Research On Martial Arts Development Of The Six Dynasties In Shanxi

Located in the middle reaches of Yellow River, Shanxi is the cradle of Chinese nation aswell as one of the birthplace of Chinese culture since ancient times, creating the splendid rivercivilization. The occurrence and development of martial arts originated from this civilization.As the fruit of Chinese culture, the martial arts is closely reflected thoughts and philosophy ofChinese culture. The martial arts schools are diverse with distinguishing regional and nationalcharacteristics; additionally, the martial arts continuously follows deep thoughts andphilosophy of Chinese culture. In such a great historical and cultural heritage, the martial artsin Shanxi plays an extraordinarily vital role in history. The so-called different habits withinone hundred miles, while various customs within one thousand miles[1], indicating suchcultural differences in different regions. Thus, each culture is an independent system which isnon-repeatable; each nation owns special cultural traditions with exceptional value system[2].The martial arts development of the Six Dynasties in Shanxi deserves particular attentionfrom researchers. From the founding of Cao Wei Dynasty in AD220to the ending of ChenDynasty eliminated by Sui Dynasty in AD589is the Six Dynasties. During this dividedperiod, unprecedented communication, integration and leap of culture occurred due to greatmigration and integration of nations and the martial arts has developed to a large extent. Thesituation in Shanxi is extremely crucial[3], i.e. to triumph in Shanxi, then to win in theworld[3]; Shanxi is a significant place in terms of politics and military strategies sinceancient times. The Six Dynasties of300years long is featured as frequent wars, whichbecomes important reasons for development of the martial arts in Shanxi. After EightEmperors Wars of Xi Jin Dynasty, the minorities of Jie, Shi, Qiang, and Xianbei haveestablished regimes in succession, forming the south-north confrontation from Dong JinDynasty to unified Sui Dynasty, with sixteen regimes battling in nearly three centuries. Both the first minority of Xiongnu Han regime and the unified Xianbei Tuoba regime chose toestablish the capital in Shanxi, and the central plains consequently became one of the mainbattlefields.As record of Shanxi in Essentials of Historical Geography by Mr. Gu Zuyu: Take goodadvantage of its situation, you may strike in the back so as to control it, which conveys themilitary significance of geographic situation in Shanxi. Wars continued in the rich Shanxibattlefield, and as the direct impetus of the martial arts development, it can be dialecticallyanalyzed and drawn a conclusion that destruction was caused in Shanxi; meanwhile, changesand development of the martial arts in Shanxi has also been promoted. Therefore, research onmartial arts development of the Six Dynasties in Shanxi turns out to be quite important.As parts of my academic supervisor s philosophy and social science project titledResearch on Law of Occurrence and Development of the Martial Arts in Shanxi from theViewpoint of Regional Culture, the more than three hundred years of the Six Dynasties whenthe military martial arts were drawn close attention, under the background that every Hannation in middle plains considered Shanxi as the frontier of invasion resistance, adoptliterature review method, comparative method and historical textual research method,beginning from the perspective of regional martial arts culture research, revealing the martialarts development of the Six Dynasties in Shanxi through research and analysis of changes anddevelopment of weapons, shooting skills, brave military generals, flourishing of Buddhismand health preservation of Taoism, etc. Since the importance of the martial arts in Shanxi, itsregional martial arts characteristics can be highlighted only when its development has beenclearly understood. Furthermore, the profound Chinese martial arts can be fully demonstrated.