enforced the development of strong legs.

Kung Fu as one of the oldest martial arts has been a great influence to other and younger martial arts styles, such as Okinawan Karate styles and subsequently Japanese Karate styles.

In modern times, Wu-shu emerged as a mixture of circus-like acrobatics and martial arts, and in China, national competitions are held in this sport. Jet-Li is a famous exponent of Wu-Shu, popularising the art in the West by appearing in martial arts movies.

Typical Kung Fu weapons are the broadsword and the butterfly knives.

Origin of Kung Fu: China

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The information above is from the respective website(s). If a more precise definition is found or created it will be replaced

Hanshi Neal · Guest

:D Good Reply Big_E

Wizardsr · Posted: Fri Feb 17, 2006 2:37 pm Post subject:

It is a very good response. I like it and I am a kung fu practioner.

Sigung White