Evidence of martial arts can be found all over the world. Among the oldest works of art showing military battles with bows are cave paintings from Spain, the Spanish Levant, dated between 10,000 and 6,000 BCE. Similar evidence of warfare from the same period has also been found in mass burials in Germany and at Jebel Sahaba. These, however, are not the only places. Traces can be found elsewhere in the world as well, perhaps even older ones, because fighting, including ritual dances and hunting, has been closely connected with human development from the very beginning of human existence.
Chinese Kung Fu is considered one of the foundations of modern martial arts. Most traditional Kung Fu styles have been present in China for more than 2,500 years, and even then they included elements such as wrestling, hand strikes, kicks, joint locks, throws and falling — everything that makes a martial art effective. Kung Fu cannot be treated as one single martial discipline. It is a collection of different martial arts that developed and adapted over thousands of years into a large and complex system. There are said to be more than 300 different styles of Kung Fu. Indian martial arts also had a major influence on Kung Fu as we know it today, although in the modern era they have in a way faded into the background, while globalization popularized the yogic aspect, and yoga began to strongly dominate.
Among the more famous styles of Kung Fu is Shaolin Kung Fu, whose beginnings reach back to the 5th century CE. According to legend, its founder was Bodhidharma, a travelling Indian Buddhist monk who, while observing the Buddhist monks in the Shaolin Temple, realized that they were physically too weak to perform demanding meditation routines. Bodhidharma created movement exercises for the monks, intended to increase vitality, develop physical strength and support effective self-defense. This is said to be the beginning of Shaolin Kung Fu as we know it today.
Shaolin includes Zen, or Chan, philosophy. It is a special blend of Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism. When we practice Kung Fu based on Zen philosophy, we practice it in several ways. Through regular practice, we can transform our body into something strong, mobile and healthy. Zen philosophy, together with Kung Fu, supports knowledge and theory, but always emphasizes practice — that we must test everything through our own experience before we believe in it. Zen teaches the middle path, the path that is optimal for each individual. Since people differ, both in body structure and in character, what is good for one person is not necessarily good for another; therefore, the middle path is also relative.
In Shaolin Kung Fu, the practice of the middle path is reflected through the combination of soft and hard training. People tend to jump from one extreme to another. We can easily be carried away and react to a life situation, for example, too aggressively — or, on the opposite side, too passively. In this sense, mastery in Zen means finding the right measure of firmness and calm, which can serve us not only during practice but also in everyday life.
Taoism sees the human being as part of nature. It places great emphasis on health, balanced living and the spiritual development of the individual. Various breathing exercises and movements were developed based on the connection between macrocosm and microcosm. This is a theory of the universe that arose from the cosmological model of the trinity of heaven, earth and human being, in which all three factors must be balanced and in harmony with one another. In the search for balance in everything, Taoists follow the concept known as Yin and Yang: two universal opposites that constantly complement each other and cannot exist without one another.
Confucian philosophy is oriented more toward practical moral teachings and relationships between people than toward the individual alone. Confucianism emphasizes the cultivation of five principles, also called the five virtues: humanity, justice, loyalty, tolerance and honesty. Confucian teaching was very advanced for its time. Confucius taught that the people are more important than the ruler and that they may even remove a ruler from the throne if he acts unjustly. In his view, the throne should not be hereditary; instead, the people should choose a ruler from among the most educated and morally upright — that is, cultivated — scholars. The constant search for knowledge and the continuous effort toward personal refinement are among the fundamental principles of Confucianism. The very same principles are part of the basic foundations of Kung Fu.
The power of a strike comes from pushing through the ground with the legs; it is controlled by the waist — the Dantian, lower back, kidneys and related structures — and projected through the hands, or also through the feet, depending on the situation. If you want to create more power, you need to understand the path of force through the body. Movement is performed with the help of the whole body, natural reflexes, instinct, intention and efficient coordination. Most importantly, training emphasizes the art of adaptation, so that we are not limited to just one form of movement and can adapt more quickly to different situations.
Understanding Yin and Yang is essential for every Kung Fu practitioner. It is the understanding of all dualities, which can be compared with the microcosm, the human being, and the macrocosm, the universe. These dualities are explained as interdependent and complementary opposites: remove one and the other becomes meaningless; neglect one and the other cannot be understood. Yin and Yang in Kung Fu practice mean that nothing is permanent — from Yin to Yang and from Yang to Yin. These energies appear in many dualities or opposites, such as hard and soft, fast and slow, inhalation and exhalation, high and low, expanded and compressed. In this way, the human body can be used as a channel for expressing these forces. Power is visible in change: the moment between movement and stillness. We must find balance between the two and not focus only on one aspect, which would limit understanding. Every punch and kick in Kung Fu follows the laws of the Yin-Yang cycle. Traditional martial arts are a path of personal growth, expressed through the understanding of these two extremes.
Traditional martial arts are one of the best systems for the holistic psychophysical development of the individual. Many people focus only on the combat aspect, which is certainly important and worth knowing and strengthening, but it is not the only side of martial arts. The goal is not to be the best in competition or to perform the most beautiful movements. There will always be someone who can defeat you. An eternal winner does not exist. In Kung Fu, this developed into physical and spiritual self-cultivation. The result is a unique synthesis of martial, therapeutic and spiritual goals. Practitioners were no longer interested only in fighting. Instead, they also turned toward the health aspect and connected it with spiritual realization. In this way, numerous Kung Fu styles developed, each with its own purpose and history.
Receiving and expressing the force of strikes is a pattern of life, beginning with resisting gravity through walking and moving through our environment. The charm lies in understanding the mechanics of the body as a whole, since our body is one of the most complex known structures in nature: active, curious and at the same time vulnerable, threatened by external factors as well as by ourselves, our decisions and our current mental state. Kung Fu brings integrity into movement despite load and, as a tool, helps us explore why one arm is weaker than the other, why back pain appears, or why the neck is tense. These things sooner or later also express themselves mentally — and the reverse is also true. Such insights are of vital importance and are a valuable gain for the individual and, consequently, for society as well.