Introduction

Purpose of this wiki

This wiki displays the results of the citizen science project Key to Kungfu
We provide open knowledge about historic kungfu routines and techniques as well as their interpretations regarding fight applications.

Wiki structure

This wiki contains two main sections:

Scholar section

Free knowledge, research results and data about kungfu applications and routine interpretation

Warrior section

Specific training content for fighters, applying the knowledge from scholar section

Routine interpretation

This wiki is about historic kungfu routines and their practical fight applications. We split routines into seperate movements, called 'postures'. Our research hypothesis is, that every posture identifies a kungfu technique with a unique fighting application. This means, in contrary to many traditional kungfu lineages, we assume that every posture has a single and unique application. Thus, each posture can be linked to a generalized kungfu technique, that is applied within that routine in a specific situation. If two routines showing the same posture, we assume, that the general fight application of that postures is generally equal (just differing in small details, according to the specific situation in the routine).

The following pages reflect that research:

Routines

Interpretation and analysis of kungfu routines. Video content of the routine application (partner form)

Techniques

Generalized base techniques that have a specific and unique fight application that is symbolized by the postures in routines

Strategy

Structure of kungfu techniques and their possible combinations

Sources and tools

We use video, image and text data to align our interpretations with the historical sources and facts. Beside image and video material about routines, we strongly utilizing written records about routines, called 'QuanPu'. To ensure domain specific translation, we build specialized tools like our QuanPu translator. The following pages reflect that research:

Quan pu

Archive of historic text sources about kungfu routines (quanpu)

Translator

Translator for quan pu content. Aligning data from Falk Dictionary of martial arts, Wiktionary.org, chinese symbol history, as well as our own research

Data

Collection of raw data material from our research. All content in this wiki is based on that

Research

Our research is guided by the guidelines of the German Research Foundation (DFG) to ensure good scientific practise This includes in particular:

• Commitment to good scientific practise by all group members
• Ensuring an continuous open dialogue about research results
• Research design: Interpreting kungfu in 'data-driven' processes, defining hypothesis and testing them against all existing data
• Methods and standards: We develop and maintain quantitative metrics to score and document the (un)certainty of all interpretations
• Documentation: We document our decision processes and underlying facts and provide these along with our results
• Cross-phase quality assurance by testing interpretations against data, theory and praxis especially together with martial art practitioners from combat sports in sparring and tournaments.
• Open access: We provide open access to all research data following the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable)