Kung Fu or not

[dippedappe]

the correct name for 'tai chi' is 'tai chi chaun'.

Are you saying that there is only one correct way to spell tai chi?

 

"Chaun" and "Quan" has the same meaning right? "Fist" if Im not mistaken? What dialect do those two belong to?

YOU DON'T KNOW THE LANGUAGE.

You dont know that. Do not think that you are the only one here who knows the language.

see, that's the real reason why the Chinese shouldn't have taught western guys. they ask too many stupid questions and we have to explain to them things about a language that they don't know/understand and it doesn't matter anyway.

Now thats a very unreasonable thing to say mate. You cant determine what is stupid to say and what isnt. Do not think you are better than everyone else just because you invented an fighting art. Like I said. Do not think that your the only ones who knows the language, culture and martial art history of china, because thats not true. Be more tolerant.

[ovine king]

firstly,

 

you two prove my point perfectly.

 

the only times when confusion occurs is usually based around western people's mis-use of supposed chinese names/terms. it's like no one actually bothers to make sure it is correct as if it doesn't matter. if you't going to use a romanised chinese name, at least bother to get it right.

 

antoerh point is once again, you are basing your posts on what other people have mis-used. i re-iterate the point that people here have been posting FACTS about the language and yet you insist on mentioning things that are at best second information based on something you or they don't know about and presenting them as your 'facts'.

 

what you've seen and what you know and what is true are different things.

 

secondly,

 

yes there is only ONE way of spelling tai chi chaun. it involves three very specific chinese characters. what you see here is one english version of how to write the sounds. it isn't the 'correct' way of spelling but a correct way of writing the sound.

 

am i being arrogant because to my knowlege i've only seen two people here demonstrate knowledge of the language beyond what you can get out of a tanslating program? if more did know the language, more people would be here trying to explain why trying understand the langauge using english versions of things is stupid.

 

tolerant?

 

hey if i think it's stupid then i think it's stupid. no amount of tolerance is going to make me think otherwise. what's tolerance got to do with whether or not i think something is stupid? how about we also take into consideration the amount of trash that i hear people say about things they THINK might be true even though people have already said what really is true? if you did know the language, culture and history, you wouldn't be asking the questions.

 

for the record, pinyin and wade giles are not systems of translations, they are systems of writing the sounds of the chinese words. the translations for both are the same. if you compare the actual meanings of both you'll see what i mean. the only difference is how you write the sounds of the chinese using english letters.

[Snakeeel]

Does it matter?

Edited March 3, 2005 by Snakeeel

[David]

The Chinese answer to the question is no more relevant than any of the English-speaking answers. It's an English question, after all: kung fu has been an English term since the 70's.

 

Oxford Paperback Dictionary

kung fu (kuung foo) a Chinese form of unarmed combat, similar to karate.

Aren't there 3 standardised romanisation methods? My take on it is who cares - they're all wrong. Write it however you want.

 

Chinese computer settings allow you to generate Chinese characters according to these romanising methods but only Chinese ppl and scholars have need of that. It isn't *actual* Chinese so nobody should be *correcting* random romanisation.

 

The rest of us just use the words vocally. Taichi is taiji is t'ai chi is t'ai chi chuan.

 

My own art is romanised many ways: Zhou, Chu Chow, Chou. It's not something to stake your life on.

 

Rgds,

 

David

[nanfeishen]

Thank you David for the dictionary definition, the issue should be as you say "sorted" by now. I must add that i am neither a linguistic expert, nor a Chinese caligraphy expert, simply a Tai Chi Chuan practitioner who enjoys what he does, and we seem to have become rather embroiled in the semantics of language and character in this discussion, so i am going to bow out ,say thank you to all and go off to start 2 new threads of thought.

 

Tai Chi Chuan practitioners simply move slower.

[Infrazael]

Tai Chi did not originate in the Shaolin Temple, therefore it is NOT "Shaolin Kung Fu," like the majority of styles we do (CLF, HG, SPM, WC etc).

[ovine king]

technically, wing chun didn't start in the shaolin temple apart from in legend.

 

in that case, tai-chi came from shaolin scripts.....