“the orthodox school of traditional Chinese martial arts”

 I have never given my assent to the proposition that the gong-fu of the Shaolin school be given the epithet of “the orthodox school of traditional Chinese martial arts”. There are numerous schools of wushu in China. They have sprung up in different parts of our country. And they have been created by different ethnic groups and nurtured by different subcultures existing in our country. It is completely groundless to label one school of martial arts as orthodox or another as unorthodox, because there is no such thing as a commonly accepted criterion for justifying such an arbitrary labeling. Over two millennia have elapsed since the first appearance in the history of ancient China of the pristine and rudimentary forms of martial arts. All the extant schools of traditional Chinese martial arts are powerful ones; otherwise they would not have survived the millennia. Each of the extant schools of martial arts is an orthodox school of traditional Chinese martial arts in the region where, or in the subculture wherein, it originated. That China is replete with multifarious schools of traditional martial arts contributes to the glory of Chinese culture. The term “traditional Chinese martial arts” encompasses all schools of traditional martial arts in China. And they have made traditional Chinese culture all the more dazzling. Shaolin gong-fu constitutes only an ingredient of traditional Chinese martial arts.