Wulin (武林) — Chinese Martial Arts & Kung Fu

Wulin (武林, "the martial world") is an open, carefully-sourced knowledge base for Chinese martial arts — what most of the world calls kung fu (功夫). It gathers the histories, lineages, forms, principles, primary-source manuals, and video of the Chinese fighting and cultivation arts in one place, written for curious newcomers and serious practitioners alike.

What is "kung fu"?

Kung fu (功夫, gōngfu) literally means skill refined through patient effort — any deep skill, not only fighting. Applied to the martial arts it spans the whole Chinese family: the internal arts (內家), which lead with intention, breath, and whole-body connection, and the external arts (外家), which lead with conditioned structure, speed, and power.

What is Kung Fu? — the term, the history, and how the styles fit together

What you'll find here

• The styles — field guides to each art: how it moves, where it came from, its signature forms.

• History & lineage — who taught whom, and what is documented versus legend.

• Primary sources — the old training manuals (拳譜), in the original Chinese, public-domain where possible.

• Video — form walkthroughs and rare archival footage of the past masters.

Featured: the Northern styles (北派)

Our first deep focus is the Northern Chinese canon:

Northern Kung Fu Styles — a field guide to Mantis, Bagua, Xingyi, Baji and more

• Praying Mantis 螳螂拳 — Seven Star, Plum Blossom, Six Harmony, Eight Step

• Bagua Palm 八卦掌 · Xingyi 形意拳 · Baji 八極拳 — the hard-hitting "internal" three

• Tongbei 通背 · Chuojiao 戳腳 · Fanzi 翻子 · Pigua 劈掛 · Cha 查拳 · Tan Tui 彈腿 · Northern Shaolin 北少林

How this wiki works

Wulin aims to be rigorously sourced, not received opinion. We build on public-domain primary texts and reputable scholarship, we cite what we claim, and we label legend as legend — no art was really "invented" in a single tidy myth. Where a text or film is still in copyright, we link to it at its source rather than reproducing it.

A sister project

Wulin grew alongside a companion wiki devoted to the internal art of Taiji:

• taiji.openmindspace.org — Taiji (Tai Chi) in the same depth.