Lecture 11 Wushu and Qigong.doc

Wushu and Qigong
What’s WUSHU called in the West?
Wushu, Chinese martial arts, known in the West as Kungfu, is a traditional folk sport characterized by various bare hand and bat techniques.
The History of Wushu
In primitive society, hard living pelled the ancient people to use their stone and wooden tools as weapons to hunt and to defend fighting skills with bare hands and in using weapons formed the basis of primitive wushu.
During the Shang(-11th ) and Zhou(-) dynasties, with the development of productive forces, especially that of the techniques in bronze casting, the variety of weapons increases and their quality improved.
In the Han Dynasty(-), wushu became quite popular.
Tang Dynasty
During the Tang Dynasty, both military men and scholars were required to practice boxing style of Shaolin Temple became very popular.
Shaolin Temple
Ming and Qing Dynasties
The Ming Dynasty saw the all-round development of Chinese martial arts. Qi Jiguang wrote two better-known books: New Martial Arts and Military Training Record.
In order to keep its ruling position, the government of the Qing Dynasty once restricted wushu practice, but that could not prevent wushu from spreading among the people.
Types of Wushu
Bare-handed boxing
The wielding of weapons
Combat
Collective performances
Famous Boxing Styles
Changquan