Language Question

Here's a question for anyone who knows Chinese dialects. Are the words "bang" and "gun" or "kun" interchangeable? Bang I've seen translated as "cudgel" or "staff". Gun was translated as "stick". In terms of weapons and forms, is there a difference in the places these terms would be used, or are they essentially identical? Would a "bang" be considered a different weapon from a "gun", in other words?

Hi WuXing,

I think they are used interchangeably, although sometimes "bang" refers to a club or truncheon - perhaps a shorter weapon. Not sure. This might help...

http://cgibin.erols.com/mandarintools/cg...amp;where=start
http://cgibin.erols.com/mandarintools/cg...amp;where=start

Good stuff, just a further note. Gun4 is usually the character used when describing a staff with multiple sections.

For instance Shuang1 Jie2 Gun4, where shuang1 means twin or two, are nunchaku.

"bang" to me sounds like "bat". I only hear it when talking about baseball, or "bang chiou" (literally bat-ball).

in weapons, I usually hear "gun" or "gwun". That usually refers to a staff. And as mentioned before, it can be used with "shuang" or "san" + "jie" + "gwun" to indicate two or three section staff.

hope this helps.

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Here's a question for anyone who knows Chinese dialects. Are the words "bang" and "gun" or "kun" interchangeable? Bang I've seen translated as "cudgel" or "staff". Gun was translated as "stick". In terms of weapons and forms, is there a difference in the places these terms would be used, or are they essentially identical? Would a "bang" be considered a different weapon from a "gun", in other words?

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Like any other language, an object can be called by many names, depending on context and usage.

A piece of wood can be called stick, rod, staff, cudgel, twig, dowel.

'Bang' (pronounced in mandarin as in 'hung') do not by itself means a long/short rounded piece of wood. It is normally used as in a 'bar of iron' though not in a 'bar of soap' It implies something in the nature of a short rounded piece of material. Some MA used a short rounded bar of wood or iron as a weapon and so that's how the word came in. A proverb that uses this word is 'Tie bang mo cheng jen' -- a bar of iron sharpened long enough will become a needle.

"Gun" "kun" means the same thing but pronounced in mandarin & cantonese respectively.

Here it is more specific as it refers to a long or short piece of rounded wood. If it is metallic, you will have to say 'tie kun' If it is not rounded, you will have to say 'shi fang (squared) kun'

Then again, 'gun' or 'kun' do not by themselves mean anything used in MA. The names given to kata/forms such as 'shaolin gun', 'ta kao kun' (dog beating stick) refer to the technique used in wielding the stick rather than the stick itself. However whenever a weapon is referred to as a 'kun' or 'gun', it implies a longish rounded staff.

The sub-categories of 'kun' or 'gun' would be 'seong tao kun' (both ends of equal diameter) 'jim mei kun' (one or both ends tapered slightly) and of course the 'leong jit kun' (nunchaku) 'sam jit kun' (3 section staff)