Chinese Technical Terms
This is a listing of often used terms in Chinese (Mandarin) in alphabetical order, written in *Pīnyīn. More terms are being added.
- B
- bǎngshǒu - wielding hand
- bāzhǎndāo - eight cutting knives
- bīaozhǐ - stabbing, marking finger (3rd form)
C - chán - meditation (jap. 'zen')
- chīdānshǒu - one-armed sticking hands
- chījiǎo - sticking legs
- chīshǒu - sticking hands
F - fúshǒu - resting hand
- fúshǒu - sweeping hand
G - gōngfu - to acquire a skill by investing a lot of time and effort
H - hùshǒu - protecting hand
J - jiàoliàn - instructor
K - kuoshu - art of the country
- kǔnshǒu - bonding, tying hand
L - lǎoshī - teacher
- lánshǒu - stopping, blocking hand
- lèitái - free fight, full-contact fight
- liàngōngshì - to practice techniques into the air
- lìeshǒu - fastening hand
- liùdiǎnbàngùn - 6 points 5 stick
M - mùrénzhūang - wooden dummy, wooden man, pole
- mùrénzhūangfǎ - way of the wooden dummy, wooden-dummy form
P - pāishǒu - slapping hand
Q - qìgōng - art of developing energy
- quán - fist
- quānshǒu - circling hand
S - shīdì - younger kung-fu brother
- shīfù - fatherly teacher
- shījié - older kung-fu sister
- shīmèi - younger kung-fu sister
- shīmǔ - motherly teacher
- shīxiōng - older kung-fu brother
T - taijiquan - fist technique of extreme contrasts
- tānshǒu - spreading hand
- túdì - student
- tàolù - form
W - wènshǒu - expecting hand
- wǔlín - martial-arts community
- wǔshù - art of war
X - xiǎoniàntóu - small idea, small thought in the beginning (1st form)
- xúnqiáo - to build a bridge, seeking an arm (2nd form)
Z - zhěnshǒu - laying down hand
- zhìshǒu - choking hand
*Pīnyīn is the offical standard Mandarin romanization system in the Peoples Republic of China. Its actual name is Hànyǔ Pīnyīn Wénzì, translated as 'symbols for the definition of sounds in Chinese'. This phonetic transcription based on the latin alphabet was officially passed as a resolution by the national state council in 1956, and was approved and adopted by the end of 1957. In mainland China it replaced the non-romanized Zhùyīn (or Bopomofo) transcription which was more like the Japanese Kana. The pronunciation incorporated in Pīnyīn is based on the Beijing dialect. At the same time the simplified Chinese characters became the official writing in the Peoples Republic of China. Hànyǔ Pīnyīn is registered with the International Standard Organization ISO as ISO 7098:1991, and is therefore recognized as an international standard.