If you look at the Chinese character for Wu top left
horizontal bar means ONE (yi) and the character on the
bottom left means STOP (ting). Literally speaking WU
SHU means the art (Shu) of one person or individual
stopping violence. Ask anyone who speaks Chinese if
this is true and ask yourself if you have ever heard
the word Wu translated correctly as it really means.
The first Chinese Settlers in America were from the
Southern Part of China (Canton). They introduced
Chinese martial arts as "Kung Fu". Kung Fu literally
means to be proficient or skilled at something. The
original term for Chinese martial arts is Wu Shu. You
can have Kung-Fu in any skill you practice.
Wu Shu dates back over 2000 years. It began in the
Shaolin Monastery in the Song Mountains of Henan
Province, China. An Indian monk named Bodhidharma (the
first ancestor of the ZEN sect of Buddhism), introduced
meditation and physical exercises to strengthen very
weak monks.
It was after that, that the monks invented self-defense
applications and forms by imitating the movements of
animals.
Wu Shu is both the traditional (what we call Kung Fu)
and contemporary. The contemporary is the physical
challenge. It is very artistic and graceful with
executions in acrobatics combined with explosive kicks,
blocks, punches, sweeps, locks and grabs.