An Appeal for promoting Studies on “Jian•Qi”Culture in Chinese Traditional Kung-Fu

An Appeal for promoting Studies on “Jian•Qi”Culture in Chinese Traditional Kung-Fu
    Chinese Kung-fu culture, a vital part of Chinese traditional culture, has long been hailed as treasure of Chinese civilization. "Jian • Qi"  plays an important part in traditional Kung-fu systems, also undeniable, before modem times, in wars and the process of integration between human and Nature. A feature of Kung-fu culture, "Jian • Qi" has crystallized into a humanistic subcategory, not only an embodiment of Chinese traditional culture, but also an entrance to the inheriting, developing and disseminating of our culture.
     "Qi Xie" (weapons) and "Quan Shu" (fighting arts), once glistering dazzling glamour in history, are both essential in Chinese Kung-fu. Among the existent schools of Quan (fists fighting) that simultaneously deal with "Quan" and "Xie", the "Li Fa" (the handling techniques) of these instruments varies in accordance to their individual characteristics. So, even within one school, there is various "Li Fa", at the same time reflecting mutual "Quan Li" (theory of fists fighting) and distinctive features of the instruments. However, as time progresses with the advancement of society and science, these weapons, though once paramount in strengthening health and defending homeland, are disappearing in people's view, their essence now are only known to a small few. Nevertheless, the rich culture values still endure to this day and remain to be explored and preserved. Only by doing so, we could contribute to the course of preservation of ancient Chinese cultural heritage.
     Chinese traditional Kung-fu weapons, are called by common folk as "the eighteen varieties of weapons", whose application boosted the shaping of the eighteen respective martial arts. They mainly include a range of short and long weapons, the short ones consist of "dao" and "jian", the long ones contain "qiang", "gun", "da dao", etc. While the whole set of Chinese Kung-fu weapons usually embraces "dao", "qian", "jian", "ji", "yue", "chui", "cha", "gun", "bang", "shuo", "tang", "bian", "jian", "chan", "pa", "ge" and "mao" (however, another version is "gong", "nu", "qiang", "dao", "jian", "mao", "dun", "fu", "yue", "ji", "bian", "jian", "zhua", "shu", "cha", "ha tou", "mian sheng tao suo" and "bai da"). From the names, we can understand that the origin of these Kung-fu weapons is closely related with the then social productive conditions.
    In view of the fact that the formation of Kung-fu weapons is directly connected with the overall social environment, i.e. regional culture, civil culture and social elements such as military and agriculture, the culture context of "the eighteen varieties of martial arts" holds a wealth of the fascination of Chinese traditional culture, bearing testimony to the history of Chinese civilization development. If we come to explore the arts, we can uncover the evolution traces of history and culture. If we come to preserve the arts, we should not forget to bestow it new vigor and new meaning with the intention of reviving this time-honored technique in a new era.
    Therefore, we wish to take advantage of the forum, so as to awaken interest in Chinese traditional Kung-fu culture and heighten the level of understanding of Kung-fu and improve the friendships among each and every participant.
     Let's join our hands for the popularization of Kung-fu culture!