What does Zhaoyang Chuan translate to in English?

[xcakid]

Anyone?

I know Chuan means Fist. So what does Zhaoyang mean.

[oasis]

facing sun fist. nice form

[xcakid]

facing sun fist. nice form


Cool thx. :D

[GeneChing]

I've always liked that translation. Sunny form. It sounds so refreshing. Sunny form is the name they use in the Taguo books (http://www.martialartsmart.net/bslx115.html), and that set a precedent.

Zhao means early morning. Yang is the same yang as in yin yang. Together it can mean 'rising sun' or 'morning sun' or like oasis says 'facing sun'.

[xcakid]

'morning sun' or like oasis says 'facing sun'.

I'll go with either of those two.

Thanks for the explaination. :cool:

[LFJ]

zhaoyangquan- 朝阳拳

first, quan2 拳 is more correctly translated as "boxing" when referring to a style, rather than a "fist".

the first character has two pronunciations and meanings.

朝
zhao1 = morning.
chao2 = to face toward.

we use zhao1, morning, in the name for this form.

the second character is used in tai4yang2 太阳 which means "sun".

阳
yang2 = sun

but also interestingly from yin1yang2 阴阳 as gene mentioned. the characters for moon (chin. yue4 月) and sun (chin. ri4 日) are on the right side of each character. the traditional characters show "cloudiness" (darkness) for yin1 and "sunshine" (lightness) for yang2 which gives us the concept of yin and yang opposite principles. the radical on the left of the character is added to yue4 and ri4 (moon and sun) to break the phonetic similarity, and thus we have yin1 and yang2 concepts represented by (but not directly meaning) the moon and sun. (night and day, dark and light, etc.)

however, as you may know, yin and yang are dualistic concepts which dont apply in buddhism beyond mere concepts. the character is taken from "sun" (chin. tai4yang2 太阳) and has nothing to do with positive or negative force.

so finally the name of this form is zhaoyangquan meaning "morning sun boxing".

the form takes its name from the "raising hands arhat" who would wake up in the early morning along with the sun and stretch out really big, showing a great contentment with life, the same way the sunshine brings comfort, happiness, and life to the world. there is a position in this form where we come to dulibu (single leg stance) with the arms raised high above the head, which honors this arhat.

and here he is in the attached image:

"Easy and comfortable,
Yawning and stretching.
In a state of omniscience,
Contented with his own lot."