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Glossary
- Internal arts
- Also known as nei jia or nei chia. Those energy arts in China that are concerned with cultivating meditation, the internal chi, and the inner aspects of a person’s being rather than only his or her quantifiable external manifestations in the physical world.
- Internal martial arts
- Also known as nei jia quan or nei chia ch’uan. Those fighting systems that base their power on cultivating chi, the mind, total relaxation, longevity, and meditation rather than the purely physical means of the external martial arts. Although there are internal aspects to some of the external Shaolin martial arts, in China the term “internal martial arts” usually refers to the three Taoist martial arts of tai chi chuan, hsing-i chuan, and ba gua chang.
- Iron shirt chi gung
- Classically one of the many terms used for the ability to take heavy physical blows without pain or injury, as though you were wearing a protective shirt of iron.
- Jan (rang)
- Yielding. A technical term for one of the four stages of sticking energy in tai chi chuan.
- Jeng chi (zheng qi, cheng ch’i)
- Unifying chi. The one chi that unifies all the chi of the body, which the practice of all the Taoist internal arts, including ba gua chang, seeks to cultivate.
- Ji
- In the internal martial arts, any energy that presses or projects in a forward direction.
- Ji ben gung (ji ben gong, chi ben kung)
- The basic power training through which all the Chinese martial arts develop the type of power they specialize in.
- Jin (jing)
- Power.
- Jing luo
- Collateral meridians. The acupuncture meridians that horizontally wrap around the body and connect its vertical acupuncture lines.
- Jou (zhou, chou)
- Elbow stroke.
- Judo
- A Japanese external martial art based on wrestling, joint-locks, submission holds, and chokes. A descendant of the Chinese martial art of shuai jiao and the Japanese martial art of jujitsu. Judo has been an Olympic sport since the 1960s.
- Jujitsu
- The unarmed combat external martial art of the samurai during Japan's feudal period. Based primarily on throws, joint-locks, submission holds, and chokes, with punches, kicks, and strikes being secondary.
- Kai-he
- Opening and closing.
- Kao
- Shoulder stroke.
- Karate
- The Japanese external martial art based primarily on kicks, punches, hand strikes, foot sweeps, and a few throws. Karate is primarily an empty-handed martial art, with limited weapons training. The major styles of karate mentioned in this book are: (1) Japanese karate, primarily a hard style that concentrates equally on kicking and punching, its four major branches being Shotokan, Goju, Wado, and Shito; (2) Okinawan karate, an original form of karate based on training for raw physical power; (3) Shorin Ryu karate, a major Okinawan hard style based on short stances, low kicks, and power punches. It is one of the major antecedents of Shotokan karate; (4) Uechi Ryu karate, a major Okinawan hard style known for using muscular dynamic tension techniques in training; (5) Korean karate or tae kwon do, which emphasizes kicking (especially high kicks); historically originating from Northern Shaolin.
- Kata
- (kata is Japanese; in Korean: hyung; in Chinese: tao lu) A form; a set of prearranged choreographed martial movements done either alone or with a partner or partners.
- Katana
- A Japanese curved samurai sword.
- Kendo
- The Japanese art of swordsmanship, where participants practice with lacquered armor and swords made of bamboo.
- Kenkyusei
- A special research student in Japanese martial arts—especially in judo and karate—usually the student must be a third-degree black belt or above.
- Ki
- See Chi.
- Kickboxing
- An external martial-based full-contact competition sport done with boxing gloves, which combines boxing skills with karate kicks.
- Kong jin (kong jing, kung jin)
- Empty force. The energy technique of hsing-i where practitioners are purported to knock people down without touching them, solely by projecting energy.
- Kou bu (k'ou pu)
- The toe-in step of ba gua walking.
- Kundalini
- A meditation method of India that uses energy work to unravel the mysteries of human consciousness and “enlightenment.”
- Kung fu (gung fu) family
- A Chinese surrogate family structure based on martial arts or meditation. The teacher symbolizes the father, the students become the children, the people who studied earlier become older brothers/sisters, new arrivals are younger brothers/sisters, and so forth.