A disclaimer so you won't sue me when you break a leg
"Huibian" is the Chinese term for "glossary". The first character is pronounced on the fourth,
the second character on the first tone in standard Chinese pronounciation (putonghua).
Chinese characters for quick reference on Chen style taijiquan
This is a list of Chinese characters which occur in Chen
style taijiquan. It contains mainly such characters which bear relation to the transcriptions of this site.
I have added this page because phonetic pinyin transcription, as other roman transcriptions for Chinese, is not
biunique. Hence, visitors who come across this site and do speak Chinese may feel confused what Chinese
character is actually meant. For example, while "break" and "brake" sound identical in English, their meaning is
different. In the same way, the identical pronounciation of "quan" (in the second tone) could stand for "boxing",
"spring" (source of water), "coil up" (as a snake), "wheel without spokes", and many more terms, depending on the
Chinese character used.
In order to be able to see the Chinese characters you need to adjust your browser's settings so as to enable the
character code set of the People's Republic of China (GB). If this (alone) does not work, as a recent visitor wrote,
you may need to still install the Chinese character set for Windows (if you are a Windows user) that usually comes with all
the other language sets that are provided, but often is not automatically installed if Chinese is not your working
language because these sets take up a lot of disk space. [I am not sure what holds for other operating systems. If
anyone knows, please advise so I can share the information.] Do not forget to change the language settings if you
return to other sites which do not display Chinese because codes may conflict with one another.
If I can find and succeed to type them all, this page will show you the Chinese characters for all of the terms
on the glossary page, and possibly a few additional characters for names or expressions
related to other pages than the glossary. Also, original Chinese titles mentioned on the pages about
videos and other material are placed at the end of this page
in case you want to seek them out. Any corrections and comments are welcome. Please send your message to
魏尔曼 (Christoph David Weinmann).
Chinese characters for Chen style taijiquan (no movements)
An:
按
Bai hui:
百会
Cai:
採 I have not found a way of typing the appropriate character with
standard input software, and have neither found it in standard dictionaries. Maybe the term is too technical. However,
I have found it on several (and copied it from) Chinese websites.
Chan si gong:
缠丝功
Chang qiang:
长强
Chen style:
陈式
Chunqiu da dao:
春秋大刀
Da lv:
大 plus the character for lv below.
Da zhui:
大椎
Dan dao:
单刀
Dan jian:
单剑
Dao yin:
导引
Ding bu:
定步
Er lu:
二路
Fa jin:
发劲
Feng shi:
风市
Gang rou xiang ji:
刚柔相济
Gong fu:
功夫
Hao style:
郝式
He bu:
合步
Hua jiao bu:
花脚步
Hu lei jia:
#
Huan tiao:
环跳
Hui yin:
会阴
Huo bu:
活步
Ji ben gong fu:
基本功夫
Ji:
挤
Jian jing:
肩井
Jing luo:
经络
Kao:
靠
Lao gong:
劳宫
Lao jia:
老架
Lao jia er lu:
老架二路
Lao jia yi lu:
老架一路
Li style:
李式
Lie:
挒 I have not found a way of typing the appropriate character with
standard input software, and have neither found it in standard dictionaries. Maybe the term is too technical. However,
I have found it on several (and copied it from) Chinese websites.
Ling tai:
灵台
Luan cai hua:
乱踩花
Lv:
I have not found a way of typing the appropriate character with standard input
software, and have neither found it in standard dictionaries or, as a matter of fact, on any Chinese taijiquan sites
I ran into thus far. (It usually is substituted with the character 捋 meaning "smoothing out with fingers"
or "stroke"). Maybe the term is too technical. It is an eighteen-stroke character. The left side consists of
手 (shou, as a radical) and the right side consists of 履 (lv).
Ming men:
命门
Nei gong:
内功
Qi:
气
Qi hai:
气海
Qin na:
擒拿
Pao chui:
炮捶
Peng:
掤 I have not found a way of typing the appropriate character with
standard input software, and have neither found it in standard dictionaries. Maybe the term is too technical. However,
I have found it on several (and copied it from) Chinese websites.
"Chen shi" (second tone, fourth tone) stands for "Chen style" in Chinese, here with the denotation of
"family" and "clan" or "school". There is another character for "style" with identical pronounciation (noted in the
section above), widely used, that contains the denotation of "standard", "model", or "pattern". In practice, both
characters for "shi" are used almost interchangeably when reference is made to a taijiquan style. Note also
that Chinese characters have been simplified in China. This even goes
for family names such as the character of the Chen family. Therefore, you will find a slightly different character
for "Chen" (Cf. the image below.) in older printings, or in printings from Hongkong or Taiwan which still use
traditional characters.
Chinese characters for Chen style taijiquan movements
Note: This section is arranged in same order as the glossary page. Here too, the numbers
in the brackets indicate the movement number in the respective routine.
This is Chen Xiaowang's DVD case for the Chen style spear routine. Not all videos and materials
on this website are available in English or with English subtitles. If you wish to obtain them, often
a pinyin transcription is not sufficient and you may need to revert to the Chinese characters.
Chinese characters for Chinese titles (videos and materials)
Chen Shi Lao Jia
陈氏老架
Chen Shi Taijiquan
陈式太极拳
Chen Shi Taijiquan Gongfu Huicui
陈式太极拳功夫荟萃
Chen Shi Taijiquan Jingsai Taolu
陈式太极拳竞赛套路
Chen Shi Taijiquan Lao Jia
陈式太极拳老架
Chen Shi Taijiquan Quanfa Quanli
陈式太极拳拳法拳理
Chen Shi Taijiquan Quanfa Yu Jingmai Yunxing
陈式太极拳拳法与经脉运行
Chen Shi Taijiquan Shu
陈式太极拳术
Chen Shi Taijiquan Tushuo
陈式太极拳图说
Chen Shi Taiji Quanxie Hui Zong
陈氏太极拳械汇宗
Chen Shi Taiji Sanshou Yu Qinna, Zhi Di Juezhao
陈氏太极散手与擒拿，制敌绝招
Pao Chui: Chen Shi Taijiquan Di Er Lu
炮捶陈式太极拳第二路
Quanxie Xinshang
拳械欣赏
Shichuan Chen Shi Taijiquan
世传陈式太极拳
Xie Taolu Xinshang
械套路欣赏
Zhongguo Chen Shi Taiji
中国陈式太极
This picture displays the blade of a long-hilted Lord Guan broadsword (Guan dao,),
also called Spring-Autumn broadsword. Guan Yu (160-219 AD, also: Guan Gong, or Guan Di) is a legendary
general who lived during China's period of the Three Kingdoms and who is frequently portrayed as a master
of this weapon. Mastering the Guan Dao requires considerable strength and therefore, as opposed to the
lighter weapons as the sabre or the straight sword, is a weapon for fairly advanced students. As it
is a long weapon, students would also first try to master the rod (gun) or the spear (qiang)
before they move on to this heavy weapon. See also
Ancient Chinese Weapons by Yang Jwing-Ming (Yang Junmin) for more on traditional weapons.
