What are Chinese martial arts？
2 min readWushu literally means“martial methods”and was historically called“wuyi ”or“martial arts”.Throughout human history，wushu have been created and developed for self-defense and survival.Chinese wushu training aims to improve peoples physical ability，health and willpower.It gives individual excellent exercises，an exciting competitive sport，and a basis for self-defense and sparring.
In the West，Chinese martial arts are usually referred to as“gongfu .”However，the term does not specifically mean”Chinese martial arts.”Rather，gongfu is a philosophy applied to any time-honored pursuit of excellence.It can refer to any endeavor in which a person，over time，refines his or her skills and art through diligent practice as a cook，photographer，artist，and so on.In short，gongfu literally means“hard work，”or“learned skil1″through painstaking effort.At present，however，gongfu commonly indicates the enormous variety of martial arts native to China.It is widely thought that there are currently more than 1，000 distinct styles of wushu in China.
What is the history of Chinese martial arts？
Traditional Chinese martial arts originated during primitive times when people made attack and defense movements as they hunted.In terms of technique，these early methods were crude and relatively unorganized.
During the Warring States Period，soldiers from different states practiced wushu in winter.One kind of martial art constituted a dance performed during ritual services.The earliest contest of wushu appeared during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period and was usually held during the Spring and Autumn.
During the Qin and Han dynasties，there were one-man and two-man pattern of wushu in use，including patterns imitating the movements of various creatures.One of these patterns was the Five-Animal Exercises which appeared during theEastern Han Dynasty.During the Tang Dynasty，warriors were chosen and officers promoted through wushu competition.Shaolin martial art became popular at that time.
During the Song Dynasty，a school was set up to train military officers in wushu，and it was practiced and preserved also within family clans and religious temples.
Down to the Yuan，Ming and Qing dynasties，various forms of wushu were well established in China as well as Korea，Japan，and many other countries.
