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Secondarily, of course, Kung Fu is as well an offensive tactic, that is, having parried one's opponent's thrusts, blows, kicks, etc., the defender would then himself go on the offensive, delivering his own thrusts, blows, kicks, pressure grips, etc. – as required – in order to overpower the attacker.
Though it originated in a military context, Kung Fu was eventually taken up by the masses, where it served both as a means of self-defense and as a system of health-giving exercises that fused the mental/spiritual with the physical.
This latter development explains perhaps why Kung Fu was embraced, as early as the Tang (CE 618-907) Dynasty, by Buddhist monks, where the discipline was preserved even throughChina 's most troubled periods. Since the emergence of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Kung Fu has first reconnected with its ancient roots, then, once the genuine core of Kung Fu was rediscovered, the discipline evolved into a sport that has spread far beyond the boundaries of China, having also become an Olympic Games discipline.
Between its Tang period acceptance by Buddhist monks and its modern-day evolution into a worldwide sport, Kung Fu, in a somewhat more stylized, dance form, also developed into an art street theatre, then, in an even more stylized dance form, was incorporated into Chinese Opera.
Kung Fu lent itself to these diverse applications because of its dual aspects involving both the physical and the mental, where, by emphasizing the one aspect more than the other, Kung Fu can take on, at its extremes, a dramatic, even violent physical form or a sublime, almost yoga-like, meditative form not unlike the discipline qigong. In fact, meditation, or getting in touch with one's qi, or "life force", is an integral part of Kung Fu Wushu.
Between its Tang period acceptance by Buddhist monks and its modern-day evolution into a worldwide sport, Kung Fu, in a somewhat more stylized, dance form, also developed into an art street theatre, then, in an even more stylized dance form, was incorporated into Chinese Opera.
Kung Fu lent itself to these diverse applications because of its dual aspects involving both the physical and the mental, where, by emphasizing the one aspect more than the other, Kung Fu can take on, at its extremes, a dramatic, even violent physical form or a sublime, almost yoga-like, meditative form not unlike the discipline qigong. In fact, meditation, or getting in touch with one's qi, or "life force", is an integral part of Kung Fu Wushu.
The explicit division of Kung Fu Wushu into two aspects stems from the 5th century CE, as does Shaolin Monastery (it was founded in CE 497), which is obliquely related to Kung Fu. The physical aspect of Kung Fu Wushu is referred to as "external" (shaolin [少林]) wushu while the mental aspect of Kung Fu Wushu is referred to as "internal" (wudang [武当]) wushu.
For example, the monks of Shaolin Monastery used Shaolin Kung Fu to defend the monastery from roving bandits and from the soldiers of competing warlords where this was necessary, but they also used Wudang Kung Fu on a daily basis as a more peaceful form of physical and mental exercise to keep both body and mind healthy.
Note the Chinese name of "external" wushu, namely, shaolin. This is no accident, according to some Kung Fu scholars, for Shaolin Monastery, named after nearby Mount Shaoshi (note that lin [林] means "forest"), is believed to have been the first institution (or individual) to have emphasized the distinction between the two aspects of Kung Fu Wushu, leaning perhaps in the direction of "external" wushu, given the monastery's perceived need to defend itself from bandits and others who would take advantage of peaceful monks, the result of which is that "external" wushu has come to be associated with the monastery of the same name, not the other way around, though there is no conclusive evidence for this claim.
The mental dimension of Kung Fu of course involves self-control, both on the level of the practitioner's physical movements and on on the level of the practitioner's feelings, temperament, attitude or psyche, leading, when practiced by a master, to the pinnacle of humility combined with utter self-control and self-confidence; like the black belt practitioner of karate, the Kung Fu master who knows his strength and skill need not behave aggressively in order to burnish his self-confidence; his self-confidence is anchored solidly in his humble knowledge that when called upon to defend himself, his training ensures that he will acquit himself admirably, whether he is victorious or not.
As a hand-to-hand combat discipline, Kung Fu was practiced either bare-handed or with weapons, i.e., anything from a sword to a dagger to a cudgel – and worse, as will be seen in the following - (the Kung Fu warrior monks of Shaolin Monastery in the town of Dengfeng, Henan Province are reputed to have been quite proficitent in the use of cudgels – but of course, being Buddhist monks, they did not have need of either swords or daggers!).
Much of what we know of the practical mechanics of Kung Fu stems from the 20th century period, i.e., from the Republic of China (1912-49) era and from the subsequent People's Republic of China era, the latter of which is of course the current era. During the RoC era, the Wushu, or "martial arts", part of the discipline's title (Kung Fu Wushu) was changed to Guoshu [國術], or "national arts", since the aim during this post-feudalistic era was to inculcate a sense of nationalism in the people; becoming adept at Kung Fu was to prepare oneself to defend not only oneself nor even one's monastery, but also the motherland.
After the PRC came to power, "Guoshu" was dropped in favor of the former title, "Wushu", and the government set up a commission, or special task force, in 1979 (the State Commission for Physical Culture and Sports, which, in 1986, established the Chinese National Research Institute of Wushu) to look into the ancient roots of Kung Fu in order to determine which were genuine Kung Fu elements and which weren't, in case some artificial, add-ons had crept into the practice of Kung Fu during.
For example, the RoC era (the PRC's effort to determine the authenticity of the various elements of Kung Fu can perhaps be compared – if the comparison is neither too sacrilegious nor pretentious! – to the First Council of Nicaea (CE 325), convened by Emperor Constantine (the city of Nicaea is located near the present-day city of Iznik, in Turkey), which was tasked with determining which elements of the collected body of Biblical writings were authentic scripture and which weren't, with an eye to determining which of the Biblical writings should be included in the New Testament).
Yet, in keeping with the Olympic Games spirit, which spirit in fact guides all sports worldwide, the government of the PRC eventually, in 1998, had to dismantle its Kung Fu investigatory and implementational scaffold – its State Commission for Physical Culture and Sports – since, in the long run, the commission would have represented an undue interference on the part of the state in sports, which is naturally anathema to the Olympic Games spirit.