四大名拳：Four famous traditional martial arts boxing school:

小时候，老听前辈讲中国有四大名拳。形意，太极，八卦，少林。该少林不仅仅指嵩山少林寺的拳术，而是泛指形意，太极，八卦之外的所有武术门派。当时就顶纳闷，为什么这么多门派都统称少林。后来听人们讲什么武当，少林。内家外家。总算看出点玄机。原来一些人吧形意，太极，八卦归于武当，属于内家拳。把其他所有拳种归于外家，属于少林派。
少林寺，武当山，一为佛门名刹，一为道教圣地，何者为方外，何者乃方内。佛道皆有出世，在世之分野，当然也存在方外，方内之高低。无在世之修炼。如何升达出世之境界，无方内之俗物，何来方外之无欲。
现在人们普遍认为形意，太极，八卦为内家拳术，其他拳种皆为少林派，为外家拳种。以为佛寺僧人是世外人，故少林寺僧人所习拳术，称外家拳。佛道两家，少林弟子属于佛 ，为外；武当弟子乃是道 ，为内。这真是扬佛贬道。在佛道中修炼，方外才是高人，方内那是俗夫。When I was a child, I heard that seniors had four big martial arts school in China. Their names Xingyi, Tai Chi, Baua, Shaolin. The Shaolin not only refers to the martial arts of the Shaolin Temple in Song shan, but refers to all martial arts except Xingyi, Taiji, and Bagua. At that time, I wondered why so many schools were collectively referred to as Shaolin. Later I heard people talk about Wudang and Shaolin. Inside and outside the martial arts schools. Finally, we can see a little mystery. Some people think it’s just like the Xingyi, the Tai Chi and the Bagua. They are attributed to Wudang and belong to the Nei Jia Quan. All other types of boxing were attributed to the outsiders and belonged to the Shaolin School.
Shaolin Temple, Wudang Mountain, one for the Buddhist temple, one for Taoism holy land, what is outside the human world, what is within the human world. Buddhist roads are all born out the human world. Of course, there are also called outside the human world. No living practice. How to ascend to the realm of birth, no ordinary things within the party, no place outside of the desire.
Nowadays, people generally believe that Xingyi, Taiji, and Bagua are inside boxing techniques, and other boxing types are all Shaolin Schools, and they are outside boxing species. It is believed that the monks in the Buddhist temple are outsiders from human world. Therefore, the shaolin temple is used by people known as a outside martial arts. There are two Buddhism and Taoism schools. The Shaolin disciples belong to the Buddha and they are outside human world; the Wudang disciples are the Taoist and the inner. This is really a praise of the Buddha.and devaluation of the Taoist. In the practice of Buddhism and Taoism, Fangwai is an superman, and Fangnei is an ordinary man.