Let’s start from the beginning:

The character Wu pronounced Bu in Japanese or Moo in Korean which we now translate as “martial” actually breaks down to two radicals meaning “don’t use the weapon” or “no violence”.  This character is made up of two radicals. The character zhi which means “prohibited” or “not to” and the character ge a weapon for chariot fighting dating back over 3,000 years.

The character gong as in gongfu (also known as kung for kung-fu) is translated as “effort” or “special skill”. It breaks down into the two radicals of gong – work and li – strength. The character fu (the second part of gongfu) indicates a man, but the philosophical explanation shows a person of higher learning or one who transcends the heaven – they have learned to dominate the three levels of Earth, nature and heaven.

It breaks down into da – litirally translated as “big” – the king of nature is a person, tian – “heaven” and the person who transcends heaven is the fu. (This fu is used in the word for priest in Chinese but different from the fu in Shifu or sifu – a Chinese term for teachers.)

These words are related to the origin of martial arts according to the Chinese and the history and development of Chinese martial arts.

These concepts of no violence and effort developed alongside the ethics and morals of the people involved in self-cultivation – what martial arts is about to me.

Martial Virtue

Take the Samurais, Japanese warriors, the Warang dos, Korean warriors or the Shaolin Monks of China. All of them with something in common beyond high levels of martial arts skills.  All of them had a profound code of ethics, morals and conduct – The Martial Virtues (Wude).

Wushu follows these ethics and morals in the same way that Japanese, Korean and other martial arts systems follow theirs. To take a page from a book written by Wu Bin:

Chinese wushu embodies a profound philosophy  and a sense of human life and values. (Some people therefore call it philosophic boxing). It emphasises traditions, experience, rational knowledge and wisdom. All of which are clearly reflected in the martial ethics of wushu. That’s why it can display the oriental civilisation via combat skills and become an inexhaustable treasure of the human body culture.

As a form of social ideology, morality differs in different historical periods. It is the summation of the code of conduct of a given society for the adjustment of the relationships between man and man; and between man and the society.

Generally speaking, it evaluates man’s behavior and adjusts each other’s relations with such concepts as good and evil, justice and injustice, fairness and partiality, and honesty and dishonesty.

Wushu for instance is a system of skills and theories the Chinese people have developed through their struggle with nature and in the course of their social life, for combat (protection) and to promote health and improve one’s temperament.

Combat in the usual sense means violence, bloodshed and death.  For this very reason, few of the various combative techniques and skills in the world are combined with morals.

On the contrary, Wushu has been influenced ever since its birth by moral principles and has developed a complete code of moral behavior.

Martial ethics WU DE, formed in such a Chinese cultural enviroment, has become a distinct feature of Wushu and is an essential part of the study and understanding of Chinese martial arts.

The main points of Martial Ethics in Wushu are:

• Respect for Human Life;
• Emphasis on Moral Principles;
• Emphasis on Moral Conduct and Manners;
• Respect for the Teacher and Care for Each Other;
• Modesty and Eagerness;
• Freedom form Personal Grudges;
• Persistance and Perseverance.

Chinese Wushu masters insist that a student should learn to know the etiquette before learning martial arts. There are various rules for manners and behaviors before or after the skills. They embody the modesty and manners of the performers, mark a good start of a practice routine to be executed, demostrate the aims of the different schools of boxing, and give an outline of its soul and spirit.

(China Wushu Series – Essentials of Chinese Wushu)

Control and Energy

One of the main ideas which runs through these ethics is control. Freedom from domination by emotion. A martial artist may train in techniques, but the founding principle is that they must be able to dominate their emotions or reactions when choosing how or when to use those techniques.

In addition, wushu is not only ethics and martial skills. It is also about the stimulation and cultivation of internal energy. It is about putting your body, mind and spirit in harmony with Heaven and Earth. For that reason, wushu movements cannot be only fighting techniques. They must also be energetically balanced to get the level of skill we have heard about in stories of past masters, a level that only very few people achieve.

To answer the question …

In the modern world, martial arts is often mis-identified as something solely for self-defence or fighting, and many people started it for that. But after years of practise, those same people will say that they do not continue it for that reason, but rather because of the way of life it shows. So, are all fighting systems martial arts? I think not.

Orlando Garcia

Broad experience in this area has given me an understanding of concepts about contemporary and traditional Taiji Quan. I still feel like a beginner but with this article I would like to share my views and experience of Taiji Quan as the most incredible base and complement for any other style of martial art, and beyond that, as a way of life.

My Studies

After learning the 24 movement Beijing form, I found myself impressed enough by this “meditation in motion” to begin ongoing research and practise of different schools of Taiji Quan. From the 24 movement, I went into Chen style which became and remains my specialty, then Yang style, Sun style, Wu style, Woo style and in the past few years I have also collected information on Zhaobao Taiji Quan. I have been fortunate to be part of lectures, workshops and personal visits with some of the greatest masters in all of these systems, some of whom have now passed away. Professor Meng Huifeng and Professor Kan Guixiang, well-known as two of the team which set up the 42 movement competition routine as well as the competition routines for the five main styles of Taiji Quan; Huang Kanghui (my teacher and student of Master Hong Junsheng) and Feng Zhiqiang (Chen style); Yang Zhenduo and Fu Zhongwen (Yang Style); Wu Yinhua and Ma Yueliang (Wu style); Sun Jianyun (Sun style); Xue Naiyin (Woo style); and Wang Haichuan (Zhaobao style).

Through the practise of these different styles, I have experienced different feelings, a great variety of applications, specific and particular health benefits and most importantly for me, an improvement in my understanding of Chen style. Regardless of style, they all share the same basic principles.

• Concepts of stability, balance, roundness, continuity, calmness, awareness, inner peace, focus, intention, concentration – the internal and external aspects;
• The 13 Postures;
• 5 directions – jin (advance) , tui (retreat), gu (left), pan (right) and ding (central equilibrium);
• 8 methods – peng (ward off), lu (roll back), ji (press), an (push), cai (pull down), lie (split), kao (leaning), zhou (elbow).

The result of my exploration and practise of the different interpretations of these principles is a great respect and admiration for all the styles of Taiji Quan.

Teaching Taiji Quan

There have been many reasons why people have wanted to join my Taiji Quan classes:

• To improve health and relaxation;
• To interpret the theoretical concepts of Taiji as a philosophy of life;
• To help their concept of performing arts;
• For competition;
• To do a martial arts system.

All this goes to show that the scope for Taiji Quan is immense. Anyone can receive benefits from it, but more benefits can be received if the student learns about all aspects of it.

Taiji Quan to improve health and for relaxation

Some teachers fulfil student expectations of Taiji Quan solely as a health exercise by only teaching movements and avoiding discussion of the martial aspect.

Other teachers may modify routines or dispense with movements to make it more accessible to the elderly or less mobile people. Also, Taiji Quan teachers do not require their students to practise a certain movement 100 times each class, an activity few people would find relaxing.

Although these actions are controversial, it must be said that as people begin to get more into their Taiji Quan, they often start to ask about some of the other aspects of the system. Equally, changing movements to suit people’s skills and limitations has been going on since martial arts began. This is fine as long as the principles are adhered to. The system of learning, be it repetition of movements 100 times, or not, has always depended on who’s learning and why they are doing it. You can be sure that Taiji Quan masters did not make their students of the Imperial Court train in the same way as their disciples in the village.

Taiji Quan as a philosophy of life

Many people are attracted to the idea of the taiji as a way of life – where everything is made up of two opposites that are mutually complementary. For this reason they seek Taiji Quan as a physical activity which embodies this ideal of elements existing together in harmony. Many teachers will explain how the theory of taiji is manifested in the Taiji Quan forms without the students even understanding that they are having the theory of taiji explained to them. In Taiji Quan a forward movement is complemented by a backward movement, where one leg is described as full, the other is empty, an opening movement is followed by a closing movement and so on. Understand the idea of opposites flowing from one to the other in constant shift and harmony and you understand the basic idea of the taiji. Through the practise of Taiji Quan, the application of the concepts into daily life becomes more obvious.

Whether the teacher explains the philosophy overtly or just teaches the forms, explaining the movements without explaining the ideas behind them, sooner or later a persistent and attentive student will begin to absorb the idea of the taiji into areas outside their training.

 Taiji Quan to help performance

The concepts of movement and balance of the body in Taiji Quan have been ideas that always attract dancers (“dance” as an original expression of spirit, mind and body in harmony) and performers who are looking to improve their skills. These students will fit into most “health” Taiji Quan classes and understand the movements primarily by the external expression.

In my experience, these same students will begin to understand the internal aspect of Taiji Quan as they spend longer learning.

 Taiji Quan for competition

Taiji Quan is definitely not a discipline that could be judged completely on external actions as it is something that you do by yourself and in which you have your own feeling. Teaching of Taiji Quan for competition will demand you kick higher, creep down lower and show more low level control than you ever will in a “health” class.  Also, like competition in any sport, training is intense. This is because Taiji Quan is judged on aspects that an experienced eye can see:

• Quality of movement (the external technical requirements);
• Power and Harmony (including breathing and pace);
• Taiji Quan style content (individual style of expressing Taiji Quan);
• Spirit (including deduction for nervousness and lack of concentration).

 Although the focus is mainly external, the internal qualities of concentration, focus on accurate movement and minute detail are all aspects of a successful Taiji Quan exponent, be they competing, practising for health or learning the full martial system. Finally, in Taiji Quan competition, one of the greatest ironies is that you learn to compete against yourself and not to worry about the judging result. These demands of competition take you back to the original requisites of good Taiji Quan practise and complement rather than deviate from these principles. Competition has the added benefit of providing a forum in which a variety of people can come together in a friendly environment to share experiences of their common activity.

Taiji Quan as a martial art

This includes the qigong (breathing exercises), routines, push hands (set-sparring and free-sparring), applications and Taiji Quan Sanshou (Taiji Quan combat).

There are so many aspects to Taiji Quan and different teachers teach in different orders or at different stages. Some ask students to wait years to learn a given aspect, others introduce the basics of different elements from early on. It is important that the teacher can explain any one of these elements and share them with the student. Although different teachers teach at different rates, it would be unwise for a teacher to teach Taiji Quan Sanshou early on, before the student has come to grips with even the basic principles of Taiji Quan. Apart from that, the traditional system, is usually taught in the order listed so as to allow students to grasp and practise the principles and give the student a higher chance of enjoyment, understanding and success in Taiji Quan.

So is any one better than the other?

We agree that there are many motivations for learning Taiji Quan. After years of experience, I do not believe it matters for which of these reasons people begin or continue. If a person is taught according to the principles of Taiji Quan, they gain from the practise. With all that Taiji Quan is – a lifetime of learning, teaching according to the principles of Taiji Quan and fulfilling the needs of the students should be the goal. After all, ultimately what we are looking for is individual cultivation and Taiji Quan is a path, not a destination.

Orlando Garcia

Content

When you start in a school of wushu, you should expect to encounter all these elements: 

•  Wude – Ethics, Etiquette, Protocols and Morals and specific rules  and regulations according to the instructor, system;
• Nei Gong – Breathing and Internal Development Skills;
• Jiben Gong – Basic footwork, hand techniques, kicking, grappling  and weapons techniques;
• Taolu – Empty hand and weapons set routines of varying difficulty and complexity of technique;
• Dui Lian - Two-person practice in empty hands and weapons or a combination of both;
• Yongfa - Application;
• Sanshou - Sparring.

The order in which the content is taught will depend on the individual instructor. Maybe they will teach a form then application and then two-person sparring before moving on to the next form, or they may keep the student learning many techniques through their forms and only later explain the application in detail.

Systems

Wude – A wushu school typically would start with an introduction to the basic protocols and etiquette, morals and behaviour before, during and after training. This may take the form of a teacher refusing to teach you if they consider your behaviour inappropriate, or waiting to see what kind of person you are before deciding to teach you directly. In a modern context, a teacher may well explain what they expect of you.

One of my teachers in the Temple of the Moon Park in Beijing didn’t teach me anything at all for the first two months. I was left to follow my classmates who I received instruction from. It was only later that I understood that this had been a probationary period in which my teacher was testing my intention and commitment to learning the system.

Equally, when you walk in to a school to be registered for your wushu training, one of the first thing they ask you is your name, contact details and what you do. This is a different way of getting a general idea of what kind of person you are and your intentions of learning. The teacher will then make a decision about whether they want to teach you or not.

Nei Gong – Wushu schools differ from other disciplines in that they develop their internal energy through the stimulation of the qi (vital energy). This is necessary to achieve “gong-fu” skills and inner harmony. Nei Gong skills vary depending on the wushu school and most of them are integrated with the basic techniques or stances. In Taiji Quanthe “standing like a tree” exercise would fall into this category, holding the horse-riding stance (mabu) in Hongjia, holding Santishi in Xingyi quan (Mind and Will boxing), or “walking the circle” practise of Bagua Zhang. Schools which demand extra agility or strength may have additional “light skills” Qing-gong or “iron shirt” Yin-gong skills.

Jiben gong – These are the elementary skills which move from stances, transition stances, stepping techniques, sweeping techniques, grabbing and holding with leg, stamping, grinding, tripping and locking techniques and all the different kicking techniques. These are accompanied by hand and arm skills – punching, thrusting, cutting, grabbing, locking, slapping, pushing, pulling, parrying, blocking, intercepting etc. Some schools will also demand other basics such as break-falling (Ditanquan) and jumping (Shaolinquan).

Taolu – These are the set routines or the combinations of the basic skills and techniques. They are oriented towards helping the students remember and practise the different skills in an efficient way. This also helps to develop the intention and mind training – visualising the opponent. All of the previous exercises are not enough unless you combine them with hard forms training.

Dui Lian – Two-person exercises are part of all the wushu schools in one way or another. The dui lian of the different wushu schools should not be confused with the dui lian for competition. The aim and the focus are different, hence so is the outcome. Dui Lian may be only one or two basic exercises practised in pairs to give the student a feel for application, a solid mass to focus on and an idea of contact, distance, timing and reaction. It is really important for the students to practise their dui lian with different people. This helps them get a feel for having an opponent of different size, shape, strength and technique. Dui lian, like taolu, have varying levels and complexity through which people can progress, also like taolu, there are dui lian exercises for weapons.

Yongfa – The applications of the techniques and skills in the forms and basics. Every technique has application, regardless of how artistic or impractical it appears. If the practitioner knows the system well, they should know the application and/or its meaning (some moves may be a greeting or for the stimulation of breathing).  The straight application of the movements from the forms is not necessarily the same way of applying it in a real fight. The techniques in the forms are for the development of your own skills whereas the practise of the dui lian or sanshou is for the exchange of feeling or action and reaction between you and the opponent. It was as a result of research by China’s top martial artists of the day into the applications and techniques of the different schools of wushu that the rules for sanshou competition were developed.

Sanshou – Also known as Sanda or Duida.  Traditionally, this only became a part of training in wushu once the student was considered to be highly competent in the other parts of training. Unlike other systems of martial arts, a wushu student was not put in to spar as part of their basic or even intermediate training. This methodology is largely retained in true wushu schools both in and outside China today. 

Sanshou is true combat, but sometimes people refer to sanshou talking about sport or competition sanshou which is controlled by rules and regulations. There are records of sparring using protective armour and modified weapons going back to the Tang dynasty (600AD) however, the modern rules of sanshou were set up by wushu masters in China about 20 years ago. This was done in an effort to provide for competition without high levels of injury while remaining true to the application of wushu techniques.

Sanshou is wushu sparring and the application in combat of the different schools of wushu. Take-down, throwing and ground-fighting techniques are from shuaijiao (Chinese wrestling), and traditional schools like Bagua zhang also include a lot these techniques as well. Movements from Changquan or Taiji Quan as well as many other wushu school techniques are also an essential part of the sanshou arsenal.

Unfortunately, many of the fighters or promoters who have moved in to sanshou are not aware of this and that’s why they describe sanshou as a combination of wrestling and kickboxing (to mention one description I have read). But, in saying that, I also understand that sometimes it is the only way for people who do not know Chinese martial arts to get a rough idea of what sanshou is.

It is only when wushu instructors look at how their styles can use the sanshou rules to fight and win that we will see more of what sanshou should be – Wushu in Action.

Summarising the analysis of wushu it is important to mention that the people in China who specialise in sanshou are also required to practice taolu albeit with less frequency. Conversely, the people who specialise in taolu train all the basics of sanshou as a part of their general knowledge. Even in contemporary wushu, the traditional systems apply.

A better way to explain this is through an example of a wushu competition in Beijing I took part in 1993 and the type of competition I will like to see more. It was run by a traditional teacher of wushu following the traditional system of competition. The competitors were required to compete in six different categories:

• Empty hands forms;
• Weapons forms;
• Display of “gong-fu” (special skill such as breaking, bending a lance with the point at your neck etc);
• Overcoming obstacle and tumbling display;
• Dui Lian;
• Sanshou.

Wushu, then has complete systems for developing different skills, no matter what the school. If you are not covering all these elements, then this will help you to establish where to look for more knowledge in order to gain a complete understanding of your school of wushu.

Orlando Garcia