Martial art practice is filled with a variety of terms that are confused or misunderstood. This confusion stems from the long history of martial art practice. Terms that might have been obvious to individuals in one time period, have taken on new meaning in this age.
I would like for the Glossary at The Walking Circle to be a one stop shop for your research and understanding of martial art terminology. This is not Wikipedia, but you can discuss and suggest these pages in the Glossary group.
Bagua
King Wen also rearranged the trigrams on the Bagua circle to reflect the complexity of the natural world–including the change of seasons and the interaction of the Five Phases. This arrangement is the post-heaven Bagua circle.
Baguazhang
Eight Trigram Palm, or Baguazhang (Pa-Kua Chang), is the youngest of the Chinese internal martial arts with much of its growth happening at the beginning of the last century. Baguazhang is easy to practice and the health benefit that continuos walking provides is obvious.
Cosmology
Cosmology is an account or theory of the origin of the Universe, and by extension man’s place in it.
Pinyin
The Pinyin system is the accepted standard for the romanization of Chinese characters. Pinyin means spell sound and is used to teach the standard pronunciation of Mandarin Chinese. It is also the standard system for entering Chinese characters on computers. Because of this standardization it is the method used on this site.
Taijiquan
The Taijiquan student must be aware of the human body’s proper functional alignment and how to leverage force through the entire body. The slow, repetitive work, involved in the process of learning that leverage is responsible for improving the health of the practitioner while the mind is focused on those movements with the aid of proper breathing.
Walking
Searching the internet for information about fitness will turn up millions of results, and one type of physical activity that appears as being the safest, most beneficial type of fitness activity is walking.
Wu Xing
Xingyiquan
Xingyiquan is perceived as the hardest of the Internal Martial Arts even though its development starts and ends with the simplest of exercises–standing. It is probably the oldest art represented here and has produced some truly wonderful martial artist.
Yin and Yang
The idea that the Universe is made of two forces, a heavy Yin aspect and a lighter Yang aspect whose separation and interaction are constantly creating all aspects of the Universe, are the foundation of Daoism.