Chinese Martial Art

Chinese Martial Arts or Kung Fu, in Chinese originally meaning “Hard Work.” Martial arts is both a form of exercise with a spiritual dimension stemming from concentration and self-discipline and a primarily unarmed mode of personal combat often equated with Karate or Tae Kwon Do. As a martial art, kung fu can be traced to the Chou Dynasty (1111-255 BC) and even earlier. As exercise it was practiced by the Taoists in the 5th century BC. Its prescribed stances and actions are based on keen observations of human skeletal and muscular anatomy and physiology, and it employs great muscular coordination. The various movements in Kung Fu, most of which are imitation of the fighting styles of animals, are initiated from one of five basic foot positions: normal upright posture and the four stances called dragon, frog, horse riding and sake. There are hundreds of styles of Kung Fu, and armed as well as unarmed techniques have been developed.