Tai chi and kung fu: China's martial arts

In English, "kung fu" and "wushu" both refer to the Chinese martial arts. They are loanwords, the first from Cantonese and the second from Mandarin, but in Chinese the two words do not mean the same thing.

功夫 (gōngfu) means any skill acquired through learning or practice, not necessarily a martial one. It combines 功 (gōng), "work, merit, achievement", with 夫 (fū), which works here as a suffix. Wikipedia sums it up as anything that takes patience, energy and time to complete. The same word is behind gongfu tea, the art of making tea with skill.

武术 (wǔshù) literally means "martial art": 武 (wǔ), "martial, military", and 术 (shù), "art, technique, method". Wikipedia adds that the character 武 is made of 止 (zhǐ, "stop" or "walk") and 戈 (gē, "lance"). The word wushu already appears in an anthology of the Liang dynasty (502-557), the Wenxuan (文选).

In 1928 the Nationalist government founded the Central Guoshu Institute in Nanjing (国术, "national art"), a name chosen to tie the martial arts to national pride. Under the People's Republic the term went back to 武术 in the early 1950s. "Chinese martial arts" in Chinese is 中国武术.

Good news for HSK learners: 功夫 and 武术 are both in the HSK 3 vocabulary.

Tai chi's Chinese name, 太极拳 (tàijíquán), means "taiji boxing". Taiji is the "supreme ultimate" of Chinese thought; a classic tai chi text calls it "the mother of yin and yang". The name came late: according to Wikipedia, the art was only associated with the idea of taiji in the mid-19th century. Before that it went by names such as "soft" or "cotton boxing" (绵拳).

Its exact origins are still debated. The best-documented practice begins during the Ming-Qing transition, in the 17th century, in the village of Chenjiagou (陈家沟, "Chen family creek") in Wenxian County, Henan. UNESCO says the same: it originated in the mid-17th century in Wenxian County. Tradition credits Chen Wangting (陈王廷), leader of the clan's ninth generation, a former soldier who returned to the village after the fall of the Ming; his dates vary between sources (1580-1660 or 1600-1680).

For a long time the art was taught only within the family. In the 19th century, however, Chen Changxing (陈长兴) took an outside student, Yang Luchan (杨露禅, 1799-1872), who went on to teach in his hometown of Yongnian and then in Beijing, where he made it famous. The other major styles all trace their lineage back to the Chen village through him. In 2007 China's wushu authorities officially named Chenjiagou the "birthplace of tai chi".

The five traditional styles are named after the families that founded them; according to Wikipedia, Yang is the most widely practised, followed by Wu, Chen, Sun and Wu (Hao).

Another widespread tradition traces tai chi back to Zhang Sanfeng (张三丰), a semi-legendary Taoist hermit said to have retired to the Wudang Mountains (武当山) in Hubei. The stories do not even agree on when he lived: the History of Ming (明史) places him at the start of the Ming, when the first Ming emperors had him searched for, in vain, and calls the tales that make him live earlier, under the Jin (金), unverifiable; tai chi lore places him under the Song.

The legend was mostly written down in the 19th century. In 1867 Li Yishe, nephew of the founder of Wu (Hao) style, opened his Brief Preface to Taijiquan by stating that tai chi began with Zhang Sanfeng of the Song. In the 20th century Yang Chengfu, Yang Luchan's grandson, repeated the same lineage in his 1934 book: from Zhang Sanfeng the art passed to Wang Zongyue, then to other masters down to the Chen village.

Modern historians are sceptical. From the 1930s, Tang Hao investigated in Chenjiagou, in the county records and the Chen family genealogy, and concluded that nothing supports the attribution to Zhang Sanfeng. According to Wikipedia, the earliest text linking Zhang Sanfeng to the martial arts is an epitaph written in 1669 by the scholar Huang Zongxi; every other link between him and tai chi dates from the 19th century at the earliest. The historian Douglas Wile notes that neither the Ming histories nor the hagiographies of Zhang Sanfeng connect him with the martial arts.

The debate is not closed in China: in 1992 a national sports commission research project concluded, on the contrary, that Zhang Sanfeng really existed and that "Wudang boxing" was a genuine tradition. This page therefore treats Zhang Sanfeng as a figure of legend.

In the early 20th century, Yang Chengfu, Wu Jianquan, Sun Lutang and others began teaching tai chi to the general public in Beijing and simplified it, removing most of the fast and jumping movements to focus on health. Under the People's Republic, in the mid-1950s (1956 according to English Wikipedia, 1957 according to Chinese Wikipedia) the national sports commission published a simplified 24-posture form, based on Yang style, that anyone could learn.

Parks, early in the morning, are where you are most likely to see it. In Fuxing Park in Shanghai, for example, dancers, card and mahjong players share the space early in the morning with people practising tai chi alone or in groups. Parks are so favoured by tai chi players that "square dancing" groups (广场舞), another hugely popular morning activity, often go elsewhere.

In December 2020 (on the 17th, according to Chinese Wikipedia), UNESCO inscribed taijiquan on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Its description: a traditional physical practice of relaxed, circular movements coordinated with the breath, practised throughout the country by people of all ages. The basic movements rest on the "five steps" (wubu) and "eight techniques" (bafa), with routines and "hand-pushing" (tuishou) with a partner. The art is handed down within clans or from master to apprentice, a relationship sealed by a traditional ceremony, the baishi.

As for health, UNESCO calls it a practice that promotes physical and mental health. Wikipedia is more cautious: medical evidence is lacking for most of the conditions it is promoted for, although a 2017 systematic review found that it reduced falls in older people.

The Shaolin Monastery (少林寺), at the foot of Mount Song (嵩山) near Dengfeng in Henan, is regarded as the birthplace of Chan Buddhism and the cradle of Shaolin kung fu. It was founded at the end of the 5th century, in 495 according to the most commonly accepted date (other sources give 477 or 496-497), by Emperor Xiaowen of the Northern Wei, to house an Indian monk, Batuo (跋陀). According to tradition, another Indian monk, Bodhidharma (菩提达摩), arrived in 527 and meditated for nine years in a nearby cave, facing its wall.

The earliest evidence of fighting monks is a stele dated 728: it records that the monks defended the monastery against bandits around 610, then helped the Tang defeat Wang Shichong at the Battle of Hulao in 621; according to Chinese Wikipedia, Emperor Taizong later rewarded these "thirteen staff-wielding monks" (十三棍僧). The staff is the weapon that made them famous. Between the 16th and 17th centuries, at least forty sources show that martial arts were part of monastic life.

The idea that Bodhidharma himself invented Shaolin kung fu is, according to historians, a late legend: it has been traced to the Yijin Jing, a text of 1624 falsely attributed to Bodhidharma.

The monastery has been destroyed and rebuilt many times. In 1928 the warlord Shi Yousan set it on fire; during the Cultural Revolution the monks were forced back into lay life. In 2010 UNESCO's World Heritage Committee inscribed the "Historic Monuments of Dengfeng in 'The Center of Heaven and Earth'", eight sites that include the Shaolin Monastery, its Pagoda Forest (塔林) and the Chuzu Temple (初祖庵).

Under the People's Republic, the martial arts also became a sport, under the name wushu. In 1958 the government set up the All-China Wushu Association to regulate training; the sports commission created standard forms for the main styles, with curricula and instructor grades. During the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) the practice of traditional martial arts was discouraged; policy relaxed afterwards.

Modern wushu is practised in two ways:

• forms (套路, tàolù), judged on aesthetic and technical criteria, bare-handed or with weapons; tai chi is an event in its own right, based mostly on Yang style;

• free fighting, sanda (散打), a contact sport where punches, kicks and throws are allowed.

Wushu went international with the International Wushu Federation (IWUF), which holds world championships every two years; the first was held in Beijing in 1991. Wushu is part of the Asian Games but not of the Olympic Games. In 2008 the IOC allowed the Beijing organisers to hold a wushu tournament alongside the Games, a first. In January 2020 it announced that wushu would join the Youth Olympic Games, planned for 2022 and postponed to 2026.

The actor Jet Li was a five-time Chinese wushu champion before his film career; earlier, in the 1970s, Bruce Lee's films had made kung fu famous in the West.