Chinese martial arts have a long history. In ancient China, martial arts were called “martial arts” or “martial arts”, also known as “fighting skills”. Because martial arts are the essence of China, they have been called “national arts” or “national skills” for nearly a hundred years. Chinese martial arts include boxing and sticks. “Boxing is the practice of bare hands, and sticks are the use of equipment.” This article only introduces the schools of boxing.
Martial arts originated in ancient times. Legend has it that martial arts were used in wars since the Yellow Emperor period, such as “Historical Records·Music Book” said: “Chi Youshi·····fought with the Yellow Emperor.” Another example is “Liezi·The Yellow Emperor” which also recorded this aspect. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, due to the development of economy and culture at that time and the need for war, China also developed martial arts accordingly. During this historical period, Chinese martial arts produced many talents, and from the simple practice in the past, a preliminary theory was formed, such as the statement in “Zhuangzi·Swords”: “The swordsman should show the emptiness, open it with sharpness, attack after it, and arrive before it.”
In the martial arts schools, in general, Shaolin and Wudang are the two major origins of folk martial arts, and they are divided into two major schools: internal and external boxing. Internal boxing is based on internal strength (the so-called qigong now), and it emphasizes soft strength and waits for action when it is used, and then strikes first. External boxing takes hard skills such as kicking piles and hitting bags as the basis of boxing, and emphasizes hard strength and focuses on attacking when it is used, and strikes first.
Shaolin and Wudang
“Fists come from Shaolin, swords come from Wudang” is a phrase that is often mentioned. Shaolin Temple’s martial arts first became famous in the early Tang Dynasty. It is said that thirteen monks saved Qin Wang Li Shimin in a war, and then followed Li Shimin to pacify the world. Since then, Shaolin Temple has been famous for its martial arts. The characteristics of Shaolin boxing are that it emphasizes the unity of boxing and Zen, the unity of spirit and form, hard hitting and fast attack, and moving forward in unison. In fact, the martial arts of Shaolin Temple have been constantly alternating between rise and fall. During many wars, some martial arts masters entered Shaolin Temple to become monks, and they constantly communicated and learned from each other. Shaolin Temple has many types of martial arts, and folk martial arts have been constantly added and enriched. It can be said that “the world’s martial arts enter Shaolin, not the world’s kung fu from Shaolin”. In the Ming Dynasty, the famous general Yu Dayou was disappointed when he watched the martial arts of Shaolin Temple when he passed by Shaolin Temple, so he re-instructed and trained the monks of Shaolin Temple in martial arts. In recent years, it has been reorganized and promoted. At present, the martial arts are very popular near Shaolin Temple, and there are hundreds of martial arts schools.
The internal boxing is commonly known as Wudang School. It originated from Wubu Mountain in Hubei. Since the founding of the sect by Zhang Sanfeng, there have been famous people in every generation. Its exquisite Dan Gong martial arts have long been respected by the martial arts community and loved by the general public. In Wudang Mountain Taoism, the “Zhenwu Xuanwu School” is the core; then it branched out into several influential branches, such as “Longmen School”, “Natural School”, “Qingwei School”, “Qiankun Gate”, “Taiyi Gate”, “Hunyuan School”, etc. After being introduced to the people, it was divided into two major schools and several branches in the north and south. The southern school is authentic with Songxi School, the northern school is centered with Taiji Gate, and Tongbei Gate is also an important representative of the northern school. Thus, a famous sect of Chinese martial arts was formed with a rich and mysterious system. Most of the folk Tai Chi, Bagua Boxing, Xingyi Boxing and other boxing methods respect Wudang Mountain.
The difference between internal and external martial arts
It is generally believed that the earliest distinction between internal and external martial arts comes from the “Epitaph of Wang Zhengnan” written by Huang Zongxi. It says “Shaolin is famous for its boxing and bravery, but it focuses on fighting people, and people can also take advantage of it. There is a so-called internal martial art, which uses stillness to control movement, and the offender will fall down immediately, so Shaolin is distinguished as external martial art.” The external martial art refers to Shaolin boxing, and the internal martial art refers to the boxing taught by Zhang Sanfeng to Wang Zhengnan. Since it is generally believed that Zhang Sanfeng created Tai Chi, some people believe that the internal martial art referred to in the article refers to Tai Chi. However, there is currently a school of boxing in Sichuan called “internal martial art” and they believe that they are the “internal martial art” mentioned in the “Epitaph of Wang Zhengnan”.
According to the “Ningbo Prefecture Records. The Biography of Zhang Songxi says: “The internal martial arts are the correct ones, and their methods are mainly used to defend against the enemy. They will not attack unless they are in trouble. When they attack, they will defeat the enemy and leave no room for them to take advantage. Therefore, the internal martial arts are particularly good. They must attack with their acupoints.” It can be understood that the internal martial arts referred to here are mainly defensive and use acupoint pressing as a technique. I think everyone should be dizzy at this point. What exactly is internal martial arts? What is external martial arts?
According to the general saying now, “internal martial arts” focus on clever strength, use stillness to control movement, and pay attention to the training of breathing and human energy ~ Qi. The commonly seen Tai Chi, Xingyi, Baguazhang, and Crane Fist can be used as representatives. “External martial arts” focus on attack, emphasize muscle training, and emphasize strength and power. Bajiquan, Shaolin, Taizuquan, etc. are representatives.
In fact, this classification method is difficult to strictly distinguish between internal and external martial arts. For example, Mantis boxing requires the external practice of Iron Sand Palm, and the internal practice of Three-turn Nine-turn Gong Luohan Gong, also known as Three-turn Nine-turn Resurrection Gong. Because almost all Chinese Kung Fu focuses on “external training of muscles, bones and skin, internal training of breath”, emphasizing both internal and external training. In the years of martial arts exchanges, the offensive and defensive skills also focus on both offense and defense. Therefore, using internal and external to distinguish the types of martial arts is not rigorous enough and it is difficult to make a clear distinction.
Conclusion:
Maybe you don’t know how to choose from so many martial arts. In fact, you can first look at the boxing you like, whether it is a jumping martial art or a strong and powerful boxing stance; whether your time can be coordinated, if you can get up at five or six in the morning, or if it is better to have time in the evening; then talk to the teacher to see if the teacher’s teaching philosophy is acceptable, whether he is strict and rigid or likes relaxed teaching; try a few classes yourself to see if you can enjoy the situation of sweating when you are training in the basic stance of horse stance and bow stance, and feel the pleasure when you are splitting and stretching. This is necessary. The so-called practice is not hard work, and of course, if you only focus on health, you don’t need to ask so much.
Of course, you don’t need to learn martial arts to fight, cause trouble, or bully the weak, but you have to work hard to learn to protect yourself. However, since you are practicing, it is best to work hard to learn well and try to learn self-defense skills. Self-defense skills are like fire extinguishers, which are best prepared but not used. The practice of martial arts emphasizes self-examination, that is, self-observation. For example, when squatting, you should check whether your posture is correct, whether your knees are beyond your toes, whether your center of gravity is correct, and whether your shoulders are relaxed. It would be better if you have a mirror. After these inspections, check how your muscles feel from the head? Are they tense or relaxed? Then check from the head, neck, shoulders, chest, waist, hips, hands, and legs layer by layer to feel the sensations of your body. After everything is corrected, you should pay attention to your breathing, feel the air you inhale enter your nasal cavity, enter your chest cavity, and the coordination between the abdominal cavity and the pelvic cavity. This is the basic requirement when practicing the stance. In addition, when practicing routines, you can feel the contact between your body and the air, and feel the flow of air. When practicing martial arts, you should be able to discover your thoughts, the thoughts of each action, from observing the body to observing the mind. In this way, practicing martial arts will not be just a simple physical exercise, and practicing martial arts will be more interesting.
In fact, if you want to practice martial arts well, in addition to working hard, you must also enrich yourself and read more books on the history of martial arts, physiology and anatomy, Chinese medicine meridians, and philosophy related to the body, mind and spirit. This is not only needed by students, but a martial arts teacher himself must constantly absorb new knowledge to enrich himself. In addition, the cultivation of moral character is also very important. If you learn martial arts just to increase your violent temper and to show off your violence, it will not only be of no benefit to yourself, but also add a burden to your family and friends. Martial arts require both moral and technical skills. If you have the above ideas, I believe you can happily wander in the beautiful field of martial arts.