Donnie Yen

Donnie Yen (born 27 July 1963), also known as Yen Ji-dan (甄子丹), is a Hong Kong actor, martial artist, film director and producer, action choreographer, and multiple-time world wushu tournament champion.

Yen is credited by many for contributing to the popularization of the traditional martial arts style known as Wing Chun. He played Wing Chun grandmaster Yip Man in the 2008 film Ip Man, which was a box office success. This has led to an increase in the number of people taking up Wing Chun, leading to hundreds of new Wing Chun schools to be opened up in mainland China and other parts of Asia.Ip Chun, the eldest son of Ip Man, even mentioned that he is grateful to Yen for making his family art popular and allowing his father's legacy to be remembered.

Yen is considered to be one of Hong Kong's top action stars; director Peter Chan mentioned that he "is the 'it' action person right now" and "has built himself into a bona fide leading man, who happens to be an action star." Yen is widely credited for bringing mixed martial arts (MMA) into the mainstream of Chinese culture, by choreographing MMA in many of his recent films. Yen has displayed notable skills in a wide variety of martial arts, being well-versed in boxing, kickboxing, Jeet Kune Do, Hapkido, taekwondo, karate, Muay Thai, wrestling, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Judo, Wing Chun, and Wushu. Seen as one of the most popular film stars in Asia in recent years, Yen was one of the highest paid actors in Asia in 2009. Yen has earned 220 million HKD (28.4 million USD) from four films and six advertisements in 2013.

Journey to the West

Journey to the West is a Chinese novel published in the 16th century during the Ming dynasty and attributed to Wu Cheng'en. It is one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature. In English-speaking countries, the work is widely known as Monkey, the title of Arthur Waley's popular abridged translation.

The novel is an extended account of the legendary pilgrimage of the Tang dynasty Buddhist monk Xuanzang who traveled to the "Western Regions", that is, Central Asia and India, to obtain sacred texts (sūtras) and returned after many trials and much suffering. It retains the broad outline of Xuanzang's own account, Great Tang Records on the Western Regions, but the Ming dynasty novel adds elements from folk tales and the author's invention, that is, that the Buddha gave this task to the monk and provided him with three protectors who agree to help him as an atonement for their sins. These disciples are Sun Wukong, Zhu Wuneng and Sha Wujing, together with a dragon prince who acts as Xuanzang's steed, a white horse.

Chinese martial arts

Chinese martial arts, often labeled under the umbrella terms Kung Fu (/ˈkʊŋ ˈfuː/; Chinese: 功夫; pinyin: gong fu) and Wushu (武术), are the several hundreds of fighting styles that have developed over the centuries in China. These fighting styles are often classified according to common traits, identified as "families" (家; jiā), "sects" (派; pài) or "schools" (門; mén) of martial arts. Examples of such traits include Shaolinquan (少林拳) physical exercises involving Five Animals (五形) mimicry, or training methods inspired by Chinese philosophies, religions and legends. Styles that focus on qi manipulation are called internal (内家拳; nèijiāquán), while others that concentrate on improving muscle and cardiovascular fitness are called "external" (外家拳; wàijiāquán). Geographical association, as in northern (北拳; běiquán) and "southern" (南拳; nánquán), is another popular classification method.

Terminology

Kung fu and wushu are loanwords from Chinese that, in English, are used to refer to Chinese martial arts. However, the Chinese terms kung fu and wushu ( listen (Mandarin) ; Cantonese: móuh-seuht) have distinct meanings. The Chinese equivalent of the term "Chinese martial arts" would be Zhongguo wushu (Chinese: 中國武術; pinyin: zhōngguó wǔshù) (Mandarin).

Zhou Yu

Zhou Yu (175–210),courtesy name Gongjin, was a military general and strategist serving under the warlord Sun Ce in the late Eastern Han dynasty. He continued serving under Sun Quan, Sun Ce's younger brother and successor, after Sun Ce died in 200 CE. Around late 208, the northern warlord Cao Cao led his forces south with the intention of conquering the Jiangdong region, where Sun Quan's territories were based, but was defeated by Sun's forces under Zhou Yu's command at the decisive Battle of Red Cliffs. Zhou Yu served as the frontline commander of Sun Quan's forces at the Battle of Jiangling and defeated Cao Cao's forces again. Zhou Yu's victories helped to solidify the survivability of Sun Quan's regime, which would serve as the foundation of the state of Eastern Wu in the Three Kingdoms period (220–280). He died in 210 at a relatively young age of 35 while preparing for a conquest of the Bashu region (covering present-day Sichuan and Chongqing).

Family background

Zhou Yu was from Shu County (舒縣), Lujiang Commandery (廬江郡), which is in present-day Shucheng County, Lu'an, Anhui. Two of his relatives – his granduncle, Zhou Jing (周景); Zhou Jing's son, Zhou Zhong (周忠) – served as the "Grand Commandant" (太尉) in the Han imperial court. Zhou Yu's father, Zhou Yi (周異), was the Prefect (令) of the imperial capital Luoyang.

Sun Wukong

Sun Wukong, also known as the Monkey King, is a main character in the Chinese classical novel Journey to the West. Sun Wukong is also found in many later stories and adaptations. In the novel, he is a monkey born from a stone who acquires supernatural powers through Taoist practices. After rebelling against heaven and being imprisoned under a mountain by the Buddha, he later accompanies the monk Xuanzang on a journey to retrieve Buddhist sutras from India.

Sun Wukong possesses an immense amount of strength; he is able to lift his 13,500 jīn (7,960 kilograms (17,550 lb)) staff with ease. He is also extremely fast, able to travel 108,000 li (54,000 kilometres (34,000 mi)) in one somersault. Sun knows 72 transformations, which allow him to transform into various animals and objects; however, he is troubled in transforming into other forms, due to the accompanying incomplete transformation of his tail. Sun Wukong is a skilled fighter, capable of holding his own against the best warriors of heaven. Also, each of his hairs possess magical properties, capable of being transformed into clones of the Monkey King himself, and/or into various weapons, animals, and other objects. He also knows spells that can command wind, part water, conjure protective circles against demons, and freeze humans, demons, and gods alike.