What are the types of ancient martial arts in China? How many schools? What exactly are they?

Wushu always has different classification methods. As early as the Warring States period, Sima Fa was divided into "long soldiers" and "short soldiers", and the tactical requirements were determined by the length of weapons: "long soldiers are self-defensive, short soldiers are self-defensive". When Qi Jiguang introduced the popular boxing in Ji Xiao's new book, there was a saying that "boxing is long and boxing is short". In the introduction of boxing, four technical concepts are used: hitting (Zhang Bojing's hitting), kicking (Li's half-day leg), falling (dry falling and Zhang's falling) and taking (Eagle Claw King's taking). At the beginning of Qing Dynasty, Huang Zongxian put forward the classification concepts of family boxing and foreign boxing. In order to illustrate the characteristics of martial arts in the north and south, there are proverbs of "southern boxing and northern legs", but these are inaccurate.

Wushu has developed to this day, with extremely rich contents and numerous schools. Most people are used to Wutang School, Shaolin School, Emei School, Tai Ji Chuan, Bafengzhang, Xingyiquan and Nanquan. If we put aside these sects, according to the classification of Wushu Light compiled by China Wushu Research Institute, it can be divided into three categories:

The first category is basic skills and movements, such as leg, waist, shoulder, Toon and various single-potential exercises, which are not only the basis of routine movements and confrontational movements, but also can be practiced alone for a long time.

The second category is routine movements, which are the main content of Wushu at present. Routine action is to edit many actions to practice according to certain rules and regulations. Routine exercise is divided into four parts:

1. Boxing: including Changquan, Nanquan, Xingyi Boxing, Bagua Palm, Tai Ji Chuan, Bajiquan Boxing, Tongbi Boxing, Guagua Boxing, Tujiao Boxing, Fan Boxing, Xingyi Boxing, Lie Boxing, etc. 100. Modern Changquan has absorbed the essence of traditional Changquan, such as tea, flowers, treasures, red, etc., standardized the basic movements of Changquan, such as body shape, techniques, steps, footwork, leg movements, balance, jumping, etc., and woven various routines including stretching, jumping, flashing, prancing, ups and downs according to the movements of Changquan, which is generous, flexible, progressive and lively. Nanquan is a general term of boxing that spreads all over southern China. Nanquan is strong and fierce, with solid footwork; Take the elephant as the potential and laziness as the god; Lingqiao hard bow, slow and steady; Strong and powerful, exhaling and vocalizing, majestic and imposing. When practicing Nanquan, you are physically strong, making the sound of "hip, drink, wow, that", cheering, helping the situation, helping the elephant, giving people the feeling that "the wind and cloud will change color when you shout and drink, and the landslide will occur when you open your fist". Tai Ji Chuan is a kind of boxing developed by integrating classical philosophy into tradition. Taiji Chuan is characterized by meditation on the moon, guiding the shape with the heart, breathing naturally, moving round and coherent, moving up and down, moving without moving, and static without moving. When practicing Tai Ji Chuan, it is required that the action momentum is as endless as a long river. The whole body is light and lively everywhere, and walks like a cat without adding a feather. A fly won't fall, so give up yourself and be flexible.

2. Instruments: including short instruments, such as knives and swords; Long instruments, such as sticks and guns; Double knives, double swords and other double instruments; Soft musical instruments, such as nine-section whip, three-section stick, etc. Swordsmanship is characterized by bravery and quick momentum. Powerful and powerful. When drilling a single knife, one hand holds the knife and the other hand cooperates with the method to make various telescopic, opening and closing and winding actions to help the knife potential. The single knife method mainly includes: "chopping, chopping, pulling, stabbing, hanging, chopping, stabbing, sweeping, shelving, wrist flower and back flower." Sword is a kind of double-edged short soldier, known as "the king of a hundred blades". Fencing is characterized by lightness, agility, swiftness, elegance and flexibility, so it is called "the sword flies like the wind" and "the sword is like Youlong". Most swordsmanship is based on hitting, stabbing, dividing, washing, splitting, cutting, lifting, agility, drawing, belt, collapse and point. Clubs are long soldiers without blades and are known as "the ancestor of a hundred soldiers". When practicing the stick, it is required that the arms are heated together, the body and stick are integrated, the force penetrates the tip of the stick, and the wind is like thunder. The so-called "root to root" means to be brave, powerful and fast when dancing with a stick. Common stick techniques include chopping, swinging, poking, hanging, collapsing, hitting, sweeping, stabbing, blocking, putting aside, smashing and clouding. Gun, one of the four ancient weapons, is known as "the king of hundreds of battles". The marksmanship is mainly based on stabbing, supplemented by stopping. The stab should be straight, fast, straight up the hill and straight to the tip of the gun, so it is said that "the gun sticks to a line." Marksmanship also includes collapse, point, penetration, cause, necessity and stroke. The drill and use of guns are unpredictable, infinitely deified, dynamic, powerful, clear-cut and magnificent.

3. sparring: including unarmed sparring, equipped sparring and sparring with only equipment. Such as boxing, grasping, single-handed shooting, empty-handed knife grabbing, etc.

4. Group events: all kinds of group drills with six or more people unarmed or holding equipment. Such as collective basic skills, collective sword, collective whip and so on.

The third category is the confrontation project. A match is two people who are rivals. According to certain rules, they use the offensive and defensive methods in Wushu to carry out actual combat sports. Such as Sanshou, Pushing Hands, Short Soldiers and Long Soldiers. From 1979, China started an experimental Sanshou competition, and 1989 was officially included in the competition.

There are many schools of martial arts, but if they are divided into big schools, there are only Shaolin, Wudang, Nanquan, Tai Ji Chuan, Bouncing Legs, Tea Boxing, Bafengbei and Emei Boxing. Some sects are the origin of each other, with various blood relations and mutual infiltration. To be more specific, there are too many schools to give examples. I hope you can ask in detail. Your question is too general.