Take the rap for kung fu
QUESTION How did the rap group Wu-Tang Clan come by their name?
The Wu-Tang Clan is a hard-hitting, hip-hop collective that emerged from Staten Island, New York, in 1993. The group is renowned for its booming beats and samples from soul records as well as kung-fu movies, setting the backdrop for the crew’s gritty, violent lyrics.
Growing up, Wu-Tang Clan mastermind Robert Diggs, better known as RZA, was an avid fan of Chinese kung-fu movies. he borrowed the name Wu-Tang from one of his favourite 1980s martial arts films, Shaolin And Wu Tang, directed by and starring the legendary Gordon Liu.
The group’s debut album enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) owes its name to another of Liu’s films, Disciples Of The 36th Chamber. The group refers to Staten Island as Shaolin in their lyrics and sampled the english dub of these films.
Shaolin kung-fu is a martial art developed by Buddhist monks in the temple of that name in henan province. however, Wu Tang is a fictional martial art derived from Wuxia fiction.
Wuxia, which means martial heroes, is an elaborate mythology concerning the adventures of fighters in ancient China.
Wu Tang takes its name from the Wudang mountain range in hubei Province and is based on Taoist rather than Buddhist principles.
Shaolin and Wu Tang inspired RZA. ‘The sword fighting alone was from another planet,’ he said.
‘Then there was the attitude of the Wu Tang themselves. They were defectors from the Shaolin temple, warriors who had trained at Shaolin and developed a sword style that was invincible.’
L.P. Frost, Coventry.
QUESTION How did the Lakeland fell Great Cockup get its name?
ULDALe is a secluded area behind Skiddaw in the northern Lake District, noted less for dramatic terrain than for its isolation.
It has six fells: Longlands Fell, Brae Fell, Great Sca Fell, Knott, Meal Fell and Great Cockup. This reaches 1,726ft and was given Great as part of its name to distinguish it from its smaller brother, the 1,296ft Little Cockup, to the west, which is part of the Northern Fells.
Inevitably, Great Cockup features on lists of rude British place names.
The fell’s name originates from the Old english cocc, meaning a woodcock, and hop, a secluded valley. It’s not related to the town of Cockermouth, which takes its name from the River Cocker, which is derived from the Celtic word kukra, meaning ‘the crooked one’.
Alfred Wainwright, who loved almost every inch of the fells, was uninspired by Great Cockup. In his Pictorial Guide To The Lakeland Fells, he writes: ‘Viewed from a distance, Great Cockup appears as a modest, but extensive, eminence with no obvious summit and nothing calling for closer inspection.
‘First impressions are confirmed by a tour of exploration, the fell underfoot proving no more attractive than the fell at a distance.’
Of Brockle Crag, its most conspicuous feature, he adds: ‘This is disappointing on close inspection, being no more than an untidy fall of quartzite rocks.’
To my mind, however, the rolling sheep pastures of Uldale are a lovely place to avoid the busy tourist areas during holiday periods.
Ian Moore, Whitehaven, Cumbria.
QUESTION Do we know which British soldier fired the first shot in World War I?
TheRe are differing claims about which British soldier fired the first shot of World War I. This may be because one of those named wasn’t a British citizen. War was declared on July 28, 1914. Private ernest edward Thomas of 4th Dragoon Guards was part of a patrol on August 22.
At 6.30am, they moved forward to investigate a report of German cavalry around the Belgian village of Casteau. The two units saw one other and charged, but there was no exchange of gunfire. Swords were drawn in the traditional manner for cavalry.
Spotting a German officer 400 yards away, Thomas raised his rifle and took a shot. The German fell from his horse, but it was never established if he lived or died. The confrontation took only a few seconds before the Germans retreated. The only British casualty was a horse.
Thomas survived the war, rising to the rank of Sergeant and being Mentioned in Dispatches. After the war, he was the commissionaire at the Duke of York cinema in Brighton.
The other claimant is Regimental Sergeant Major Alhaji Grunshi of the Gold Coast Regiment. The shot was fired in West Africa, not europe.
It was the practice to raise regiments made up of local recruits to defend British colonies from attack. even though they were part of the British Army, other than the officers, the soldiers weren’t British citizens.
The German territory of Togoland (now independent Togo) was surrounded by French and British territories: Gold Coast to the west (now Ghana), French Dahomey to the east (now the Republic of Dahomey) and French West Africa to the north (now several nations including Senegal and Mali).
Apart from 660 armed police officers, Togoland was undefended. On August 4, 1914, six days after war was declared, soldiers of the Gold Coast Regiment advanced into the country to capture it.
On August 7, they encountered police officers at Nuatja, near the capital Lome. Alhaji Grunshi became the first British soldier to fire a shot in World War I, 15 days before the incident in Belgium.
Resistance in Togoland crumbled on August 8 when the police commanding officer, hauptmann Pfaeler, was shot while trying to climb a tree to better see the advancing British troops. The German colonial government formally surrendered on August 26.
Grunshi survived the war after fighting three campaigns.
Robert Sutherland, Northampton. IS THERE a question to which you want to know the answer? Or do you know the answer to a question here? Write to: Charles Legge, Answers To Correspondents, Daily Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT; or email charles.legge@dailymail.co.uk. A selection is published, but we’re unable to enter into individual correspondence.