中国武术与古代兵器

Chinese Wushu

中国武术

题记：中国武术博大精深，门派众多。它是人类文明的一大奇迹，也是中华民族传统的体育项目。在古代。人们练习武艺，主要是为了打斗时更好地克敌制胜。而现在人们练习武术主要是为了强身健体。

Chinese Wushu is extensive and profound and it has a lot of schools．It has thousands of years of history and is an amazing symbol of traditional Chinese physical philosophy．In the ancient times,the main purpose of Wushu was to defend against the enemy in military affairs,but nowadays people practice it just to keep in good health．

Chinese Wushu can be traced back to primitive society．In the harsh struggle for survival，some attacking and defending skills were needed．In effort to improve physical strength and advance their wisdom of hunting,the original Wushu was developed．After entering into a slave and feudal society,fighting skills developed quickly as wars burst out very frequently．The turbulent society was another reason promote people to practice Wushu．

Actually,Wushu or martial arts is a defensive and offensive combat system that includes many set patterns such as kicking,hitting，throwing,catching，hacking,and sticking．

During the long history of China，Wushu has been developed and perfected．There are many kinds of martial arts and different factions or groups．Two main boxing skills were formed in the Ming and Qing Dynasties，namely Shaolin and Wudang．Shaolin boxing is famous for its outside skills and Wudang has gained the good reputation for the inside skills．Long boxing,Short boxing, and Ditang boxing，belong to the Shaolin style and are mainly used for fighting. Only Taichi boxing and Eight Diagram belong to Wudang boxing,which are mainly used for defending and keeping in good health．In addition to boxing,another important aspect of Chinese Wushu is the weapon skills , such as broad swords, swords, spears, cudgels, axes,hammers,and forks hooks，and halberds．‘

The most prosperous time of Chinese Wushu appeared in the Sui and Tang dynasties．From then on，it was a popular way to choose outstanding talents as military commanders from the martial arts competition．Many ancient heroes like Yue Fei were chosen from these competitions．It also improved the practice of martial arts in the whole country．At that time，soldiers practiced martial arts，so did scholars．It was said the most famous poets in China Li Bai and Du Fu also learned how to use swords when they were young．

Shaolin temple rising to prominence was one of the most important things in Chinese Wushu history．The temple is located on Mt．Songshan in Dengfeng county,Henan Province. It is said that during the Tang Dynasty,the monks helped Li-Shimin, a would-be emperor, making a great contribution to unite the states，thus the temple was given a handsome reward．Since then,the Kung Fu of Shaolin has been developed and became famous all over the world．After the Southern Song and Northern Song dynasties，Wushu was popular among the ordinary people and became an important skill to keep good health and defend the homeland．As