Words Relevant to Chinese Traditional Kung-fu

Words Relevant to Chinese Traditional Kung-fu
    "Zhang Men Ren"
    "Zhang Men Ren "is a person who is in charge of a Kung-fu fraction. In history there was no record about "Zhang Men Ren" since the Han or the Tang Dynasty until the Late Qing Dynasty. At that time Kung-fu remained a whole and had no separate fractions. If not, who can tell what fraction Zhou Tong, teacher of a patriotic hero named Yue Fei in the Southern Song Dynasty, belonged to" And Qi Jiguang, Cheng Chongdou in the Ming Dynasty, Shi Jingtang in the later Jin Dynasty "However, in the late Qing Dynasty, the word "Zhang Men Ren" became famous with the development of Kung-fu novels in China. The novels were so popular that people thought they were part of the reality. Therefore, the word "Zhang Men Ren" originated from the novels was then used to represent ringleaders. The word hinted a lot of feudal ideas. The conflicts within fractions were as frequent as those written in the Kung-fu novels. Then the word with those out-of-date ideas disappeared when the Chinese society developed into a modem one. At the beginning of the 1950s, the "Zhang Men Ren" were oppressed in the Anti-counterrevolutionaries Movement by the government. Nevertheless, the word revived again with the opening up of China and the rise of video games. Fractions were founded one after another. According to a recent general statistics there are about 300 fractions around the country. Among them are fractions within fractions or so-called newly discovered Kun-fu legacy. Though it is exiting for the Zhang Men Ren to set up new fractions and have a good show-off, it is clear that what they do is simply cheating and lying, a total setback of our modem culture.
    There were many famous kinds of Quans in the Ming Dynasty, i.e. Thirty-Two Shi Chang Quan, Hong Quan, Ying Zhua Quan, Hou Quan Zui Ba Xian Quan. None of them were named under any fractions. Therefore there were no Zhang Men Ren at all. In fact, different kinds of Quans did have their own representatives in different periods. The representatives were widely recognized by the society instead of self-promoting. So those so-called "Zhang Men Ren" should retire and go back home.
   "Ru Shi Di Zi"
   "Ru Shi Di Zi" means senior students of a teacher.
The saying comes from a lecture of Confucius to his students. He said: Why is Zhongyou playing music in front of my door" I love his playing but I don't enjoy his music. Hearing this, the students began to look down upon Zhongyou. Then Confucius said again: Zhongyou has learned a lot, good as a junior student, but not good enough to be a Ru Shi Di Zi.
    Simply put, to a teacher, students in their first few years of learning resemble visitors entered the door, junior students resemble visitors entered the hall while senior students visitors entered the bedroom.
Usually people don't call themselves "Ru Shi Di Zi" which is usually used to praise the others. This is due to the traditional ideas of China and is hard to explain in such a short passage.
    "Chuan Ren"
    "Chuan Ren" means an orthodox or lineal student. According to the culture of Chinese traditional Kung-fu, people attach great importance to a student's teacher. If their teachers were not orthodox or lineal, the students prefer to make their teachers sound mysterious. Otherwise, they will print the name of their teachers and introduce themselves their Chuanren on the name cards. Only a few are able to be "Chuan Ren", so it is a great honor to be called "Chuan Ren" and it is not appropriate to address yourself as “Chuan Ren” in China.
    "Men Ren"
    The word “Men Ren” means the students who have learned only the general ideas of teacher, It contracts directly with “Ru Shi Di Zi”. Any students can call themselves “Men Ren” after several years of learning. Yet only those mastered the knowledge well was recognized as "Ru Shi Di Zi". Confucius had three thousands students, few of them were "Ru Shi Di Zi". It is good to call oneself "Men Ren" in regard of politeness in China. the Song Dynasty, an author named Zhou Dunyi was famous for his works named "Tai Ji Tu". He had a student named Cheng Zhengshu, or called Yichuan Xiansheng. Chen Zhengshu came from the city of Luoyang. The summary of his theory was: taking sincerity as the foundation, focusing on terminal truth finding, no matter moving or not, the saints were always our examples to learn. At that time many people wanted to be his students. The phrase “Cheng Men Li Xue” told a story about his two students named You Zou and Yang Shi respectively. One day they went to visit their teacher. But, when they found their teacher was taking a snap they would rather wait outside the door even it was cold outdoors and the snow had been very thick. The phrase explicates the strong will to learn despite any difficulties. Somebody even use it to express his/her humble attitude being unable to acquire the knowledge well, like those two students staying outside the door.
    "Bi Men Zao Che"
    "Bi Men Zao Che" means making a chariot with door closed. Usually it hints doing something by oneself without any connection with the outside world, which sounds not practical at all.
    However, according to the article where the first appearance of the word was found, the context of the saying is as follows: Making a chariot required the production of parts inside a house and the assembling of the parts outdoors. This is a producing procedure that guaranteed coordination and correspondence.
 Having understood this we should know there is nothing wrong to produce the parts of chariots inside a house. However, we must not forget to assemble the parts outdoors.

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