1: What is Kung Fu?

It is the general term of all kinds of the traditional Chinese martial arts. The meaning of "Kung fu" in Chinese is "the consumption of time and energy". It indicated the hardship in the the training of Kung fu (In modern term, Kung fu is more often referred to in China as "Wu Shu").

2: How many styles (kinds) are there in Chinese Kung fu?

It is really a very difficult question.

Geographically, it is divided into South and North in China. The common saying in the circle of Kungfu people respectively is: "The fists in the South, and the leg kicks in the North." The northern style adopts more kicks, as the people there are a bit taller. But it is not always true, as hinted by another popular saying: "Hands are the doors, attack with only legs" This applies to both southern and northern styles that use the hands to defence, and the leg kicks to attack. In both South and North, there again are many styles locally.

Divided by concentration, there are two styles i.e. the training of spirit (soul) or the CHI, and the training of the body. The further are represented by Tai Ji, Ba Gua, Xing Yi, and the later Shao Lin, Ba Ji etc. The further are often seen in fights where the seemingly smaller and weaker man easily defeats a bigger and stronger. The later are the exicting performance of breaking bricks, lifting heavy weights etc.

By imitation to the animals, people often refer to the very known

Shaolin Monk Wang Bingwen performing in Dresden on Nov. 01, 2000

styles of seventy two kinds of animals. I take the liberty to name just a few styles as follows:

Dragon
snake

tiger
leopard

eagle

praying mantis

In fact, there are a lot more. There are even different styles after only one kind of animal. For instance, with eagle, there are "Yan Yin Quan (Rock Eagel style)", "Peng Quan (Roc style)" etc., with praying mantis, there are "Mei Hua Tang Lang Quan (Blum praying mantis)", "Jin Bi Tang Lang Quan (gold arm praying mantis)" etc.

There are also styles divided by family names, as the earlier Kungfu masters would only teach their sons. Later, when the styles are known to the public, it is always indicated by that name. The immediate example is the Tai Ji Quan. there are Wu Shi Tai Ji Quan and Yang Shi Tai Ji Quan, from the Wu and Yang family respectively.

Every style has training of weapons. Eighteen kinds of weapons are very well known, which are very difficult to be translated clearly in other languages. Examples are "Dao (Curved Broad Sword, with one cutting edge)" "Qiang (Spear)" "Jian (Straight Sword, with double cutting edges)", "Ji (Spear, attached on top with a small double tip one side cutting edge dagger, which is good to stab, hook, hack, pull, hammer. Being the most difficult weapon in the eighteen known weapons, it is famous because a few generals in Chinese history were good at it). For better descriptions , I shall put a few pictures in my gallery page as soon as I have a better scanner.

Talking about style, a temple and a mountain have to be mentioned. The temple is Shao Lin Temple and the mountain Wu Dan Shan mountain. Shao Lin nowadays is so popular because of novels and films, it becomes nearly the symbol of Kungfu. Shao Lin style were from the military monks in Tang Dynasty of more than one thousand years ago. Wu Dan styles were from taoists, which training is more concentrated in spirit (CHI). Because of the essence of the training, it is not well known to the public. Shao Lin monks are good with long wood stick (Guen), and the Wu Dan taoists with straight swords. There are more styles originated from other temples and mountains in China.

How many styles are there actually? I would say a few hundreds or more.

3: How ancient is Kung Fu?

I would not like to refer it simply back to five or six thousand years in Chinese history, though there are written evidence and antiques in museums in relation with martial arts. What I would refer to is one straight sword (Jian) unearthed in Hubei Province in China about ten years ago, which is said to be the personal sword of the Emperor of the Yue State more than two thousand years ago. The sword is not rusted as almost new, with the original treatment of shining black, and chinese Zhuan characters forged inside the surface, which reflect out as being seen in the mirror. Its tenacity and sharpness makes it metallurgically impossible even for the modern steel factory to imitate, but in the laboratories. Symbolized with such a high quality sword, there would be no doubt that Kungfu, as a martial art, has already reached its peak by that time.

4: Why could not Kungfu develop into a popular competition sport in the world such as Karate, Judo and boxing?

The reason is very simple: it is still impossible to make out a feasible competition regulation. Kungfu is a life and death martial art, to find out honestly who the better man is, there has to be injury and the worse to the worst, death. In recent years, there are Kungfu competitions in China and the regulation has always been in dispute. The one competition I have seen in China was sucessful, but not satisfactory. With boxing gloves, the competitor could not hack with palm, pull with claw and stab with fingers, which are the important techniques in Chinese Kungfu. One touch of fist or foot, the two would be stopped by the judge, which definitely prevents using of Kungfu techniques, because the first jabs or kicks might only be the inducing tactics to be followed by a series of combination of real attacks. Wrestling technique has only been allowed to adopt in the competitions recently. Some other trial regulations are safer, but competitors could not compete really with Kungfu.

5: What is the recent Kung Fu training situation in China?

It is getting much more popular in China. There are training schools, associations, books, videos, and regular shows and performance, and international competitions. There are about 5 percent young men, and about 0.5 percent of yound girls, who do the regular training of Kungfu.

Why so many Praying Mantis here? Because I am kind of like the praying mantis kung Fu style pretty much. If you have a site of Kungfu, and you also practise the praying mantis style. You are welcome to swap link with me.