Bruce Lee in Fist of Fury.
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In the scene above from the 1973 classic Bruce Lee movie Enter the Dragon, the main character, Mr Lee, encounters a bully while travelling on a boat. When ask of his style, Lee replies;

“You can call it the art of fighting without fighting”.

He agrees to show the bully his art but instead of violence, he uses his intelligence and traps the bully on a smaller boat. This segment of the film was adapted from a similar incident that is said to have happened to a 16th century samurai warrio...
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This picture of warrior monks from the Shaolin Temple in the Henan Province was taken some time in the 1920s. It clearly demonstrates that they had become modernized in their fighting methods, learning from the mistakes of an earlier generation of monks who believed they could use traditional forms of fighting against soldiers with guns. They used talisman and spells to protect them from bullets during the Boxer Rebellion of 1901, a mistake that led to the uprising being easily quashed and on...
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Pak Mei (also known as Bai Mei and meaning White Eyebrows), founder of the Pak Mei style of Kung Fu.
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This image depicts the moment of inspiration for the invention of the art of Tai Chi Chuan, at least according to some sources. Chang Sanfeng is thought to have watched a fight between a snake and a bird in the 15th century and got the idea to build a style of fighting around his extensive knowledge of Taoist philosophy and internal energy.
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Sun Lu-t'ang (or Sun Lutang) was a master of the internal arts and was instrumental in the invention of the syncretic art of Sun-style t'ai chi ch'uan. Born in 1860, he was also an expert in Neo-Confucian and Taoist scholarly pursuits and was a master at two other internal martial arts; xingyiquan (hsing-i ch'uan) and baguazhang (pa-kua chang). He came to t’ai chi relatively late in life but mastered it very quickly and spent much of his later career teaching t’ai chi to members of the pu...
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Grandmaster Yip Man performing Siu Lim Tao, a basic form from Wing Chun.
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Yang Lu-ch'an also known as Yang Fu-k'ui or Yang Fukui (1799-1872), was an influential master of t'ai chi ch'uan during the 19th century who founded the Yang-style. After a modest upbringing, Yang was hired by the Imperial family in 1850 to teach them and several of their élite Manchu Imperial Guards Brigade units martial arts.

At this time, he taught the Taijiquan style and is credited with spreading it throughout China, being named by four of the five Taijiquan families as having transmitt...
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Image: Bodhidharma on an Elephant
Date:  c.17th Century
Artist:  Yiran
Info:  This picture on a silk hanging scroll depicts Bodhidharma, the
Indian monk who is credited by many as being the founder of Shaolin Kung Fu.

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Jackie Chan demonstrating his skills in the classic Kung Fu movie Drunken Master.
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Title:  Bodhidharma

Artist:  Hakuin Ekaku (1685 to 1768)

Infomation:  This calligraphy scroll is Japanase in origin and reads;
“Zen points directly to the human heart, see into your nature and become Buddha”.


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Wu Quanyou (1834–1902), or Wu Ch'uan-yu as he was also known was a t’ai chi ch’uan  master from China. He taught many great exponents of the art including his son, Wu Chien-ch'uan who created the Wudang style of t'ai chi ch'uan, and Maozhai who was the creator of the Northern Wu Style Wang. Wu Quanyou is believed to have had great abilities; in particular he excelled in skills that involved neutralizing hard external energy and developing the flow of soft internal energy (chi).

More leg...
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Title: Daruma (Bodhidharma)

Date: 14th Century

Artist: Unknown (Inscription by Issan Ichinei)

Infomation: This ink painting from the Kamakura Era depicts
Bodhidharma, the founder, according to legend, of Asian martial arts.

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Yip Man and his most famous student Bruce Lee, practicing Chi Sao or Sticky Hands (c.1955). Chi Sao is an exercise that is designed to improve the reflexes of the martial artist and is a favourite technique amongst Wing Chun practitioners of all levels.
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