KUNG FU

Kung fu or gongfu or gung fu (功夫, Pinyin: gōngfu) is a Chinese term often used by speakers of the English language to refer to Chinese martial arts. Its original meaning is somewhat different, referring to one's expertise in any skill, not necessarily martial. The Chinese literal equivalent of "Chinese martial art" would be 中國武術 zhōngguó wǔshù.

In its original meaning, kung fu can refer to any skill. It is a compound of two characters, 功夫 (gōngfu), combining 功 (gōng) meaning "achievement" or "merit", and 夫 (fū) which translates into "man", so that a literal rendering would be "human achievement". Its connotation is that of an accomplishment arrived at by great effort.

In Mandarin, when two "first tone" words such as gōng and fū are combined, the second word often takes a neutral tone, in this case forming gōngfu.

Originally, to practice kung fu did not just mean to practice Chinese martial arts. Instead, it referred to the process of one's training - the strengthening of the body and the mind, the learning and the perfection of one's skills - rather than to what was being trained. It refers to excellence achieved through long practice in any endeavor. You can say that a person's kung fu is good in cooking, or that someone has kung fu in calligraphy; saying that a person possesses kung fu in an area implies skill in that area, which they have worked hard to develop. Someone with "bad kung fu" simply has not put enough time and effort into training, or seems to lack the motivation to do so. Kung fu is also a name used for the elaborate Fujian tea ceremony (Kung-fu cha).

The term kung fu was not popularly used in the sense of "Chinese martial art" until the 20th century, thus the word would be seldom found in any ancient texts.[citation needed] The term was first known to have been reported by the French Jesuit missionary Jean Joseph Marie Amiot, in the 18th century. The term was uncommon in the mainstream English language until the late 1960s, when it became popular due to Hong Kong films, Bruce Lee, and later Kung Fu - the television series. Before the 1960s Kung Fu was referred to primarily as "Chinese boxing".

In contemporary hacker culture the fu has been generalized to a suffix, implying that the thing suffixed involves great skill or effort. For example, one may talk of "script-fu" to refer to complicated scripting. It is unknown whether this was consciously based on the original, broader meaning of the term or whether it was a simple wordplay on the less general Western notion of "kung fu".

Asal Usul

Saya pernah baca disalah satu koran tp ini udh lama sekali sktr thn 90-an gtu deh yg ada kolom Ripley's-nya.

Ilmu beladiri yg skrg dikenal dgn nama Kungfu, Karate dan Muaythai itu asal usulnya dr India. Dibawa oleh para rahib2 Budha yg berkelana dlm rangka misionaris ke Asia Tenggara dan jg Jepang.

Para rahib tsb dibekali ilmu keterampilan beladiri tdk lain utk menghadapi perampok yg tak ada ampun selain menjarah harta jg nyawa korbannya dan jg binatang buas spt macan, beruang dll.

Maka dr itu Ilmu beladiri tsb. datang dr negara2 yg skrg mayoritas beragama Budha spt Cina, Jepang dan Thailand.