Speak Kung Fu: 60 Chinese Terms Every Student Needs to Learn
By Sifu Michael Johnson / Wei Lei Ma
 
38th Generation Lineage Holder, Chief Instructor of Cloud Forest
Learning Chinese martial arts is never just about movement. It is entering a culture where every word carries a spirit, every sound carries intention, and every character has lived through generations of masters. When you learn the language of the arts, your training begins to feel different… more connected… more awake.
 
For years I watched students struggle with terms that shaped the entire path of practice. Gongfu… Wude… Qi… Shenfa… Yijia… these are not just labels. They are doorways. They open the mind to ideas the body must one day express. When a student understands the meaning behind the term, something in their training shifts. Their stance deepens. Their sense of rhythm sharpens. Their respect for the lineage grows.
 
This book gives you sixty of the most essential words in the Chinese martial arts… not as dry translations… but as living concepts. Each term includes the characters, the pinyin, the literal meaning, and the deeper martial application that only becomes clear after decades on the mat. These definitions come from real practice, real teaching, and a long journey through the internal and external traditions.
 
Whether you train Shaolin, Mantis, Tai Chi, Bagua, Xingyi, Chin Na, or Dim Mak, these terms will keep appearing in your life. The more you understand them, the more the system itself begins to reveal its secrets. In the internal arts, meaning and movement are inseparable. When the mind knows the word, the body begins to understand the principle behind it.
 
This guide is not just vocabulary. It is a bridge. A way to connect your training to the heart of the culture that created it. A way to honor the teachers who carried these arts through war, famine, migration, and time. And a way to deepen your own practice so that every class… every form… every application… carries more clarity and intention.
 
Walk through these sixty terms slowly. Let them settle. Let them reshape how you see your training. Words are energy. Words are gateways. And in the martial arts, the right words can change the way you move forever.
武運長久… may your martial fortune be long lasting.
— Sifu Michael Johnson / Wei Lei Ma