MARTIAL CHINESE Lesson #1: next
We're not going to try to convince you that Chinese is an easy language and five lessons will do you. It is an amazing, subtle, humorous, maddening and sophisticated form of communication and, in that, shares its bones and skin with Kung Fu. Many people have asked about our dictionaries and some translation material. What we've done here is to assemble some lessons, by no means comprehensive, that might be of special interest to martial enthusiasts. We try to show you some words, and we also try to tell some of the story. Hope you enjoy.

Chinese words love to morph from one to another. Don't expect this change to be predictable and it certainly won't be boring. We take a common word here and try to "ride its changes" for a minute...

工 Gōng

This starts us off. This is the word for labor. Last time we where in China I was awakened about 1:00 in the morning by sounds form the street. I looked out our hotel window to see a group of men, mostly dressed in loinclothes in the hot night, carrying a metal girder. Some say the shape of the charater is to represent a carpenter's plain. Maybe, but it sure looks like a girder doesn't it? And lifting one of those things has got to be WORK.

功 Gōng

When we add work (工) to strength (力) over a period of time we get SKILL or ACHIEVEMENT. This is what Gōng Fū (better known as Kung Fu: 功夫) means. The character on the left we've already established as Work. The character on the right is known as LI or strength (it's supposed to be a picture of a sinew twisted).

勁 Jìng

We look above and recognize the Gōng (work) and the Lì (strength) but what's that other stuff? Look sort of like water waves, doesn't it? Well, when skill flows like water that's refined skill. In the martial arts this can mean energy, or spirit, effort or strength (but a very refined strength). Ok. you've probably guessed it by now, this is the Jìng of the phrase Fā Jìng (發勁) meaning to issue stregnth, like water from a geyser.

Review: Traditional/Simplified
工 (工): work
力 (力): Strength
功 (功): Skill, Achievement
夫 (夫) Fu: Husband, man, person engaged in manual labor
功夫: Workmanship, skill, art
勁 (劲): Spirit, energy, strength, effort.
發 (发) Issue, emit.
發勁 (发劲): To issue power or energy in the martial arts.

If you like this approach to Chinese chracters you may look at our Chinese Fast Finder and other texts.