The jiàn 劍 or double-edged straight sword appeared in China two thousand seven hundred years ago. However, over time its use would be abandoned on the battlefield and became a symbolic and ritual weapon, which would end up being associated with scholarship and the upper class.
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Because of the way it conditions the practice and learning of martial arts, we believe that approach is at least as important as the method itself. We should stimulate reflection on certain aspects of Kung Fu training and teaching today, to encourage a healthy attitude towards practice.
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Today, Chinese martial arts are often divided between external styles (外家 wàijiā) and internal styles (內家 nèijiā). However, this division is not accepted by all practitioners and, if we contemplate how these concepts originated, we can realize that the classification has little practical basis.
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Yáng Lùchán 楊露禪 was a master of Tàijíquán 太極拳 and one of the greatest martial artists of his time. He is considered the founder of the Yáng style of Tàijíquán 楊氏太極拳 and was an essential figure in the popularization of this martial art.
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In 1973 a collection of manuscripts written mostly on silk dealing with a wide variety of subjects was unearthed in Mǎwángduī 馬王堆. Among them, in addition to a series of medical texts, the Dǎoyǐntú 導引圖 stands out, a silk scroll with drawings that resemble the exercises that we know today as Qìgōng 氣功.
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The biànzi 辮子 was a traditional way of wearing hair, imposed by manchu rulers on the local population after the conquest of China and the establishment of the Qīng 清 dynasty in 1636.
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Wén 文 and wǔ 武 are, in Chinese philosophy and thought, a pair of dichotomous and complementary concepts, which refer to the civil and military spheres of culture and politics, respectively.
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The Eight Pieces of Brocade (Bāduànjǐn 八段錦) is one of the most widespread and practiced series of Qìgōng 氣功 exercises worldwide. In this article we want to provide relevant information to understand these exercises and know the fundamentals of their practice.
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Sūn Wùkōng 孫悟空 is the main character of the classic novel “Journey to the West” (西遊記 Xī Yóu Jì), one of the most important works of Chinese literature. However, this odd monkey-character is not an original invention of the author of the Xī Yóu Jì, in fact, we find several literary antecedents that were gradually shaping his image.
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Poetry has always been one of the most appreciated arts in China. In the past, its appreciation extended to all layers of society, and already in ancient times there were poetic contests (dǒu shī 鬥詩) that were practiced at festivals and banquets and adopted different forms, usually involving the consumption of wine among the participants.
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