Kung Fu or Gong Fu ?

 

Peking, Beijing, etc..
Kung fu, Gung fu, Gong fu, etc..
Chi Kung, Ki Gong, Qigong, etc..
Bagua, Pa Kua Chang, etc..
Xingyi, Hsing-I, Hsing yi, etc..

I have heard many people, some in the martial arts a long time, ask the difference between the "two arts" of Pa Kua Chang and Ba Gua Zhang, or Kung fu and Gong fu. I thought I would give a brief explanation for the readers:

China encompasses a huge area of land that contains many ethnic and language differences. Centuries ago the Chinese began using an ideograph, non-phonetic, written language for all political divisions so that everyone could read the same language but pronounce it in their unique dialect. Thus, although they couldn't have conversations together, all officials could in fact communicate easily through the written language.

This gives us the spoken differences between the National language of China, Mandarin (sometimes called Putonghua), spoken by most of the people of China, and the many other dialects. There are more people on Earth who speak Mandarin than speakers of English!

Other dialects such as Cantonese, is spoken by the people of Guangdong province and neighbouring areas, i.e. Hong Kong, and overseas Chinese communities. This is where in we find the word "Shaolin" (Mandarin) and "Sil Lum" (Cantonese), "Shifu" (Mandarin) and Sifu (Cantonese). Other dialects include: Fukienese, Shanghainese, and many many more.

When these words are translated into our phonetic English, the translators sometimes use Mandarin and sometimes Cantonese to give the sound of the word to create our phonetic translation.

This causes one set of differences right off the top, but there is more...the first translators of Mandarin Chinese to the romanized system created a system of translating the ideograms and sounds into what is called the Wade-Giles romanization system. This system gives us "Peking," "Tao", "kung fu", and all the apostrophes (T'ai Ch'i Ch'uan, Pa k'ua, K'ung fu, etc.)

P is pronounced B
K is pronounced G
T is pronounced D
Etc..

The pinyin romanization system, adopted by the People's Republic of China in 1958, has in the meantime become the standard for the world, including recognition by the International Standards Organization (ISO) and the United Nations. The Pinyin system was created to closer represent the sound of Mandarin Chinese. It gives us the "q's", "zh's" and "x's" and caused the changes we have all seen in such words as:

Beijing replacing "Peking,"
Gong or gong fu replacing "kung fu"
Bagua Zhang replacing "Pa kua Chang"
Taijiquan replacing "Tai Chi Ch'uan"
Xing-yi replacing "Hsing-i"

So, if you are pronouncing --- Ba Gua Zhang literally as "P"a "K"ua "C"hang, Beijing as "P"ei"K"ing, or Gong fu as "K"ung "f"u --- it's not that "your wrong", it's more of a mistake of misinformation. It is just as confusing for Mandarin Chinese people who come to the west and don't understand why Westerners pronounce Beijing Duck "Peking Duck" or Dao as "Tao".

I hope this helps.

For Chinese translations, try the Chinese-English Dictionary.

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Regards,
Editor