A Note on the use of the Terms “Martial Arts”, “Kung Fu” etc.

"MARTIAL ARTS ", AS A TERM IN ENGLISH, WAS FIRST USED TO describe the combat systems of Europe during the Renaissance, "martial" being derived from the Roman God of War, Mars. Nowadays, the phrase in English instantly evokes the combat practices of east Asia, which according to legend are said to have their origins in the Xia Dynasty, over four thousand years ago. Some contend that Chinese martial arts were not military in origin or purpose, but the Chinese word wushu suggests that they were, as it literally means "military" or "martial" and "art" or "skill", and has been in common use for nearly two millennia. Over the course of these two thousand or so years, the Chinese martial arts have incorporated influences from Indian combat styles and have in turn spread out all over eastern Asia, developing into the distinctive fighting traditions that can be found across Japan, Korea etc.

The Chinese word gongfu , of which "kung fu" is a Romanisation, actually refers to any practice or achievement that takes time and dedicated study. This could be playing the violin just as much as learning how to perform a Lazy Donkey Roll.

There are hundreds of styles of Chinese combat, all with their own distinctive moves, ideas and names. Categorisation of these styles can be geographical – northern versus southern, for example, or even down to the province or town. In this volume, if you remember, Jade Han's Yue Sword technique is identified as local to Jiaxing, where many centuries previously the two kingdoms of Wu and Yue had fought a bitter war. Fighting styles are often also divided into either "external" (waigong ) or "internal" (neigong ) forms, that is, concentrating on physiological technique or on mental strength and the movement of qi around the body through breathing or other meditative practices. In reality, however, this distinction is often blurred and styles frequently contain elements of both.

Chinese martial arts have a strong connection to the various ancient philosophies and religions of the region, primarily through the idea of self-cultivation. In the popular mind in both the east and west, the most famous example would be the "kung fu monks" of the Shaolin temple in Henan Province, established in the late fifth century. The temple's first preacher was an Indian monk by the name of Buddhabhadra, and along with another fellow Indian monk, Bodhidharma, and their first Chinese disciples, he was said to have given birth to a new Buddhism that, by the Tang dynasty (A.D. 618– 907), would develop into Zen. Given its emphasis on the breath and the mind, the links to martial arts fighting is not at once obvious. But, as monasteries and temples both Buddhist and Taoist owned land and other wealth, they came frequently under attack, which has led some historians to postulate that monks practised martial arts as a form of self-defense.

That there is a deep relationship between Zen, Taoism and Chinese martial arts is undeniable, and the emphasis on discipline and lifelong study in the pursuit of enlightenment was incorporated into the latter. Cultivating oneself through the martial arts is less about prevailing against an enemy and more about finessing movements and turning attention to the workings of the body as well as the heart-mind. Fighting is an actualisation of these philosophies; the physical, a manifestation of the spiritual.

The association between these ancient Chinese philosophies and the martial arts is all the more pronounced in fiction and film, where history and legend, fact and make-believe intertwine in a cocktail of breathtaking set pieces performed by strange and wonderful men and women in robes, fighting for righteousness and the moral code of the jianghu . This code reinforces the idea that fighting, in the futherance of good and noble ends, could coexist with the core Buddhist teaching of pacifism and Taoism's "non-doing", wu wei .

Many fight scenes in the novel focus around characters trying to strike or press on their opponent's "vital points", also translated here as acupressure points or pressure points. This is built on the theory of the meridian system found in traditional Chinese and Indian medicines, which maps the flow of life-energy, qi in Chinese, around the body. Pressing or striking certain spots on the body is thought to create or relieve pain, and in the case of martial arts fiction, even kill. Scientific research into the theory has proved inconclusive, but certainly this kind of "Death Touch" fighting has become a significant feature of martial arts literature and film, especially in the twentieth century.

Chinese martial arts literature has been around almost as long as the combat practices themselves. The earliest examples date from around 200 B.C. , and by the Tang dynasty they had become increasingly popular, and they were developed into something approaching the contemporary novel form by the Ming (A.D. 1368–1644). Jin Yong's stories first appeared in serial form in newspapers in late 1950s Hong Kong and were key to revitalising the genre in the second half of the twentieth century. To this day, Jin Yong remains the most widely read contemporary author writing in Chinese.