The Kung Fu or Gung Fu Gongfu (simplified Chinese: 功夫 pinyin: Gongfu) is a martial art of Chinese origin, dating back over 2,000 years old, being a precursor to other disciplines such as Judo and Karate . The modern term 'Kung Fu' was developed with regard to contact with the Wests, who defined it as a 'Continuous Work. "
The term comes from Kung Fu Kung Chinese characters: job, position or exercise, and fu: continuous, correctly, well done, wise, total.
Thus the China Kung Fu expression can be translated as "Continuous Work."
The original name was Kung Fu 'Wu Shu' which means 'The Art of War', but was replaced by the modern term "Kung Fu" from contact with the Wests. Today the term "Kung Fu" is used to refer to traditional Chinese martial art, while the term "Wushu" refers to the System of Kung Fu Traditional Sports, which is also known as 'Kung Fu Olympic', ie a sport of high performance projection to the Olympics.
The original name was Kung Fu 'Wu Shu' which means 'The Art of War', but was replaced by the modern term "Kung Fu" from contact with the Wests. Today the term "Kung Fu" is used to refer to traditional Chinese martial art, while the term "Wushu" refers to the System of Kung Fu Traditional Sports, which is also known as 'Kung Fu Olympic', ie a sport of high performance projection to the Olympics.
The Kung Fu became very projection by two major milestones:
a) the occurrence of Bodhidharma (Da Mo)
b) the contribution of Bruce Lee.
The tradition of martial arts in China indicate that Bodhidharma, with the aim of spreading his teachings, came to Shaolin Temple (Siu Lam) located in the Songshan mountains around the V century AD The long and deep meditation sessions taught by the Buddha gave the result that the monks get lazy and weak, which is why Buddha developed a system of 18 arm exercises to strengthen the monks and keep them active, and which is known today as "The 18 Palms of Lo Han Qi Gong."
Songshan Mountain was also frequented by writers and emperors, as well as thieves and enemy troops abusing monks, humiliated and killed countless times, why Bodhidharma came to the conclusion that "doing nothing" against such injustice was so much as allowing them to destroy their own temple or "soul." Thus Bodhidharma system of 18 combined arms exercises with a defense inspired by universal laws (movement of the stars) and nature (experience of animals), developing what would later assume the name "Kung Fu Shaolin. " In the old art of kung fu there is a technique which consists in detaching the throat of the opponent directly with your hand, this is conosido Movimas as "tiger claw" does not necessarily need to loosen the throat, a simple squeeze can get seriously hurt or kill the opponent.
