Terms: Wushu, Gongfu, & Wugong

The martial arts are perhaps the most common path through which people come in contact with the Shaolin Culture (Chin.: Shàolín Wénhuà 少林文化). This is a good thing, because when people come to know about Shaolin Culture it provides the opportunity for them to understand it more fully and reap the personal benefits it may provide. People who normally would not look for a spiritual practice may be introduced to it through the authentic Shaolin martial arts, and thus have their lives changed for the better. This way a wider range of people can experience and benefit from the Shaolin Culture.

Unfortunately, many schools that appear to teach some form of Shaolin martial arts only ever go so far. This is, however, reducing Shaolin from a Buddhist monastery (Chin.: sìyuàn 寺院) to a mere martial arts school (Chin.: wǔxiào 武校). Still other schools that claim to teach a spiritual system through martial arts may not be qualified to do so. These things make the true Shaolin Culture hard to find and difficult to learn.

People come to martial arts for many different reasons, and the training offers something different to each type of person who seeks it. Shaolin martial arts, as part of authentic Shaolin Culture, offer much more than one might at first notice. Shaolin is a Buddhist monastery, and the martial arts as practiced by its monastic community (Chin.: sēngtuán 僧团) are a part of the monastery's spiritual system of Chan Buddhism (Chin.: Chánfó 禅佛).

How then do we refer to Shaolin martial arts, in particular, when speaking of them as a part of Chan?

First of all, there are many Chinese terms used to reference martial arts in general, including those of Shaolin. Among them are such terms as Wushu (Chin.: wǔshù 武术), Gongfu (Chin.: gōngfu 功夫), and Wugong (Chin.: wǔgōng 武功). We will take a look at them each in turn.

Wushu

Wushu is a very common term for the martial arts today and the characters literally translate to "martial arts". It used to reference more than a self-defense system. It included all military activities (Chin.: jūnshì huódòng 军事活动) (e.g. horsemanship, swordsmanship, archery).

However, the Chinese words and the English words carry slightly different tones. The word "martial" refers to the military and warlike activities, as does the character "wǔ" (武), but upon dissection of the character we may understand it more deeply.

The top-left of the character is another Chinese character: "yī" (一), meaning the number "one". Located at the bottom-left is another: "zhǐ" (止), which means "to stop". And lastly, at the right of the character we find: "gē" (戈) meaning "spear".

In ancient times the character "zhǐ" (止) referred to the feet. So "zhǐ" (止) with "gē" (戈) (which referred to a long handled, nondescript instrument) together meant "walking with a weapon". This is the ancient etymology of the character "wǔ" (武), meaning "martial".

However, in modern Chinese "zhǐ" (止) means "to stop", and therefore looking at the character "wǔ" (武) in this way, we get a sense of "protection" or "defense" by stopping the incoming spear. Adding the second character of Wushu, "shù" (术), which literally means "art", we get a combined meaning of roughly "the art by which one stops the spear"- a protective art as opposed to a "martial" art.

一 + 止 + 戈 = 武

One + Stop + Spear = "Defense"

Gongfu

Gongfu, or kung-fu under the Wade-Giles romanization system, is by far the most commonly used term in the West to reference the Chinese martial arts. It is often translated simply as "hard work" and, in Chinese, can refer to any sort of skill acquired through discipline. A violinist, for example, may have very good "gongfu". Once again let's dissect the characters to understand the fuller meaning of the term.

The first character "gōng" (功) is comprised of two separate characters. On the left is the character (工), also pronounced "gōng". It's meaning is "work". On the right is "lì" (力), which means "power", "force", or "strength".

Placed together they create the character "gōng" (功) with the full meaning of "accomplishment", "achievement", "merit", "skill", or "result".

The second character is "fū" (夫) which means "man", "master", or those eligible for military service (male adults). This character gives us the idea of "time", because one only becomes a man after going through the stages of infancy and adolescence into adulthood. Likewise, one can only become a master through hard work over time. As the Chinese saying goes:

"Three feet of ice does not form in a single day."
(Chin.: bīng dòng sān chǐ, fēi yī rì zhī hán 冰冻三尺非一日之寒)

Wugong

Today both terms, Wushu and Gongfu, are often used to reference any martial art that comes from China. They are so easily used to denote a mere fighting art or method of self-defense. Wushu, in the West, has also become a term to identify the modern performance art which has been pulled away from traditional martial arts by the PRC and used in sporting competition for its beauty. Gongfu has thus been used, in English (kung-fu), to point to the more traditional martial arts training methods of China.

In Chinese, Wushu and Gongfu can refer to martial arts, both modern and traditional, and are easily interchangeable. However, in any language or culture, both of these terms all too often fail to include the rich Buddhist culture that Shaolin martial arts come from. Therefore a new term has been used to do just that.

In fact, Wugong (武功) is not a new term. It is quite old as well. It's old meaning used to be "military accomplishments", as seen in the previous dissection of the characters. These military accomplishments were, for example, the number of heads cut off in battle. Of course, the meaning of Wugong in Shaolin context is worlds apart.

"Wǔ" (武) in this case carries the meaning of "warrior" (Chin.: wǔshì 武士), which in Shaolin has to do with the spirit (Chin.: jīngshén 精神) rather than physical combat (Chin.: zhàndòu 战斗). So together wǔgōng (武功) means "warrior skills". The spirit of a warrior (i.e. determination, perseverance, overcoming hardship, etc..) is developed through the practice of these warrior skills in Shaolin.

Originally, the term Gongfu was Buddhist jargon meaning "meritorious deeds", referring to a monk's daily stint (Chin.: sēng gōngfu 僧功夫). In Chan Buddhist temples each monk is given a daily chore or activity to complete. This is called his daily "gongfu". In the past, when outsiders saw Buddhist monks in Shaolin Monastery practicing martial arts as part of their gongfu, they mistakenly called it such. As a result, today the term has been diluted, especially in the English language (kung-fu), to mean only martial arts. Originally it was not so. In fact, Shaolin Gongfu is made up of two parts:

1. Investigation of Chan (e.g. study & meditation) (Chin.: Chánjiū 禅究)
2. Warrior Skills (Chin.: Wǔgōng 武功)

When we speak of Shaolin Wugong we are thus referring to all the martial arts of Shaolin and their balance, Chan Buddhism. Likewise, when speaking of Shaolin Gongfu we refer to the study and practice of the Chan sect as well as Wugong. The single term Shaolin Gongfu points to the fact that they are one and the same.

Master Shi Deyang (Chin.: Shì Déyáng 释德扬) succinctly describes the relationship between Chan and Wu by illustrating the similarity to the production of vinegar through the fermentation process of alcohol. Whereas Chan is the alcohol, Wugong is then the produced vinegar.

As the Chan Mind (Chin.: Chánxīn 禅心) is aroused one's practice of Wugong becomes a manifestation of that balanced state of equanimity and emptiness, wherein the practitioner dissolves into the practice and all returns to the original state from whence it never left.

There are 84,000 Dharma Doors (Chin.: bāwànsìqiān fǎmén 八万四千法门). This is, in a nutshell, one path of Dharma in the Shaolin Chan tradition.


In order to protect and properly identify the authentic practice of martial arts within the spiritual system of Shaolin Monastery as a method of cultivating Chan (Chin.: xiū chán 修禅), we use the term Wugong, or Wugong Chan (武功禅)- the Chan of Wugong. This means it is more than a mere martial art, it is action meditation (Chin.: dòngchán 动禅). Therefore we also make this obvious by calling the style we practice "Chan Boxing" (Chin.: Chánquán 禅拳).

"Wugong is a medium of Chan."
(Chin.: Wǔgōng shì Chán de yīzhǒng zàitǐ 武功是禅的一种载体)

"The purpose in studying Quan is to cultivate Chan."
(Chin.: Xué Quán de mùdì shì wèile xiū Chán 学拳的目的是为了修禅)

-少林禅城 Shaolin Chan City
www.ShaolinChanCity.com

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