There are many names of martial arts in history, which were called "Wu" in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. The word "Wu" appeared in the Han Dynasty and remained in use until the end of the Ming Dynasty: in the early Qing Dynasty, the word "Wu" was borrowed from Selected Works of the Southern Dynasties (referring to military affairs at that time); During the Republic of China, it was called "Wushu": after the founding of New China, the word "Wushu" was still used.
With the change of history, the gradual disappearance of cold weapons, the emergence of specialized martial arts equipment and a large number of boxing routines, the formulation of antagonistic events and martial arts competition rules, martial arts has evolved into one of the sports. Great changes have taken place in the content, form and training methods of Wushu, and the concept of reflecting the essential attributes of things is constantly changing. Today, the basic definition of Wushu can be summarized as: Wushu is a traditional sport in China, which focuses on both internal and external training in the form of routines and fighting.
Wushu can be understood from this definition. First of all, Wushu belongs to China traditional Wushu. It takes kicking, hitting, throwing, taking, hitting and stabbing as the main contents, and shows the ability of attack and defense fighting through physical movements with bare hands or with the help of instruments. Both the antagonistic grappling action and the routine action with the same potential are based on China's traditional chess skills. As far as human social life is concerned, the art of attack and defense cannot be unique to China. Compared with martial arts all over the world, martial arts is not only richer in martial arts methods (such as fast throwing and grasping). ). In the form of sports, there are both routines and Sanshou, both combination and separation. This development mode is also very different from other martial arts in the world. The training method is both internal and external, and the training style is both physical and mental, which embodies the sports characteristics of China traditional Wushu.
Secondly, Wushu is a sport, which is obviously different from the practical offensive and defensive techniques that cause injuries and disabilities. Although routine sports contain rich means of attack and defense, its purpose is to improve the physical quality and attack and defense ability of businessmen through drills and compete their skills and skills. There are some differences between technical requirements and actual technology. Although the technique of Sanshou is closer to practical technology, it is limited to sports because of the rules of competition. In a word, it boils down to one point. Wushu has obvious sports attributes. Sports are mainly social philosophy, traditional Chinese medicine, ethics, military science, aesthetics, qigong and other traditional cultural ideas and modern martial arts concepts. Pay attention to both internal and external cultivation, such as holistic view, yin and yang change view, form and spirit theory, qi theory, dynamic and static theory, rigid and flexible theory and so on. , and gradually formed a unique national Wushu cultural system. Rich in connotation and profound in meaning. It not only has the same characteristics of human physical fitness, but also has the unique philosophy, science and artistry of oriental civilization, which embodies the wisdom of China people in the field of sports. It reflects the national cultural glory of the East from one side. Therefore, in a broad sense, Wushu is not only a sport, but also a national sport, which is a valuable cultural heritage accumulated by the people of China for a long time.