How many Kung Fu styles in the word?

Answer 1

In China there are so many, they are divided into families. I'm sure you're familiar how everything is grouped. For example, with animal Biology you have species, genus, family, etc. With martial arts is similar; 1) The largest overarching group of course is the kind of Martial Arts, namely "Chinese." That encompasses ALL Chinese styles. 2) The subdivision of the kind of martial art, is the martial arts family, generally divided according to region; in China you have the northern styles, and you have the southern styles. 3) From from region, you divide into province; virtually every single Chinese province, has its own variation of a standard mainstream style. In other words if you count variants, Chinese martial arts styles in fact number in the thousands. By all estimates, there are probably around, between, 1,500 - 2,000 Kung Fu styles in China. They are not just divided by region, but by approach as well; the two main families of Chinese martial arts are the external schools, which focus primarily on physical conditioning that ressembles athletic training. I use the word ressemble, because, where in athletics there is concern with rest and recuperation, in Chinese martial arts, the body is brutalized, the thinking being that sooner or later it has to adapt. Athletes, do not do the same thing every day; they have cardio days, and they have weight days, the cardio days allow damage to heal from the weight days, while the weight days allow damage to heal from the cardio days. In Chinese martial arts though you do weights and cardio EVERY DAY. The reason the training is brutal is, I don't know if you've been to an emergency room but, the puncture wound from a knife can cause a lot of blood loss, because of that, Chinese martial arts instructors do not tolerate laziness of any kind. The other family, are the internal schools, which focus on meditation, focusing very little on actual physical training. Now, Baijiquan uses a lot of Chi Kung, as well as a lot of internal-like forms, however it is not considered an internal art because it is also heavily reliant on physical conditioning. In the Chinese martial arts families, there many more external schools, than there are internal ones, as in modern day China, the majority of external martial artists do not consider the internal ones to be practical. Chinese martial arts experts who see the internal martial arts as practical, are a minority, as few people in the Chinese martial arts community have encountered a true master of this internal art or that. In recent years, even Tai Chi Chuan practitioners have been under performing; an excellent Shaolin monk, most of the time, will handily defeat an outstanding Tai Chi practitioner. I need to state for the sake of the question, that Tai Chi Chuan is considered a style of Kung Fu, however even with in it, there are subdivisions and families.