Learn Kung Fu and Taijiquan(Tai Chi)in Fayetteville, NC

China has a long, rich and diverse history of martial arts. For thousands of years Chinese nobility and peasants alike have been practicing and refining both armed and unarmed combat skills. Known as 國術(GuoShu - national art)or 武術(Wu Shu - Martial Art) Chinese Martial Arts continue to flourish today through local folk schools 家(Jia - families) as well as large government sanctioned schools.

Chinese Martial Arts are popularly referred to as Kung Fu in the west. This is a slight misnomer as 功夫 Gung Fu(PinYin transliteration of Kung Fu) technically means an accomplishment that is earned through hard work. This name does apply at the Rou Long Ma school, our students work to earn their rank and skill, instilling a sense of accomplishment and self discipline.

We are a Jia or family based system commonly found throughout China. These "folk schools" are typically less regimented operating around more of a family concept. We teach what is classified as traditional Chinese martial art(CMA), we do not focus on simply one aspect of our art, but aim for well rounded students. CMA has a long history not only of fighting skill, but as performance art as well. In addition, early in it's Chinese history, martial arts was viewed as having a purpose above that of simple self defense, or fighting. One of the first mentions of this is in the Daoist writing s of Zhuangzi and Liezi in China. It is particularly noteworthy that this account clearly spells out the idea that practice of the martial arts can lead to an elevated state of mind where perfection of skill creates perfect mental focus, and does it centuries before the invention of Chan Buddhism (that practiced at the famous Shaolin monastery), in fact before Buddhism even reached China.

About Our Name

柔龍馬 Rou Long Ma (literally translated as soft/pliable dragon horse). The first word Rou meaning soft/pliable in a martial arts sense is the same first word from the Japanese Art of Jujitsu and Judo. This word is used relating our arts to the Taoist concept of not meeting force head-on, instead redirecting the attack and focusing our applications on the weakness of the attacker This can be best illustrated by the following quote from Sun Tzu, the famous Chinese Military strategist and philosopher.

"So in war, the way is to avoid what is strong and to strike at what is weak."

龍馬Long Ma was a fabled winged horse with dragon scales in Chinese mythology. Long was also a category of horse that was up to eight feet tall. Edward H. Shafer describesl the horse's "tremendous importance" to Tang Dynasty rulers for military tactics, diplomatic policy, and aristocratic privilege.

Still, this patrician animal owed his unique status to more than his usefulness to the lords of the land. He was invested with sanctity by ancient tradition, endowed with prodigious qualities, and visibly stamped with the marks of his divine origin. A revered myth proclaimed him a relative of the dragon, akin to the mysterious powers of water. Indeed, all wonderful horses, such as the steed* of the pious Hsüan-tsang which, in later legend, carried the sacred scriptures from India, were avatars of dragons, and in antiquity the tallest horse owned by the Chinese were called simply "dragons". (1963:59)

*This "steed" refers to Xuanzang's famous bailongma 白龍馬 "white dragon horse".