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126-574: The Thean Hou Temple ( Chinese : 乐圣岭天后宫 /樂聖嶺天后宮) is a six-tiered temple of the Chinese sea goddess Mazu located in Kuala Lumpur , Malaysia. It is located on 1.67 acres (6,758 m) of land atop Robson Heights on Lorong Bellamy, overlooking Jalan Syed Putra . It was completed in 1987 and officially opened in 1989. The temple was built by Hainanese living in Malaysia and the property belongs to and

252-464: A nucleus that has a vowel (which can be a monophthong , diphthong , or even a triphthong in certain varieties), preceded by an onset (a single consonant , or consonant + glide ; a zero onset is also possible), and followed (optionally) by a coda consonant; a syllable also carries a tone . There are some instances where a vowel is not used as a nucleus. An example of this is in Cantonese, where

378-457: A subject–verb–object word order , and like many other languages of East Asia, makes frequent use of the topic–comment construction to form sentences. Chinese also has an extensive system of classifiers and measure words , another trait shared with neighboring languages such as Japanese and Korean. Other notable grammatical features common to all the spoken varieties of Chinese include the use of serial verb construction , pronoun dropping , and

504-505: A Chinese character is the morpheme, as characters represent the smallest grammatical units with individual meanings in the Chinese language. Estimates of the total number of Chinese words and lexicalized phrases vary greatly. The Hanyu Da Zidian , a compendium of Chinese characters, includes 54,678 head entries for characters, including oracle bone versions. The Zhonghua Zihai (1994) contains 85,568 head entries for character definitions and

630-595: A Shanghai resident may speak both Standard Chinese and Shanghainese ; if they grew up elsewhere, they are also likely fluent in the dialect of their home region. In addition to Standard Chinese, a majority of Taiwanese people also speak Taiwanese Hokkien (also called 台語 ; 'Taiwanese' ), Hakka , or an Austronesian language . A speaker in Taiwan may mix pronunciations and vocabulary from Standard Chinese and other languages of Taiwan in everyday speech. In part due to traditional cultural ties with Guangdong , Cantonese

756-455: A canteen are found on the first level. The second-level houses the multi-purpose hall while offices are located on the third level. The fourth level has three tiers and the prayer hall is located here. The prayer hall houses three altars , each altar with a large statue of one particular deity or goddess. The altar on the right is dedicated to Guan Yin , the Goddess of Mercy. Tian Hou Niang Niang

882-462: A central variety (i.e. prestige variety, such as Standard Mandarin), as the issue requires some careful handling when mutual intelligibility is inconsistent with language identity. The Chinese government's official Chinese designation for the major branches of Chinese is 方言 ; fāngyán ; 'regional speech', whereas the more closely related varieties within these are called 地点方言 ; 地點方言 ; dìdiǎn fāngyán ; 'local speech'. Because of

1008-616: A certain type of weapon. Forms are meant to be both practical, usable, and applicable as well as to promote fluid motion, meditation, flexibility, balance, and coordination. Students are encouraged to visualize an attacker while training the form. There are two general types of taolu in Chinese martial arts. Most common are solo forms performed by a single student. There are also sparring forms — choreographed fighting sets performed by two or more people. Sparring forms were designed both to acquaint beginning fighters with basic measures and concepts of combat and to serve as performance pieces for

1134-477: A collection of other large statues that include representations of the twelve animals of Chinese astrology . Activities such as the grand birthday celebrations for Goddess Tian Hou, Goddess Kuan Yin and the Goddess of the Waterfront are conducted at Thean Hou Temple. Buddhist activities include Buddhist chanting sessions and Wesak Day celebrations. Cultural activities include the annual Mid-Autumn Festival during

1260-497: A compound term it usually translates as "boxing" or "fighting technique." The name of the Japanese martial art kempō is represented by the same hanzi characters. The genesis of Chinese martial arts has been attributed to the need for self-defense , hunting techniques and military training in ancient China . Hand-to-hand combat and weapons practice were important in training ancient Chinese soldiers . Detailed knowledge about

1386-597: A compromise between the pronunciations of different regions. The royal courts of the Ming and early Qing dynasties operated using a koiné language known as Guanhua , based on the Nanjing dialect of Mandarin. Standard Chinese is an official language of both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China (Taiwan), one of the four official languages of Singapore , and one of

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1512-405: A continuous set of movements. Forms were originally intended to preserve the lineage of a particular style branch, and were often taught to advanced students selected for that purpose. Forms contained both literal, representative and exercise-oriented forms of applicable techniques that students could extract, test, and train in through sparring sessions. Today, many consider taolu to be one of

1638-700: A corresponding increase in the number of homophones . As an example, the small Langenscheidt Pocket Chinese Dictionary lists six words that are commonly pronounced as shí in Standard Chinese: In modern spoken Mandarin, however, tremendous ambiguity would result if all of these words could be used as-is. The 20th century Yuen Ren Chao poem Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den exploits this, consisting of 92 characters all pronounced shi . As such, most of these words have been replaced in speech, if not in writing, with less ambiguous disyllabic compounds. Only

1764-493: A group of Chinese martial artists demonstrated their art to an international audience for the first time. The term kuoshu (or guoshu , 國術 meaning "national art"), rather than the colloquial term gongfu was introduced by the Kuomintang in an effort to more closely associate Chinese martial arts with national pride rather than individual accomplishment. Chinese martial arts experienced rapid international dissemination with

1890-406: A measurable form of energy as discussed in traditional Chinese medicine has no basis in the scientific understanding of physics, medicine, biology or human physiology. There are many ideas regarding the control of one's qi energy to such an extent that it can be used for healing oneself or others. Some styles believe in focusing qi into a single point when attacking and aim at specific areas of

2016-564: A millennium. The Four Commanderies of Han were established in northern Korea in the 1st century BCE but disintegrated in the following centuries. Chinese Buddhism spread over East Asia between the 2nd and 5th centuries CE, and with it the study of scriptures and literature in Literary Chinese. Later, strong central governments modeled on Chinese institutions were established in Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, with Literary Chinese serving as

2142-531: A national Wushu system that included standard forms, teaching curriculum, and instructor grading was established. Wushu was introduced at both the high school and university level. The suppression of traditional teaching was relaxed during the Era of Reconstruction (1976–1989) , as Communist ideology became more accommodating to alternative viewpoints. In 1979, the State Commission for Physical Culture and Sports created

2268-609: A precursor to modern Chinese wrestling . The earliest references to Chinese martial arts are found in the Spring and Autumn Annals (5th century BC), where a hand-to-hand combat theory, one that integrates notions of "hard" and "soft" techniques, is mentioned. A combat wrestling system called juélì or jiǎolì ( 角力 ) is mentioned in the Classic of Rites . This combat system included techniques such as strikes , throws , joint manipulation , and pressure point attacks. Jiao Di became

2394-424: A prescribed range of combat and technique to drill on. These drills are often semi-compliant, meaning one student does not offer active resistance to a technique, in order to allow its demonstrative, clean execution. In more resisting drills, fewer rules apply, and students practice how to react and respond. 'Sparring' refers to a more advanced format, which simulates a combat situation while including rules that reduce

2520-538: A secure reconstruction of Proto-Sino-Tibetan, the higher-level structure of the family remains unclear. A top-level branching into Chinese and Tibeto-Burman languages is often assumed, but has not been convincingly demonstrated. The first written records appeared over 3,000 years ago during the Shang dynasty . As the language evolved over this period, the various local varieties became mutually unintelligible. In reaction, central governments have repeatedly sought to promulgate

2646-427: A sense of community and loyalty within martial arts schools and lineages. Chinese martial arts also often incorporate cultural elements such as music, costumes, and rituals, further deepening the connection to Chinese heritage and traditions. Overall, Chinese martial arts encompass not just physical techniques but a comprehensive system that encompasses philosophy, ethics, medical knowledge, and cultural appreciation. It

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2772-503: A similar way to the use of Latin and Ancient Greek roots in European languages. Many new compounds, or new meanings for old phrases, were created in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to name Western concepts and artifacts. These coinages, written in shared Chinese characters, have then been borrowed freely between languages. They have even been accepted into Chinese, a language usually resistant to loanwords, because their foreign origin

2898-678: A single language. However, their lack of mutual intelligibility means they are sometimes considered to be separate languages in a family . Investigation of the historical relationships among the varieties of Chinese is ongoing. Currently, most classifications posit 7 to 13 main regional groups based on phonetic developments from Middle Chinese , of which the most spoken by far is Mandarin with 66%, or around 800 million speakers, followed by Min (75 million, e.g. Southern Min ), Wu (74 million, e.g. Shanghainese ), and Yue (68 million, e.g. Cantonese ). These branches are unintelligible to each other, and many of their subgroups are unintelligible with

3024-631: A special task force to reevaluate the teaching and practice of Wushu. In 1986, the Chinese National Research Institute of Wushu was established as the central authority for the research and administration of Wushu activities in the People's Republic of China. Changing government policies and attitudes towards sports, in general, led to the closing of the State Sports Commission (the central sports authority) in 1998. This closure

3150-547: A sport during the Qin dynasty (221–207 BC). The Han History Bibliographies record that, by the Former Han (206 BC – 8 AD), there was a distinction between no-holds-barred weaponless fighting, which it calls shǒubó ( 手搏 ), for which training manuals had already been written, and sportive wrestling, then known as juélì ( 角力 ). Wrestling is also documented in the Shǐ Jì, Records of

3276-517: A state of deep focus. This kind of concentration helps them to stay present in their movements and techniques , enhancing their responsiveness and physical coordination. Meditation also cultivates the ability for introspection, enabling practitioners to become more keenly aware of their bodily sensations, energy flow, and inner state. Meditation is also closely related to qigong . Through the concentration and adjustments achieved through meditation, martial arts practitioners can better perceive and direct

3402-410: A successful combination of modern architectural techniques and authentic traditional design featuring imposing pillars, spectacular roofs, ornate carvings and intricate embellishments. Its grand architecture has made it as one of the tourist destination. The front entrance of the temple features a multi-arched gateway with red pillars, the colour symbolic of prosperity and good fortune. Souvenir stalls and

3528-562: A unified standard. The earliest examples of Old Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones dated to c.  1250 BCE , during the Late Shang . The next attested stage came from inscriptions on bronze artifacts dating to the Western Zhou period (1046–771 BCE), the Classic of Poetry and portions of the Book of Documents and I Ching . Scholars have attempted to reconstruct

3654-563: A variety of Yue from a small coastal area around Taishan, Guangdong . In parts of South China, the dialect of a major city may be only marginally intelligible to its neighbors. For example, Wuzhou and Taishan are located approximately 260 km (160 mi) and 190 km (120 mi) away from Guangzhou respectively, but the Yue variety spoken in Wuzhou is more similar to the Guangzhou dialect than

3780-596: Is Taishanese. Wuzhou is located directly upstream from Guangzhou on the Pearl River , whereas Taishan is to Guangzhou's southwest, with the two cities separated by several river valleys. In parts of Fujian , the speech of some neighbouring counties or villages is mutually unintelligible. Local varieties of Chinese are conventionally classified into seven dialect groups, largely based on the different evolution of Middle Chinese voiced initials: Proportions of first-language speakers The classification of Li Rong , which

3906-543: Is a popular genre that emerged in the early 20th century and peaked in popularity during the 1960s to 1980s. Wuxia films were produced from the 1920s. The Kuomintang suppressed wuxia, accusing it of promoting superstition and violent anarchy. Because of this, wuxia came to flourish in British Hong Kong , and the genre of kung fu movie in Hong Kong action cinema became wildly popular, coming to international attention from

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4032-467: Is also rumoured to be one of Jackie Chan's favourite temple in Kuala Lumpur during his visit back in 1992 while shooting his movie. (Police Story 2) Chinese language Chinese ( simplified Chinese : 汉语 ; traditional Chinese : 漢語 ; pinyin : Hànyǔ ; lit. ' Han language' or 中文 ; Zhōngwén ; 'Chinese writing') is a group of languages spoken natively by

4158-485: Is called either 华语 ; 華語 ; Huáyǔ or 汉语 ; 漢語 ; Hànyǔ ). Standard Chinese is based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin. The governments of both China and Taiwan intend for speakers of all Chinese speech varieties to use it as a common language of communication. Therefore, it is used in government agencies, in the media, and as a language of instruction in schools. Diglossia is common among Chinese speakers. For example,

4284-642: Is considered one of the earliest organized Chinese martial arts. The oldest documented evidence of Shaolin's involvement in combat dates back to a stele from 728 AD, which records two significant events: the defense of the Shaolin Monastery against bandits around 610 AD and their subsequent contribution to the defeat of Wang Shichong at the Battle of Hulao in 621 AD. However, between the 8th and 15th centuries, there are no surviving records that provide concrete proof of Shaolin's involvement in combat activities. Between

4410-460: Is encountered in a number of Chinese martial arts. Qi is variously defined as an inner energy or "life force" that is said to animate living beings; as a term for proper skeletal alignment and efficient use of musculature (sometimes also known as fa jin or jin ); or as a shorthand for concepts that the martial arts student might not yet be ready to understand in full. These meanings are not necessarily mutually exclusive. The existence of qi as

4536-498: Is impossible for a student to progress in the Chinese martial arts. A common saying concerning basic training in Chinese martial arts is as follows: 内外相合，外重手眼身法步，内修心神意氣力。 Which translates as: Train both Internal and External. External training includes the hands, the eyes, the body and stances. Internal training includes the heart, the spirit, the mind, breathing and strength. Stances (steps or 步法) are structural postures employed in Chinese martial arts training. They represent

4662-455: Is in the centre while Shui Wei Sheng Niang (the Goddess of the Waterfront) is at the left. In the middle of the hall and between the altars are two pairs of Kau Cim oracles that can be used by visitors. Despite the dedication to Tian Hou, worship of Guan Yin is a recurrent theme at the temple. In addition to her altar in the prayer hall, there is a smaller statue of Guan Yin to the right of

4788-595: Is often described as a 'monosyllabic' language. However, this is only partially correct. It is largely accurate when describing Old and Middle Chinese; in Classical Chinese, around 90% of words consist of a single character that corresponds one-to-one with a morpheme , the smallest unit of meaning in a language. In modern varieties, it usually remains the case that morphemes are monosyllabic—in contrast, English has many multi-syllable morphemes, both bound and free , such as 'seven', 'elephant', 'para-' and '-able'. Some of

4914-445: Is only about an eighth as many as English. All varieties of spoken Chinese use tones to distinguish words. A few dialects of north China may have as few as three tones, while some dialects in south China have up to 6 or 12 tones, depending on how one counts. One exception from this is Shanghainese which has reduced the set of tones to a two-toned pitch accent system much like modern Japanese. A very common example used to illustrate

5040-566: Is run by the Selangor and Federal Territory Hainan Association ( Malay :   Hainan Selangor dan Wilayah Persekutuan ; Chinese:   雪隆海南会馆 /雪隆海南會館). It is one of the largest temples in Southeast Asia . The Thean Hou Temple was constructed from 1981 and completed in 1987 at a cost of approximately RM 7 million. The following are some of the Hainanese people that contributed to the success in

5166-668: Is specifically meant. However, when one of the above words forms part of a compound, the disambiguating syllable is generally dropped and the resulting word is still disyllabic. For example, 石 ; shí alone, and not 石头 ; 石頭 ; shítou , appears in compounds as meaning 'stone' such as 石膏 ; shígāo ; 'plaster', 石灰 ; shíhuī ; 'lime', 石窟 ; shíkū ; 'grotto', 石英 ; 'quartz', and 石油 ; shíyóu ; 'petroleum'. Although many single-syllable morphemes ( 字 ; zì ) can stand alone as individual words, they more often than not form multi-syllable compounds known as 词 ; 詞 ; cí , which more closely resembles

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5292-484: Is the largest reference work based purely on character and its literary variants. The CC-CEDICT project (2010) contains 97,404 contemporary entries including idioms, technology terms, and names of political figures, businesses, and products. The 2009 version of the Webster's Digital Chinese Dictionary (WDCD), based on CC-CEDICT, contains over 84,000 entries. The most comprehensive pure linguistic Chinese-language dictionary,

5418-724: Is this holistic approach that distinguishes Chinese martial arts as not just a means of self-defense but as a way of life, promoting personal growth, cultural understanding, and the pursuit of harmony and excellence. The Basics ( 基本功 ) are a vital part of any martial training, as a student cannot progress to the more advanced stages without them. Basics are usually made up of rudimentary techniques, conditioning exercises , including stances . Basic training may involve simple movements that are performed repeatedly; other examples of basic training are stretching, meditation, striking , throwing , or jumping. Without strong and flexible muscles, management of qi or breath, and proper body mechanics, it

5544-483: Is to consider the weapon as an extension of the body. It has the same requirements for footwork and body coordination as the basics. The process of weapon training proceeds with forms, forms with partners and then applications. Most systems have training methods for each of the Eighteen Arms of Wushu ( 十八般兵器 ; shíbābānbīngqì ) in addition to specialized instruments specific to the system. Application refers to

5670-445: Is used as an everyday language in Hong Kong and Macau . The designation of various Chinese branches remains controversial. Some linguists and most ordinary Chinese people consider all the spoken varieties as one single language, as speakers share a common national identity and a common written form. Others instead argue that it is inappropriate to refer to major branches of Chinese such as Mandarin, Wu, and so on as "dialects" because

5796-497: Is used in education, media, formal speech, and everyday life—though Mandarin is increasingly taught in schools due to the mainland's growing influence. Historically, the Chinese language has spread to its neighbors through a variety of means. Northern Vietnam was incorporated into the Han dynasty (202 BCE – 220 CE) in 111 BCE, marking the beginning of a period of Chinese control that ran almost continuously for

5922-540: Is used in the Language Atlas of China (1987), distinguishes three further groups: Some varieties remain unclassified, including the Danzhou dialect on Hainan , Waxianghua spoken in western Hunan , and Shaozhou Tuhua spoken in northern Guangdong . Standard Chinese is the standard language of China (where it is called 普通话 ; pǔtōnghuà ) and Taiwan, and one of the four official languages of Singapore (where it

6048-428: Is very complex, with a large number of consonants and vowels, but they are probably not all distinguished in any single dialect. Most linguists now believe it represents a diasystem encompassing 6th-century northern and southern standards for reading the classics. The complex relationship between spoken and written Chinese is an example of diglossia : as spoken, Chinese varieties have evolved at different rates, while

6174-476: Is viewed as an attempt to partially de-politicize organized sports and move Chinese sport policies towards a more market-driven approach. As a result of these changing sociological factors within China, both traditional styles and modern Wushu approaches are being promoted by the Chinese government. Chinese martial arts are an integral element of 20th-century Chinese popular culture. Wuxia or "martial arts fiction"

6300-684: The Qieyun rime dictionary (601 CE), and a late period in the 10th century, reflected by rhyme tables such as the Yunjing constructed by ancient Chinese philologists as a guide to the Qieyun system. These works define phonological categories but with little hint of what sounds they represent. Linguists have identified these sounds by comparing the categories with pronunciations in modern varieties of Chinese , borrowed Chinese words in Japanese, Vietnamese, and Korean, and transcription evidence. The resulting system

6426-422: The Chinese terms kung fu and wushu ( listen (Mandarin) ; Cantonese Yale : móuh seuht ) have distinct meanings. The Chinese equivalent of the term "Chinese martial arts" would be Zhongguo wushu (Chinese: 中國武術 ; pinyin: zhōngguó wǔshù ) ( Mandarin ). In Chinese, the term kung fu refers to any skill that is acquired through learning or practice. It is a compound word composed of

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6552-557: The Han Shu (history of the Former Han dynasty ) written by Ban Gu . Also, the noted physician, Hua Tuo , composed the "Five Animals Play"—tiger, deer, monkey, bear, and bird, around 208 AD. Taoist philosophy and their approach to health and exercise have influenced the Chinese martial arts to a certain extent. Direct reference to Taoist concepts can be found in such styles as the " Eight Immortals ," which uses fighting techniques attributed to

6678-525: The Korean , Japanese and Vietnamese languages, and today comprise over half of their vocabularies. This massive influx led to changes in the phonological structure of the languages, contributing to the development of moraic structure in Japanese and the disruption of vowel harmony in Korean. Borrowed Chinese morphemes have been used extensively in all these languages to coin compound words for new concepts, in

6804-680: The May Fourth Movement beginning in 1919. After the fall of the Northern Song dynasty and subsequent reign of the Jurchen Jin and Mongol Yuan dynasties in northern China, a common speech (now called Old Mandarin ) developed based on the dialects of the North China Plain around the capital. The 1324 Zhongyuan Yinyun was a dictionary that codified the rhyming conventions of new sanqu verse form in this language. Together with

6930-628: The Ming period 's Yijin Jing or "Muscle Change Classic", a text written in 1624 attributed to Bodhidharma. References of martial arts practice in Shaolin appear in various literary genres of the late Ming: the epitaphs of Shaolin warrior monks, martial-arts manuals, military encyclopedias, historical writings, travelogues, fiction, and poetry. However, these sources do not point out any specific style that originated in Shaolin. These sources, in contrast to those from

7056-579: The National Language Unification Commission finally settled on the Beijing dialect in 1932. The People's Republic founded in 1949 retained this standard but renamed it 普通话 ; 普通話 ; pǔtōnghuà ; 'common speech'. The national language is now used in education, the media, and formal situations in both mainland China and Taiwan. In Hong Kong and Macau , Cantonese is the dominant spoken language due to cultural influence from Guangdong immigrants and colonial-era policies, and

7182-412: The bow stance are examples of stances found in many styles of Chinese martial arts. In many Chinese martial arts, meditation is considered to be an important component of basic training. Meditation can be used to develop focus, mental clarity and can act as a basis for qigong training. Through meditation , martial arts practitioners learn to regulate their breath, relax their bodies, and enter

7308-473: The oracle bone inscriptions created during the Shang dynasty c.  1250 BCE . The phonetic categories of Old Chinese can be reconstructed from the rhymes of ancient poetry. During the Northern and Southern period , Middle Chinese went through several sound changes and split into several varieties following prolonged geographic and political separation. The Qieyun , a rime dictionary , recorded

7434-591: The phonology of Old Chinese by comparing later varieties of Chinese with the rhyming practice of the Classic of Poetry and the phonetic elements found in the majority of Chinese characters. Although many of the finer details remain unclear, most scholars agree that Old Chinese differs from Middle Chinese in lacking retroflex and palatal obstruents but having initial consonant clusters of some sort, and in having voiceless nasals and liquids. Most recent reconstructions also describe an atonal language with consonant clusters at

7560-473: The practical use of combative techniques. Chinese martial arts techniques are ideally based on efficiency and effectiveness. Application includes non-compliant drills, such as Pushing Hands in many internal martial arts, and sparring , which occurs within a variety of contact levels and rule sets. When and how applications are taught varies from style to style. Today, many styles begin to teach new students by focusing on exercises in which each student knows

7686-829: The 12-volume Hanyu Da Cidian , records more than 23,000 head Chinese characters and gives over 370,000 definitions. The 1999 revised Cihai , a multi-volume encyclopedic dictionary reference work, gives 122,836 vocabulary entry definitions under 19,485 Chinese characters, including proper names, phrases, and common zoological, geographical, sociological, scientific, and technical terms. The 2016 edition of Xiandai Hanyu Cidian , an authoritative one-volume dictionary on modern standard Chinese language as used in mainland China, has 13,000 head characters and defines 70,000 words. Chinese martial arts Kung fu and wushu are loanwords from Cantonese and Mandarin respectively that, in English, are used to refer to Chinese martial arts. However,

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7812-399: The 16th and 17th centuries, at least forty sources exist to provide evidence both that monks of Shaolin practiced martial arts, and that martial practice became an integral element of Shaolin monastic life. The earliest appearance of the frequently cited legend concerning Bodhidharma's supposed foundation of Shaolin kung fu dates to this period. The origin of this legend has been traced to

7938-406: The 1970s. The genre underwent a drastic decline in the late 1990s as the Hong Kong film industry was crushed by economic depression. In the wake of Ang Lee 's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), there has been somewhat of a revival of Chinese-produced wuxia films aimed at an international audience, including Zhang Yimou 's Hero (2002), House of Flying Daggers (2004) and Curse of

8064-705: The Golden Flower (2006), as well as Su Chao-pin and John Woo 's Reign of Assassins (2010). China boasts a rich history of martial arts traditions encompassing numerous styles, totaling in the hundreds. Over the course of the past two millennia , a multitude of distinct styles have been developed, each with its own unique techniques and philosophies. These styles are often categorized into "families" (家; jiā), "schools" (派; pai), or "sects" (門; men). While each style possesses its own characteristics, there are also common themes that thread through different styles. Some styles draw inspiration from animal movements, replicating

8190-549: The Grand Historian , written by Sima Qian (ca. 100 BC). In the Tang dynasty , descriptions of sword dances were immortalized in poems by Li Bai . In the Song and Yuan dynasties , xiangpu(相扑) contests were sponsored by the imperial courts. The modern concepts of wushu were fully developed by the Ming and Qing dynasties. The ideas associated with Chinese martial arts changed with

8316-555: The Latin-based Vietnamese alphabet . English words of Chinese origin include tea from Hokkien 茶 ( tê ), dim sum from Cantonese 點心 ( dim2 sam1 ), and kumquat from Cantonese 金橘 ( gam1 gwat1 ). The sinologist Jerry Norman has estimated that there are hundreds of mutually unintelligible varieties of Chinese. These varieties form a dialect continuum , in which differences in speech generally become more pronounced as distances increase, though

8442-642: The National Government in 1928 and the Jing Wu Athletic Association (精武體育會) founded by Huo Yuanjia in 1910 are examples of organizations that promoted a systematic approach for training in Chinese martial arts. A series of provincial and national competitions were organized by the Republican government starting in 1932 to promote Chinese martial arts. In 1936, at the 11th Olympic Games in Berlin,

8568-466: The Tang period, refer to Shaolin methods of armed combat. These include a skill for which Shaolin monks became famous: the staff ( gùn , Cantonese gwan ). The Ming general Qi Jiguang included a description of Shaolin kung fu and staff techniques in his book, Jixiao Xinshu , which can translate as New Book Recording Effective Techniques . When this book spread across East Asia, it had a great influence on

8694-457: The [6th century BC] by Sun Tzu ( simplified Chinese : 孙子 ; traditional Chinese : 孫子 ; pinyin : Sūnzǐ ), deals directly with military warfare but contains ideas that are used in the Chinese martial arts. Taoist practitioners have been practicing daoyin (physical exercises similar to qigong that was one of the progenitors to tai chi ) from as early as 500 BC. In 39–92 AD, "Six Chapters of Hand Fighting", were included in

8820-702: The absence of either one would render the practitioner's skills unbalanced or deficient, as yin and yang alone are each only half of a whole. If such differences did once exist, they have since been blurred. Chinese martial arts training consists of the following components: basics, forms, applications and weapons; different styles place varying emphasis on each component. In addition, philosophy, ethics and even medical practice are highly regarded by most Chinese martial arts. A complete training system should also provide insight into Chinese attitudes and culture. Moreover, many Chinese martial arts styles integrate traditional medical practices into their training. This includes

8946-654: The agility and power of creatures such as tigers, snakes, or monkeys. Others derive their inspiration from Chinese philosophies, myths, and legends, incorporating their principles and symbolism into their techniques. Certain styles place significant emphasis on harnessing and manipulating qi , while others prioritize competitive aspects, focusing on sparring and tournaments. Chinese martial arts can be split into various categories to differentiate them: For example, "external" ( 外家拳 ) and " internal " ( 內家拳 ). Chinese martial arts can also be categorized by location, as in "northern" and "southern" as well, referring to what part of China

9072-457: The chance of serious injury. Competitive sparring disciplines include Chinese kickboxing Sǎnshǒu ( 散手 ) and Chinese folk wrestling Shuāijiāo ( 摔跤 ), which were traditionally contested on a raised platform arena, or Lèitái ( 擂台 ). Lèitái were used in public challenge matches first appeared in the Song dynasty . The objective for those contests was to knock the opponent from a raised platform by any means necessary. San Shou represents

9198-466: The characteristics of each immortal. In 495 AD, the first Shaolin temple was constructed on Song Mountain in Henan province. The initial Buddhist monk who propagated Buddhism there was an Indian monk named Buddhabhadra, known as Batuo in Chinese. Historical records suggest that Batuo's first Chinese disciples, Huiguang and Sengchou, possessed exceptional martial skills. For instance, Sengchou's proficiency with

9324-482: The classic texts of Confucianism , Zhou Li ( 周禮 ), Archery and charioteering were part of the "six arts" (simplified Chinese: 六艺 ; traditional Chinese: 六藝 ; pinyin: Liù yì , including rites , music , calligraphy and mathematics ) of the Zhou dynasty (1122–256 BC). The Art of War ( simplified Chinese : 孙子兵法 ; traditional Chinese : 孫子兵法 ; pinyin : Sūnzǐ bīngfǎ ), written during

9450-553: The completion of the Thean Hou Temple: Robert Chow (Architect), Lim Meng Swee (Structural Engineer), Goh T.K (M&E Engineer), Loong Yoke Phin (President), Heng Fook Kum, Wing Hong How, Tan Koon Swan, Tan Loon Swan, Foo Siang Foh, Loong Yeh May and to all Hainanese that donated money by purchasing part of the building i.e. columns and beams. The installation dates of the Goddesses and Bodhisattva as follows: The temple

9576-473: The development of martial arts in regions such as Okinawa and Korea. Most fighting styles that are being practiced as traditional Chinese martial arts today reached their popularity within the 20th century. Some of these include Baguazhang , Drunken Boxing , Eagle Claw , Five Animals , Xingyi , Hung Gar , Monkey , Bak Mei Pai , Northern Praying Mantis , Southern Praying Mantis , Fujian White Crane , Jow Ga , Wing Chun and tai chi . The increase in

9702-399: The different spoken dialects varies, but in general, there has been a tendency to a reduction in sounds from Middle Chinese. The Mandarin dialects in particular have experienced a dramatic decrease in sounds and so have far more polysyllabic words than most other spoken varieties. The total number of syllables in some varieties is therefore only about a thousand, including tonal variation, which

9828-484: The difficulties involved in determining the difference between language and dialect, other terms have been proposed. These include topolect , lect , vernacular , regional , and variety . Syllables in the Chinese languages have some unique characteristics. They are tightly related to the morphology and also to the characters of the writing system, and phonologically they are structured according to fixed rules. The structure of each syllable consists of

9954-480: The eighth lunar month and the Chinese New Year celebration. In 2019, the temple was allocated RM30,000 by the federal government to encourage them to hold more cultural events. The temple also offers fortune-telling and marriage registration services and traditional Chinese exercise and martial arts activities such as qigong , tai chi and wushu classes are conducted at the temple compound. This temple

10080-529: The end of the Chinese Civil War and the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1, 1949. Many well known martial artists chose to escape from the PRC's rule and migrate to Taiwan , Hong Kong , and other parts of the world. Those masters started to teach within the overseas Chinese communities but eventually they expanded their teachings to include people from other ethnic groups. Within China,

10206-566: The end of the syllable, developing into tone distinctions in Middle Chinese. Several derivational affixes have also been identified, but the language lacks inflection , and indicated grammatical relationships using word order and grammatical particles . Middle Chinese was the language used during Northern and Southern dynasties and the Sui , Tang , and Song dynasties (6th–10th centuries CE). It can be divided into an early period, reflected by

10332-594: The ethnic Han Chinese majority and many minority ethnic groups in China , as well as by various communities of the Chinese diaspora . Approximately 1.35 billion people, or 17% of the global population, speak a variety of Chinese as their first language . Chinese languages form the Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. The spoken varieties of Chinese are usually considered by native speakers to be dialects of

10458-474: The evolution of Chinese society and over time acquired some philosophical bases: Passages in the Zhuangzi ( 莊子 ), a Taoist text, pertain to the psychology and practice of martial arts. Zhuangzi , its eponymous author, is believed to have lived in the [4th century BC]. The Tao Te Ching , often credited to Laozi , is another Taoist text that contains principles applicable to martial arts. According to one of

10584-413: The first one, 十 , normally appears in monosyllabic form in spoken Mandarin; the rest are normally used in the polysyllabic forms of respectively. In each, the homophone was disambiguated by the addition of another morpheme, typically either a near-synonym or some sort of generic word (e.g. 'head', 'thing'), the purpose of which is to indicate which of the possible meanings of the other, homophonic syllable

10710-668: The foreign powers. The failure of the rebellion led ten years later to the fall of the Qing dynasty and the creation of the Chinese Republic . The present view of Chinese martial arts is strongly influenced by the events of the Republican period (1912–1949). In the transition period between the fall of the Qing dynasty as well as the turmoil of the Japanese invasion and the Chinese Civil War, Chinese martial arts became more accessible to

10836-491: The form of a word), to indicate a word's function within a sentence. In other words, Chinese has very few grammatical inflections —it possesses no tenses , no voices , no grammatical number , and only a few articles . They make heavy use of grammatical particles to indicate aspect and mood . In Mandarin, this involves the use of particles such as 了 ; le ; ' PFV ', 还 ; 還 ; hái ; 'still', and 已经 ; 已經 ; yǐjīng ; 'already'. Chinese has

10962-471: The foundation and the form of a fighter's base. Each style has different names and variations for each stance. Stances may be differentiated by foot position, weight distribution, body alignment, etc. Stance training can be practiced statically, the goal of which is to maintain the structure of the stance through a set time period, or dynamically, in which case a series of movements is performed repeatedly. The Horse stance ( 騎馬步/馬步 ; qí mǎ bù / mǎ bù ) and

11088-548: The general public as many martial artists were encouraged to openly teach their art. At that time, some considered martial arts as a means to promote national pride and build a strong nation. As a result, many training manuals (拳譜) were published, a training academy was created, two national examinations were organized and demonstration teams traveled overseas. Numerous martial arts associations were formed throughout China and in various overseas Chinese communities. The Central Guoshu Academy (Zhongyang Guoshuguan, 中央國術館) established by

11214-550: The government of the People's Republic of China, with Singapore officially adopting them in 1976. Traditional characters are used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, and among Chinese-speaking communities overseas . Linguists classify all varieties of Chinese as part of the Sino-Tibetan language family , together with Burmese , Tibetan and many other languages spoken in the Himalayas and the Southeast Asian Massif . Although

11340-414: The hall, set amongst rocks and falling water. Here one can kneel and receive a blessing of water from the statue. Outside the temple at the entrance to the grounds, there is a larger statue, similarly set amongst rocks and falling water. Other features include a Chinese Medicinal Herbs Garden, a Wishing Well as well as a Tortoise Pond. There is also a large statue of the goddess opposite the temple, along with

11466-461: The human body. Such techniques are known as dim mak and have principles that are similar to acupressure . Most Chinese styles also make use of training in the broad arsenal of Chinese weapons for conditioning the body as well as coordination and strategy drills. Weapons training ( 器械 ; qìxiè ) is generally carried out after the student becomes proficient with the basic forms and applications training. The basic theory for weapons training

11592-517: The internal energy (known as " qi " in qigong ). They learn to manipulate the flow of qi through deep breathing and visualization exercises to promote bodily balance, harmony , and health. Therefore, meditation, as a part of foundational training, offers Chinese martial arts practitioners a comprehensive approach to cultivating both the internal and external aspects. It assists them in developing various aspects of their body, energy, and mind, thereby enhancing their technical skills. The concept of qi

11718-581: The language of administration and scholarship, a position it would retain until the late 19th century in Korea and (to a lesser extent) Japan, and the early 20th century in Vietnam. Scholars from different lands could communicate, albeit only in writing, using Literary Chinese. Although they used Chinese solely for written communication, each country had its own tradition of reading texts aloud using what are known as Sino-Xenic pronunciations . Chinese words with these pronunciations were also extensively imported into

11844-516: The late 19th century. Today Japanese is written with a composite script using both Chinese characters called kanji , and kana. Korean is written exclusively with hangul in North Korea, although knowledge of the supplementary Chinese characters called hanja is still required, and hanja are increasingly rarely used in South Korea. As a result of its historical colonization by France, Vietnamese now uses

11970-552: The modern development of Lei Tai contests, but with rules in place to reduce the chance of serious injury. Many Chinese martial art schools teach or work within the rule sets of Sanshou, working to incorporate the movements, characteristics, and theory of their style. Chinese martial artists also compete in non-Chinese or mixed Combat sport , including boxing, kickboxing and Mixed martial arts . Forms or taolu (Chinese: 套路 ; pinyin: tàolù ) in Chinese are series of predetermined movements combined so they can be practiced as

12096-455: The more conservative modern varieties, usually found in the south, have largely monosyllabic words , especially with basic vocabulary. However, most nouns, adjectives, and verbs in modern Mandarin are disyllabic. A significant cause of this is phonetic erosion : sound changes over time have steadily reduced the number of possible syllables in the language's inventory. In modern Mandarin, there are only around 1,200 possible syllables, including

12222-457: The most important practices in Chinese martial arts. Traditionally, they played a smaller role in training for combat application and took a back seat to sparring, drilling, and conditioning. Forms gradually build up a practitioner's flexibility, internal and external strength, speed and stamina, and they teach balance and coordination. Many styles contain forms that use weapons of various lengths and types, using one or two hands. Some styles focus on

12348-425: The mutual unintelligibility between them is too great. However, calling major Chinese branches "languages" would also be wrong under the same criterion, since a branch such as Wu, itself contains many mutually unintelligible varieties, and could not be properly called a single language. There are also viewpoints pointing out that linguists often ignore mutual intelligibility when varieties share intelligibility with

12474-446: The name for the modern sport of wushu , an exhibition and full-contact sport of bare-handed and weapon forms ( 套路 ), adapted and judged to a set of aesthetic criteria for points developed since 1949 in the People's Republic of China . Quánfǎ ( 拳法 ) is another Chinese term for Chinese martial arts. It means "fist method" or "the law of the fist" ( quán means "boxing" or "fist", and fǎ means "law", "way" or "method"), although as

12600-583: The nasal sonorant consonants /m/ and /ŋ/ can stand alone as their own syllable. In Mandarin much more than in other spoken varieties, most syllables tend to be open syllables, meaning they have no coda (assuming that a final glide is not analyzed as a coda), but syllables that do have codas are restricted to nasals /m/ , /n/ , /ŋ/ , the retroflex approximant /ɻ/ , and voiceless stops /p/ , /t/ , /k/ , or /ʔ/ . Some varieties allow most of these codas, whereas others, such as Standard Chinese, are limited to only /n/ , /ŋ/ , and /ɻ/ . The number of sounds in

12726-406: The northern styles include changquan and xingyiquan . Examples of the southern styles include Bak Mei , Wuzuquan , Choy Li Fut , and Wing Chun . Chinese martial arts can also be divided according to religion, imitative-styles ( 象形拳 ), and family styles such as Hung Gar ( 洪家 ). There are distinctive differences in the training between different groups of the Chinese martial arts regardless of

12852-538: The other varieties within the same branch (e.g. Southern Min). There are, however, transitional areas where varieties from different branches share enough features for some limited intelligibility, including New Xiang with Southwestern Mandarin , Xuanzhou Wu Chinese with Lower Yangtze Mandarin , Jin with Central Plains Mandarin and certain divergent dialects of Hakka with Gan . All varieties of Chinese are tonal at least to some degree, and are largely analytic . The earliest attested written Chinese consists of

12978-587: The popularity of those styles is a result of the dramatic changes occurring within the Chinese society. In 1900–01, the Righteous and Harmonious Fists rose against foreign occupiers and Christian missionaries in China. This uprising is known in the West as the Boxer Rebellion due to the martial arts and calisthenics practiced by the rebels. Empress Dowager Cixi gained control of the rebellion and tried to use it against

13104-546: The practice of traditional martial arts was discouraged during the turbulent years of the Chinese Cultural Revolution (1969–1976). Like many other aspects of traditional Chinese life, martial arts were subjected to a radical transformation by the People's Republic of China to align them with Maoist revolutionary doctrine. The PRC promoted the committee-regulated sport of Wushu as a replacement for independent schools of martial arts. This new competition sport

13230-404: The rate of change varies immensely. Generally, mountainous South China exhibits more linguistic diversity than the North China Plain . Until the late 20th century, Chinese emigrants to Southeast Asia and North America came from southeast coastal areas, where Min, Hakka, and Yue dialects were spoken. Specifically, most Chinese immigrants to North America until the mid-20th century spoke Taishanese ,

13356-552: The related subject dropping . Although the grammars of the spoken varieties share many traits, they do possess differences. The entire Chinese character corpus since antiquity comprises well over 50,000 characters, of which only roughly 10,000 are in use and only about 3,000 are frequently used in Chinese media and newspapers. However, Chinese characters should not be confused with Chinese words. Because most Chinese words are made up of two or more characters, there are many more Chinese words than characters. A more accurate equivalent for

13482-509: The relationship was first proposed in the early 19th century and is now broadly accepted, reconstruction of Sino-Tibetan is much less developed than that of families such as Indo-European or Austroasiatic . Difficulties have included the great diversity of the languages, the lack of inflection in many of them, and the effects of language contact. In addition, many of the smaller languages are spoken in mountainous areas that are difficult to reach and are often also sensitive border zones. Without

13608-471: The school. Weapons-based sparring forms are especially useful for teaching students the extension, range, and technique required to manage a weapon. The term taolu (套路) is a shortened version of Tao Lu Yun Dong (套路運動) , an expression introduced only recently with the popularity of modern wushu. This expression refers to "exercise sets" and used in the context of athletics or sport. In contrast, in traditional Chinese martial arts alternative terminologies for

13734-481: The semi-mythical Xia dynasty over 4,000 years ago. It is said that the Yellow Emperor (Huangdi), who ascended to power in 2698 BC, introduced the earliest fighting systems to China. The Emperor is renowned as a great general who, prior to becoming China's leader, authored extensive treatises on medicine, astrology, and the martial arts. One of his primary adversaries was Chi You, credited as the progenitor of jiao di,

13860-505: The six official languages of the United Nations . Standard Chinese is based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin and was first officially adopted in the 1930s. The language is written primarily using a logography of Chinese characters , largely shared by readers who may otherwise speak mutually unintelligible varieties. Since the 1950s, the use of simplified characters has been promoted by

13986-511: The slightly later Menggu Ziyun , this dictionary describes a language with many of the features characteristic of modern Mandarin dialects. Up to the early 20th century, most Chinese people only spoke their local variety. Thus, as a practical measure, officials of the Ming and Qing dynasties carried out the administration of the empire using a common language based on Mandarin varieties , known as 官话 ; 官話 ; Guānhuà ; 'language of officials'. For most of this period, this language

14112-591: The state and development of Chinese martial arts became available from the Nanjing decade (1928–1937), as the Central Guoshu Institute established by the Kuomintang regime made an effort to compile an encyclopedic survey of martial arts schools. Since the 1950s, the People's Republic of China has organized Chinese martial arts as an exhibition and full-contact sport under the heading of "wushu" . According to legend, Chinese martial arts originated before

14238-520: The styles originated from, separated by the Yangtze River ; Chinese martial arts may even be classified according to their province or city. The main perceived difference between northern and southern styles is that the northern styles tend to emphasize fast and powerful kicks, high jumps and generally fluid and rapid movement, while the southern styles focus more on strong arm and hand techniques, and stable, immovable stances and fast footwork. Examples of

14364-520: The tin staff is documented in the Chinese Buddhist canon. Following Buddhabhadra , another Indian monk named Bodhidharma, also known as Damo in Chinese, arrived at Shaolin in 527 AD. His Chinese disciple, Huike, was likewise a highly skilled martial artist. There are indications that these first three Chinese Shaolin monks—Huiguang, Sengchou, and Huike—may have had a military background prior to embracing monastic life . The Shaolin style of kung fu

14490-559: The tonal distinctions, compared with about 5,000 in Vietnamese (still a largely monosyllabic language), and over 8,000 in English. Most modern varieties tend to form new words through polysyllabic compounds . In some cases, monosyllabic words have become disyllabic formed from different characters without the use of compounding, as in 窟窿 ; kūlong from 孔 ; kǒng ; this is especially common in Jin varieties. This phonological collapse has led to

14616-547: The traditional Western notion of a word. A Chinese cí can consist of more than one character–morpheme, usually two, but there can be three or more. Examples of Chinese words of more than two syllables include 汉堡包 ; 漢堡包 ; hànbǎobāo ; 'hamburger', 守门员 ; 守門員 ; shǒuményuán ; 'goalkeeper', and 电子邮件 ; 電子郵件 ; diànzǐyóujiàn ; 'e-mail'. All varieties of modern Chinese are analytic languages : they depend on syntax (word order and sentence structure), rather than inflectional morphology (changes in

14742-467: The type of classification. However, few experienced martial artists make a clear distinction between internal and external styles, or subscribe to the idea of northern systems being predominantly kick-based and southern systems relying more heavily on upper-body techniques. Most styles contain both hard and soft elements, regardless of their internal nomenclature. Analyzing the difference in accordance with yin and yang principles, philosophers would assert that

14868-496: The understanding of meridians, pressure points, and herbal remedies , as well as exercises that promote health, vitality , and longevity. The holistic approach to training seeks to cultivate both internal and external strength, promoting overall well-being and balance. Furthermore, Chinese martial arts serve as a vessel for preserving and transmitting cultural values and attitudes. Respect for teachers, dedication, discipline, and perseverance are instilled in practitioners, fostering

14994-512: The use of tones in Chinese is the application of the four tones of Standard Chinese, along with the neutral tone, to the syllable ma . The tones are exemplified by the following five Chinese words: In contrast, Standard Cantonese has six tones. Historically, finals that end in a stop consonant were considered to be " checked tones " and thus counted separately for a total of nine tones. However, they are considered to be duplicates in modern linguistics and are no longer counted as such: Chinese

15120-452: The words in newspapers, and 60% of the words in science magazines. Vietnam, Korea, and Japan each developed writing systems for their own languages, initially based on Chinese characters , but later replaced with the hangul alphabet for Korean and supplemented with kana syllabaries for Japanese, while Vietnamese continued to be written with the complex chữ Nôm script. However, these were limited to popular literature until

15246-419: The words 功 (gōng) meaning "work", "achievement", or "merit", and 夫 (fū) which is a particle or nominal suffix with diverse meanings. Wushu literally means " martial art ". It is formed from the two Chinese characters 武術 : 武 ( wǔ ), meaning " martial " or " military " and 術 or 术 ( shù ), which translates into " art ", " discipline ", " skill " or " method ". The term wushu has also become

15372-508: The written language used throughout China changed comparatively little, crystallizing into a prestige form known as Classical or Literary Chinese . Literature written distinctly in the Classical form began to emerge during the Spring and Autumn period . Its use in writing remained nearly universal until the late 19th century, culminating with the widespread adoption of written vernacular Chinese with

15498-453: Was a koiné based on dialects spoken in the Nanjing area, though not identical to any single dialect. By the middle of the 19th century, the Beijing dialect had become dominant and was essential for any business with the imperial court. In the 1930s, a standard national language ( 国语 ; 國語 ; Guóyǔ ), was adopted. After much dispute between proponents of northern and southern dialects and an abortive attempt at an artificial pronunciation,

15624-492: Was disassociated from what was seen as the potentially subversive self-defense aspects and family lineages of Chinese martial arts. In 1958, the government established the All-China Wushu Association as an umbrella organization to regulate martial arts training. The Chinese State Commission for Physical Culture and Sports took the lead in creating standardized forms for most of the major arts. During this period,

15750-481: Was hidden by their written form. Often different compounds for the same concept were in circulation for some time before a winner emerged, and sometimes the final choice differed between countries. The proportion of vocabulary of Chinese origin thus tends to be greater in technical, abstract, or formal language. For example, in Japan, Sino-Japanese words account for about 35% of the words in entertainment magazines, over half

15876-517: Was officially opened on 3 September 1989. Guan Yin was first given the appellation of " Goddess of Mercy " or the Mercy Goddess by Jesuit missionaries or The Society of Jesus in China. In Buddhist scriptures , Guan Yin is recognized as Avalokitesvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion . This syncretic temple with elements of Buddhism , Confucianism and Taoism is a grandiose structure and represents

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