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Glossary
- Central channel
Also known as zhong mai, chung mai, or jung mai. The main energy channel located in the exact center of the human body between the perineum and the crown of the head and extending through the bone marrow of the arms and legs.
- Chan sz jin (chan si jin)
- The silk-coiling technique of chen style tai chi chuan, wherein the soft tissues of the body twist and turn dramatically.
- Chang chuan (chang quan)
- Long fist. The basic method of Northern Shaolin external martial arts that forms the core of the official, state-sponsored Wushu martial arts program in Mainland China.
- Chen Pan Ling style tai chi
- A specific combination form of tai chi chuan.
- Chen village tai chi
- The original form of tai chi chuan.
- Cheng Ting Hua ba gua
- The most popular style of ba gua; uses the Dragon Palm.
- Chi
Energy, subtle life force, internal energy, internal power. Manifested energy that empowers something to work and function. This concept underlies Chinese, Japanese, and Korean culture, in which the world is perceived not purely in terms of physical matter but also in terms of invisible energy.
Also known as qi, ch'i or ki in Japanese.
- Chi chu dzuo (qi chu zuo, ch’i ch’u tso)
- The method of moving a felt bodily sensation of chi as a live force from the lower tantien into whichever energy channels the practitioner consciously directs it.
- Chi Gung
Also known as qi gong or chi kung. Energy work/power. The ancient Chinese art and science of developing and cultivating chi by one’s own effort. Chi gung techniques may be done standing, moving, sitting, lying down, and during sex. These exercises balance, regulate, and strengthen energy channels, centers, and points of the body.
- Chi gung tui na
Also known as qi gong tui na or ch'i kung twei na. Therapeutic bodywork with chi. A specialty of Chinese medicine, where the healer directly emits and rebalances the chi in the patient’s body to bring about a therapeutic result. Its diagnostic techniques are based on reading the energy of the external aura, as well as the subtle energy of the internal tantiens of the body.
- Chi sau
- The two-person touch sparring practice of Wing Chun, where both partners attempt to strike, block, and counter each other.
- Chin na (ch’in na, qin na)
- Seizing the joints. The branch of Chinese martial arts concerned with using joint-locks to immobilize and capture someone, as well as to dislocate or break arms, leg joints, and spinal vertebrae. Also used to pull, rip, or tear skin by grabbing.
- Chinese calligraphy
- A method of writing Chinese characters or symbolic concepts with pictures using a brush and ink. Calligraphy is considered by the Chinese to be a high form of fine art and a form of intellectual chi gung, one of its distinguishing characteristics being that chi, or energy, is projected onto the written surface.
- Chinese medicine (Traditional Chinese medicine, TCM)
- The 3000-year-old traditional medical system of China. Its basic branches are acupuncture, bone-setting, chi gung, chi gung tui na, herbalism, and moxibustion. Its therapeutic interventions are not based so much on regulating the physical matter of the body but rather on regulating the subtle energy (chi), which tells the matter how to behave.
- Chinese wrestling (shuai/shwei jiao, shuai chiao)
- China's traditional martial art of throws. It includes grappling (standing only, no matwork), joint-locks, and low kicks. Also shuai fa is a generic term in Chinese used for the throwing component of any martial art.
- Ching gung (qing gong, ch'ing kung)
- Lightness skill. The special technique in Chinese martial arts (which seems to have died out in the present generation) of making the body incredibly light by changing its chi, giving one the ability to jump up 10 to 20 feet or leap down from three or more stories unharmed. Ching gung is a favorite technique of cat burglars and bodyguards in Chinese novels and martial arts films.
- Choi li fut (choy lay fut, choy lee fut)
- A Southern Shaolin fighting style from Canton province.
- Circle-Walking
- The primary training method of the internal martial art of ba gua.
- Combination Form tai chi
- A form wherein one or several styles of tai chi and/or hsing-i, ba gua, or Shaolin are mixed together within a single form.
- Cotton boxing
- An external/internal martial art of North China.
