Martial Arts Interpretation

Always presenting itself in the 5,000 years of Chinese civilization, Wushu has played a very special role in the Chinese national history. It consists of the Chinese ancestors'priciples of life and also the essence of the Chinese traditional philosophy and thus it became a very complicated and diversified system and a special cultural phenomenon in the chinese history. After the Opium War, the military marsial arts was gradually taken place by the firearms in the war, however, Wushu developed on its own track among folks. In the 1920s and 1930s, due to the streaming in of the western athletics, there was a debate named as"the national athletics vs the foreign athletics", which was the turing point in the development of Wushu. Under the influence of the scientization of the western athletics, Wushu joined the Chinese modern athletics with the new features and is loved by people all over the world. Nevertheless, with the fast rising of the contemporary Chinese athletics, the problems aroused from the unreconcilable conflicting forces in the Wushu development have become more and more serious. The predicaments in theory and the conflicts in reality forces us to meditate over such questions as: What is the innate character of Wushu? What is the root of those predicaments in the practice of Wushu? How will Wushu develop in the future?"Ascertain the history and you'll know the something thoroughly". This is a saying from < Three Word Canon >, which means that if you want to predict the future, you must know about the past. To answer the questions above, we must try to find out carefully how Wushu culture has developed from the unadequate historical records and summarize the dynamic force and evolution laws in Wushu development. This essay begins from the study of Wushu's innate character, and by making use of the logical and historical demonstrative method, by referring to the achievements of the modern cultural and social study, by analyzing and comparing the historical records, by "making bold assumptions and careful verification", we can gradually form a theoretical system which takes the term"Wushu"as the logical starting point, the function-value system as the frame, and the individual, the communal and the national levels as the basis of the needs for Wushu. In this way, I try to reach the aim of"describing the past, explaining the present and predicting the future of Wushu".The essay consists of the following parts:First, the definition of the term"Wushu". A definition is both the summary and generalization of what we know in the past and the starting point of further study and of acquiring new knowledge. Now Wushu is the part of the chinese modern sports. According to this fact, I has divided the concept of Wushu into the broad sense one and narrow sense one. ( the broad sense one)Wushu ,which was named as"Military arts","Kongfu"or"National arts",is the individual defence activity which takes the fighting skill as the contents of practice, the body and mind training as the basic methods and which was handed down from generation to generation in the Chinese history. ( the narrow sense one) Wushu ,which also was named as Wushu sports, is a national sports game which come from the traditional military arts and take the fright skill as the contents. Its forms show as Routing and Sanda etc."Every new idea in any field of study will bring a revolution of the terms in this field". This new definition is made on the basis of a careful investigation of the history of Wushu, of the succeeding of Wushu cultural, of the logical relationship between Wushu and sport, and of the philosophy of Wushu innate character. The new definition for the first time gets rid of the fetters of the old concepts and tries to restores a historical truth for Wushu.Second, the research of the function-value system of Wushu. "When explaining a social phenomena, we must distinguish the adequate reason of the phenomenon from the function of the phenomenon". The function-value system of Wushu has the features of complexity, variety and multi-levelness. According to the different values of Wushu evaluated by the individuals, communities, and the whole nation, this essay concludes: The defence function determines the existence of Wushu in history; The contemporary society requires that Wushu convert into sport; The need of body-training in Wushu has changed the barycenter of the function-value system of Wushu; Wushu culture is the core value of Wushu and the bond of the inheritance and spread of the traditional and national culture; Education is the fundamental method and the destination of realizing the value of Wushu.Wushu, which characterizes in fighting among individuals, emerged earlier than the military groups. With the sophistication of the social divisions of the laborers and the appearance of the system of the private ownership, the class society came into being. Wushu in its early period provided the material fundations for the military groups which appeared later, such as the primitive weapons ,fighting skills and the warriors. In the cold weapon age, Wushu and military groups mingled and penetrated each other with the two forces running in parellel without conflicts. With the expansion of the scale and the changes in the form of war, Wushu and the military groups were separated. After the firearms were commonly used in the war, the military martial arts retreated from the battlefields.With the coming of the industrial civilization and the the legal society, the traditional folk Wushu lost the soil for existing and spreading. The conversion of Wushu into sport is the choice of the epoch and the choice of the history. It is the non-shirkable duty for the workers in the field of Wushu to critically inherit and spread Wushu culture which is a part of the traditional and national culture. However, in the process of spreading Wushu through"developing, reforming and innovating"we do not deny the traditions in Wushu.The Investigation of the origin of Wushu culture must be based on the relationships between Wushu and other social aspects. Wushu culture has three cultural levels including the technique cultural level, the behavior cultural level and the psycology cultural level. The technique cultural level consists of body actions which can be used in fighting and their basic principles. People who took part in Wushu practice formed the behavior cultural level on the basis of the aquiesced model of behavior. The behavior cultural level manifests itself in Wushu morality. The psycology cultural level of Wushu includes value concepts, beauty appreciation, and thinking manner which were formed in the long history of Wushu practice. This is the core of Wushu culture.The educational function of Wushu lies mainly in Wushu morality. Wushu morality as a organic part of Wushu has its own moral and doctrine system and has the function of moral education. The spirits and beliefs advocated in Wushu morality such as loyalty, righteousness, faith, toughness, determination, braveness, honest etc and the standards for behavior such as benevolence, tolerance, forgiverness, politeness, modesty, etc. have a great educational value in modern China."Literature can train your intelligence, and Wushu can train your morality."The long time and the toughness in practicing Wushu make people extremely persistent and fortitudinous and also educate people to be loyal and faithful. The original purpose of practicing Wushu is to protect home, but when the nation is facing danger, this motivation of protecting home will be sublimated into the national conciousness of defending the national dignity and protecting the interest of the motherland. There were many heros who were unyielding and devoted their lives to the country and their heroic undertaking shocked the world. Therefore, people who practice Wushu formed the good traditional of devotion to the nation and to the people. Every school of Wushu has the cultural consicousness of"patriotism".Wushu moral education has a special function in solving the problems of the general vacancy of morality which is caused by the failure of moral education and the lacking of sincerity and faith in the modern society. The practice of Wushu moral education which accords to"the combination of theory and practice"includes the abundant ideas in Wushu morality into its practice. It consists of not only the"moral concepts"but also the"moral rules"and these formed a moral system which combines theory and practice. This is exactly the advantage of Wushu moral education in the moral education of the contemporary society. "Without etiquette a man is inhuman; without etiquette nothing can be done". Wushu"etiquette"is a important way of realizing Wushu moral education. Neglecting the requirement of Wushu "etiquette" of the Wushu practicers, Wushu moral education can never be done.Third, Wushu developing strategy analysis. The social need decides the social existence. Wushu development can can never be separated from the social reality. The modern China is a nation which is "seeking revival of the Chinese nation", trying to form a"harmonious society", and facing both the opportunity and challenge in the development. Through the analysis of the reason for the historical status of Wushu, we try to analyze the relationship between Wushu and the fate of the nation, discuss the function of Wushu in the contemporary society, and reveal the innate relationship between Wushu and the social development of modern China. Wushu is the exact embodiment of the Chinese national spirit. The values such as trustworthiness, virtue, unremitting efforts, patriotism, hard-working and braveness are exactly what Wushu advocats.The content of Wushu culture is extremely abundant. Wushu is the representitive of the excellent traditional Chinese culture. No matter for molding independent personality of the individuals, the implantation of the national spirit, or for setting up the harmonious society, Wushu has its own special value. It will play a special role in the aspects mentioned above.The scientific view of Wushu development would follow such a principle: Inherit the excellent tradition, get rid of the feudal scum, refer to the scientfic achievements, enhance the cultural research, promote Wushu through competition, focus on education, aim at serving the society, rely on the economic guarantees.