Catégorie What is Wushu ?.
24th May 2004by netmonk.
Just a few definitions and explanations
Kungfu
I think the best begining is to define some words. First of all the word "kungfu" (or also gongfu). Usually people consider "kungfu" defining chinese martial art. They are wrong. In China, the word kungfu is used to notice a great level of control or practice. You can have a great kungfu in cooking, dancing, painting...
Wushu
The term "wushu" means martial techniques. It’s a generic word which includes all the kinds of chinese boxes and the different familly of them So if you understand well, having a great "kungfu" in "wushu" just means that you know well wushu. But be careful, knowing lot of martial techniques doesn’t mean you have great kungfu. Its better to know one technique very very well, than lot of them briefly (quan bu zai yu duo zhi zai yu jing)
"Fists in south, legs in north"
In our occidental countries, we often hear about the difference between southern wushu and northern wushu. We consider that northern wushu is based on legs work, a light and aerial style based on flexibility and extension, and that southern wushu is based on arms and fists works, static and powerful style.This is in fact a big reduction of reality and complexity of wushu. There are northern styles with lot of arms techniques like Fanzi, Pigua, Baji, Tongbei, like there are southern styles with great legs techniques like Gou quan (boxe of dog) or Mojia quan. The differences between both styles are more in the use of body and energy. The family of northern style is more based on relaxation of body, and fluidity in chain of movement. The family of southern style is more based on contraction of body, jerky and shorter movements
"Internal vs external"
Another division in wushu land concerns internal styles (neigong) and external styles (waigong). Internal styles preserve the softness in the movement and insist on defensive way. External styles are based on action for attack. Internal styles are from Wudang (wutang) school, external styles come from Shaolin (belonging Cihui dictionnary).
tao or taolu
Tao are codified movement in a kind of choreography. The main purpose of taos is to facilitate the teaching of wushu. Taos are a major part of wushu and illustrate very well what wushu is in their variety and complexity. Each style has one or several taolus. A short taolu is also called tangzi. Taos arent a preparation for fight (Lian quan zhi yao lian yi tao, to fight one technique is enough). Taos are just a way to train the body to develop efficiency in movement by improving stability, coordination and energy use. When you start learning a tao, Chineses consider that its a dead tao (sijia, benjia) which means that you just only repeat movement. The tao becomes alive (huojia) when the student repeated the whole tao so much ("10.000 times") to understand underlying concepts taught in the tao, and adapted it for his own.