Lower Providence Aikido

Kung Fu refers to a number of fighting disciplines that have been created over the centuries in China. The word itself means 'skill attained by hard work over time.' The classical, or traditional Kung Fu are those arts created before the advent of the People's Republic of China.

The martial arts of the People's Republic are called Wushu, and have been designed by physical education coaches. This for the benefit (assumed financial) of the modern nation, and they are not related, in practice or philosophy, to the original art. The term, however, can refer to a person's skill level in fields other than the martial arts.

The original fighting systems found their origins in ancient China, doubtless grown because of the need for hunting and self defense. History has it that the arts were 'codified' into fighting systems by the Yellow Emperor, Huangdi, during the Xia Dynasty over 4,000 years ago. The Yellow Emperor was a famous general who also wrote works on medicine and astrology.

The earliest notations of the newly created fighting systems are in the Spring and Autumn Annals around the 5th Century BC, where hand to hand theory is mentioned, along with the concepts of hard style v soft style arts. In the first century BC a wrestling style, Jiao Di is spoken of in the Classic of Rites, and this included pressure points, strikes, throws, and joint manipulation. At around the same time, the Han History Biographies note a distinction between the unarmed fighting systems and weapons systems.

While there have been many philosophical influences, Taoism is one of the most significant. This religious practice holds principles that directly relate to the practice of the martial arts. Taoists, right from the outset, studied physical methods (Five Animals Play-tiger, deer, monkey, bear, bird) which influenced and were absorbed by Kung Fu practitioners. Probably more significant than Taoism is the Shaolin Temple. Shaolin gave rise to an immense quantity of work on the fighting arts, including epitaphs of warrior monks, training handbooks, encyclopedias, traveling journals, novels, and even poetry. Shaolin is responsible for the creation of martial arts systems such as Eagle Claw, Five Animals, Praying Mantis, White Crane, Wing Chun. In 1949 the history of classical Kung Fu in China was brought to a halt. Specifically, the People's Republic of China hunted down and killed martial artists as enemies of the state. The thought behind this, in keeping with any communist approach to ruling people, is that the people should not have the ability to act against the state, and learning how to defend oneself is tantamount to revolution. Still, the history of Kung Fu cannot be ended. There have been efforts to resurrect the traditional Kung Fu of Shaolin, and the martial artists that fled the communist regime have brought Kung Fu to the rest of the globe. There have even been systems of Kung Fu, such as the Shaolin Butterfly, which have been developed outside of China.