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CHINESE FITNESS & HEALTH

Welcome to our help site for all those interested in health, fitness and self-defence. Here you will find the most basic information you need, links, media references and much more. We hope that you both enjoy and benefit from this. Love & Peace.

Kung Fu or Gongfu means “Trained skills” and is a slang name for Chinese Boxing that started in San Francisco around 1930. Kung means “Training or to tran” while Fu means “Person”, so implying that a person has skills through hard work of training. >>

Chinese Arts can be traced by written record back to around 2,600 years B.C. When a wrestling skill called Go-ti was developed by a Warlord called Chi-Yu. The contestants would wear horned helmets and try to draw blood. It is said that even in modern times those who live in Shansi Province, Honan and what was Manchuria, entertain themselves at public festivals with a traditional dance that is derived from Go-ti. Some historical experts suggest that Go-ti was adopted by the Japanese who then renamed it To-ti and made it their National Art of Self-defence, then later still developed Sumo Wrestling from it too. It is also claimed that the Mongolians exported the Arts to Europe and the Greeks used the basic skills in Grecian Wrestling (Yuan Dynasty 1279 – 1368 A.D.) around the time of Kublai Khan.


Of course, this type of thing is the earliest recorded but it’s reasonable to assume that there were already military disciplines and possibly even “personal styles” that branched off from them.


Today we have hundreds of styles, some traditional, many personal, but according to the “proper principles” laid down by experts, not many that can be genuinely called “Ch’uan-shu” - Chinese Boxing.

Kung Fu

Caine: Is it good to seek the past, Master Po? Does it not rob the present?

Master Po: If a man dwells on the past, then he robs the present. But if a man ignores the past, he may rob the future. The seeds of our destiny are nurtured by the roots of our past.


Kung Fu (1970’s TV Series)

Did you know, the nickname for Taoist Yoga is “ K’ai Men / Open Gates “ - this is because if done correctly it opens the energy gates on the meridians (acupuncture channels.

Chinese Boxing

Taoist Yoga or Dowist Yoga is not really a suitable name. Grandmaster c. Chee Soo used to call the Art K’ai Men (see above). Yoga implies Indian stretching exercises, not Chinese and rather than trying to repeat what is already out there I will give you a link to read after this article*.


As much history was lost, or should I say “destroyed” during Mao’s “Cultural Revolution” many traditional practitioners were driven out of China and many more killed, it is almost impossible for anyone to accurately say what, if anything, Daoist Yoga originally pertained to. However, an educated guess may bring us to what is popularly called “Inner Alchemy”. This is the bringing on of change and transformation by the practitioner to his or her own body. It is nothing to do with magic or mysticism, just Mind, body and Qi (Ch’i).


Before anyone can judge or even understand this subject at least ten years has to be spent practising the exercises in the proper way, to be able to “feel” the changes; otherwise any attempts to judge or speak of it are merely conjecture and are not worth the breath or paper!


Taoist Yoga is a modern “hype” or “slang” term that refers to a mixture of Qigong, meditative contemplation and physical stretching. This term was again brought about by the inability of Westerners to understand the concepts of Chinese terminology; an understandable and even useful connection. All of these are controlled by the Mind. In T’ien Ti Tao we have the Li/Lee Family system exercises which adopt Indian yoga-type stretches with special breathing control and mental aims. There are other systems, even newer, that are more like Daoyin, some others that are just Qigong.


The exercises of the Lee Family system really do open up the energy channels and balance out the entire system. I would say “unique”.


Link To “Yoga” Discussion.

Taoist Yoga or Dowist Yoga is not really a suitable name. Grandmaster c. Chee Soo used to call the Art K’ai Men (see above). Yoga implies Indian stretching exercises, not Chinese and rather than trying to repeat what is already out there I will give you a link to read after this article*.

As much history was lost, or should I say “destroyed” during Mao’s “Cultural Revolution” many traditional practitioners were driven out of China and many more killed, it is almost impossible for anyone to accurately say what, if anything, Daoist Yoga originally pertained to. However, an educated guess may bring us to what is popularly called “Inner Alchemy”. This is the bringing on of change and transformation by the practitioner to his or her own body. It is nothing to do with magic or mysticism, just Mind, body and Qi (Ch’i).

Before anyone can judge or even understand this subject at least ten years has to be spent practising the exercises in the proper way, to be able to “feel” the changes; otherwise any attempts