what is wushu? does anybody know?

Check here =

http://www.fightingarts.com/ubbthreads/s...=0#Post15839205

and here =

www.google.com

Thanks. I also went on wikipedia and found info on it. It means "martial art" and is used as a term for any martial art, while Kung Fu is a loose term that means both "martial art" and "skill(s)". I then looked at the actual sport and found a lot of info.

Then your journey has begun.

Welcome to the forum!

honestly, all of this talk is confusing the crap out of me. the 8 trigrams, the different styles of chinese kung fu (the animal named ones) and all of this other talk of chi and stuff like that. im new to martial arts and know nothing about it and this furum is like a cold slap in the face when it comes to knowledge of the arts for me.

Your humility is most refreshing and I hope you stay that way for as long as you can comfortably manage. Just don't bother too much about the Theories for the moment, because, unlike the study of science, they make sense only when you get the practical side right and then most things will fall into place; and this means lots of long and hard practice until your body literally undergo a transformation, just like Tango dancing, one look and you can see he / she is a Tango dancer.

Good Luck.

A Tai Chi Chuan Sifu told me that the Chinese Wushu Association recognizes over 130 "styles" of martial arts at present. These range from various forms of what us Westerners perceive as Kung Fu through to Tai Chi to the gymnastic-esqe Wushu events we have all seen.

Beyond question, Wushu, as such, is an incredibly expansive term, and incorporates many different styles. It maintains the older ethos of martial training, i.e. that a warrior must be taught in many different areas of combat. In a similar way, the Samurai use to use the term Bujutsu to encompass all their martial training i.e. Bujutsu referred to fencing, archery, horsemanship etc...

So there is no Wushu art per se, but there are Wushu Arts. I would say that if one where to practice any of the arts the Chinese Wushu commission recognizes, then one could say they are doing Wushu.

http://www.wushuonefamily.com/wushu/wushu.php

Here is another explanation of Wushu.

P.S. Check out the Kung Fu/Chinese Arts Forum, lots of know-how about this subject on there!

Correct me if I am wrong but my understanding was that wushu could mean several things depending on how specific you want to make the term, by which I mean:
1.) My understanding is that in the Chinese language wushu just means "martial arts" so any martial arts (karate, tkd, BJJ, etc.) would be wushu.

2.) Wushu is often used to mean specificly Chinese martial arts, similar to how Americans use the term "kung fu".

3.) Wushu seems to often be used to refer specificly to the Chinese martial arts that include a lot of flips and fancy kicks and stuff (sorta XMA style).

-Umbra

From a pragmatic lexical point of view, I think the term Wu Shu specifically applies to Chinese martial arts that are identified by the Wushu Commision of the PRC. Literally, they have recorded what is and what is not considered Wushu. Perhaps it may be used to describe another martial art outside of this, but in practical terms their are certain Chinese Arts that constituate Wushu in the present world. So the term Wushu would relate to them. As I have said though, the list is pretty expansive, and covers a wide range or martial knowledge.

Umbra's point 2 & 3 agree with each other, in that, to people who may not be familiar with Mandarin, Cantonese et al, the exact meaning of the word or phrase may be hard to understand.

The only thing I can go by, as I fall into the above category, is that Wushu refers to specific Chinese martial arts identified by the government of the PRC and overseen by the IWUF.