Martial Arts - Wushu in Chinese / Japanese...

武術 is Wushu or Wu Shu, the very Chinese way to express “Martial Arts.”

Some even use this word to describe Kung Fu directly. But this is a label that fits all disciplines from Karate to Kung Fu to Taekwondo.

Note: This also means Martial Arts with the same appearance as old Korean Hanja characters and is pronounced “musul” or “musur” in Korean.

While this is best if your audience is Chinese or Korean, this also means “martial arts” in Japanese, where the popularity of this term is growing (romanized as Bujutsu or Bujitsu) in Japanese martial arts circles.

古流武術 is the title “Ko-ryū Bujutsu” which basically means “old school martial arts” or “ancient flow martial arts.”

This is more a Japanese than a Chinese martial arts term but would be understood in Chinese as well.

精武 is the title used for a certain type of martial arts. You can translate this roughly as “Excellent Martial Arts” or “Excellence in Martial Arts.” You will notice that the second character is “wu” as in wushu (martial arts) and wushi (warrior).

More information can be found at the Jing Mo website. You should probably only order this if you are a member of this association.

Note that “jing mo” is the Cantonese pronunciation of these characters. In Mandarin, they are “jing wu.”
Also used in Korean but only by those involved with martial arts who can also read Korean Hanja (a small percentage of the population).

黑帶 is “black belt” in Chinese.

Many will argue whether rank systems that include a “black belt” are used in pure Chinese martial arts systems. The argument goes that it's more a Japanese idea merged into the western versions of Chinese martial arts. However, in Wushu (often referred to as Kung Fu), it's said that all students started with white belts. Over the years of training, the white belt would get dirty until finally appearing black with filth. Thus, more advanced students had darker belts.

If you want this title in Chinese, this would be the form.

Often, the second character is written like the image to the right. If you like this version, click on this character instead of the button above.

金雞獨立 or “Jin Ji Du Li,” means “golden rooster stands on one leg.”

This is also called “crane stance” in English. This is used in wushu, karate, and other forms of martial arts.

This can be pronounced, “kinkei dokuritsu” in Japanese but it's rarely a title used in Japanese.