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Kung fu is one of a number of Chinese martial arts designed to refine the body and the mind. It is perhaps one of the most widely known Chinese martial arts, because many films incorporate kung fu techniques. There are hundreds of styles of kung fu taught all over the world, although they can be loosely divided into two camps: Shaolin style kung fu, and other techniques, some of which have a history which out dates the Shaolin order. Kung fu is seen with a variety of different spellings including gung fu and gong fu. This spelling variation is due to the difficulty of transliterating from Chinese to other languages. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, Chinese was transliterated using the Wade-Giles system, which transposed the Chinese “g” sound with a “k.” Parts of China and Taiwan still use the Wade-Giles system, but most of China has begun to use pinyin, which has replaced the “k” of the Wade-Giles system with a “g.” Bruce Lee and other famous martial artists from China also used the “g” when talking about gung fu. Shaolin gung fu has its origins in the fifth century. Like some other martial arts, it began in religious temples, where the monks sought a mind and body discipline.

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