Forms term

[BDKF]

What is the Chinese name used for forms? Such as kata or hyung or quyen for Japanese/Okinawan, Korean, or Vietnamese arts? I can't seem to find it anywhere.

[EarthDragon]

Kuen= form in pin yin mandarin
pronunced like (cue yen)

[David Jamieson]

'Kuen' is canto ain't it?

with 'quan' being the mandarin ver of same.

another term that is also used 'Taolu'

quan or chuan gets used for nortehrn kungfu sets a lot and Kuen gets used for southern styles. Both terms mean 'fist' literally and 'fist method' in context.

[SPJ]

In the old time:

1. Shi or posture is used. Tai Chi 13 Shi, Chang Quan 108 Shi, Quan Jing 32 Shi etc.

2. if it is very long, such as Tai Tzu Chang Quan, it is called section or Jie. In other styles, it is called a road or Lu. Lao Ji Yi Lu, Pao Chui Er Lu etc.

3. A set is called Tao. Tao is consisted of several Lu and others. A Lu is consisted of many Shi etc.

Tao Lu is a general term for sets of forms or postures.

Tao Lu is opposed to San Shou or free forms or free hands.

Practice of Tao Lu is to practice several forms/postures in a subset or set or group.

etc.

:D

[BDKF]

Thank you very much.

[yu shan]

Not to highjack your thread, but just one quick question. How do you say "coach" in mandarin? Thanks in advance.

[Mortal1]

I thought the word for forms was taolu. Or something close to that.

[brothernumber9]

I'm probably wrong but I think "coach" is lao-shir/lo-si/lao-si

[EarthDragon]

SPJ,
you could be right, however I have been taught that

Shi= stance i.e ba shi (8 stance) not posture for the character for stand
is different than pose

Tao= way

Lu = road, yes however a road is 1 line of an entire sets i.e a kuen may have 4 Lu

[CLFNole]

Technically, kuen/quan does not mean "form" it means "fist".

There are different ways to say things but "kuen to" would generally mean fist form/fist set.

[David Jamieson]

coach can be 'gao lin' or teach/practice which = coach

[SPJ]

ED;

Yes. Shi can be posture or stance. Sorry my Chinese software is not working right, other wise I would post the characters.

Tao or Dao is the path or the way.

There is another character meaning a loop or a set also pronounced as Tao.

a circle loop is called Chuan Tao.

:)

[yu shan]

Thank you for answering my question David Jamieson.

[EarthDragon]

CLFnole.
I was speaking of kuen, as in "Form or set"

not kuen/chuan/quan as in "fist" different phonetics they sound very different when spoken.

[GeneChing]

In Mandarin, Taolu is the most common word for forms routines, but some also use quanfa or quantao; these are more colloqial. Some one correct me if I'm wrong, but I beleive the characters for quanfa are the same for kenpo.

Coach is jiaolian, senior coach is gaoji jiaolian. Laoshi is teacher and is used for any teacher - that's what my kid calls the Chinese teacher. The shi is the same shi as in shifu (the fu is the same fu as in fuqin or father).

We do have an online glossary (http://ezine.kungfumagazine.com/info/glossary.php) but it's far from comprehensive. It does provide both Mandarin Pinyin and Cantonese romanisations, though, which is a definate plus if you're not using Chinese characters.

[Mortal1]

Hmmm My correct response has gone ignored.:( :confused:

[David Jamieson]

no one ignored it mortal, it was already said at that point. That's all.:)

[Mortal1]

Sorry you are correct. I didn't see it in your post the first time!:o

[CLFNole]

EarthDragon:

What I was trying to say (maybe not so well) is that kuen does not mean form or set at all. Kuen is generally synonomous with form or set amongst kung fu people but does not have the meaning to typical chinese.

Example: Hok Ying Kuen in english would generally be referred to as "crane form" but it really translates to crane shape fist. The kuen is the same, same character same pronunciation.

In speaking chinese the word kuen would not mean form or set if you said "kuen to" someone would understand becuase that would be fist form or fist set.

Peace.

[Ou Ji]

Some one correct me if I'm wrong, but I beleive the characters for quanfa are the same for kenpo.

You're correct. The characters for chuan fa are pronounced kenpo in Japanese.

Americans have really buthcered things when Chinese fighting arts came to this country. Just look at the fact that we call wu shu kung fu.

[SPJ]

My brother asked me to compile terms in Tai Chi and Ba Gua.

Sort of Chinese words with explanations in English.

I replied that you got to be kidding me big time.

The Chinese words are not your daily life Chinese.

It would take pages of texts and pictures or diagrams just to explain a single term.

So I decided that to write in series of books instead.

The words or phrases are explained with 3 or more examples with pictures.

With all styles, it will take a long while.

So I said that I will just pick the most common ones first then.

Idioms and lexicons OMG

---

I wish that there is a committee set up for each style. and they do the jobs of translating all the terms into English or other lingo.

----

:eek:

[SPJ]

Quan or fist. It usually means the fighting methods of the style including open hand, weapons, theories and drills all together.

In that sense, Quan would be the school or the style. such as Hong Quan, Tai Chi Quan etc.

Quan Fa means fighting methods. Quan Fa usually means the theories and principles. Such as Jun Fan Quan Fa or Bruce Lee fighting methods.

The book that contains Quan Fa is called Quan Jing or sutra.

The book that has the diagrams of moves is called Quan Pu.

on and on.

:)

[CLFNole]

Right kuen faht (cantonese) - fist methods, girk faht - kicking.leg methods, kwun faht - staff methods, etc.....