Quote:
Originally Posted by hideouse
While there has long been a philosophical and meditative aspect to Japanese (and other east asian) martial arts, there origins in , and utility in bloody violence is not forgotten by their cultures of origin.
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the legend of a chinese buddhist sect that practiced hand to hand combat at the same school they practiced ch'an meditation does not make all asian martial arts ways of peace. I lack the scholarly materials to definteively make a case one way or the other but I suggest that very few of the people who practiced martial arts through out history had the leisure and the security to practice for meditative or philosophical purposes. More likely in my view is that people learned how to do unto others as they were trying to do unto them. I believe that what makes the "way of peace" expression of martial arts possible is strong central government able to keep a rein on warlords and bandits with the accompaning economic prosperity that allows people time to train instead of struggling to produce enough food to eat every day.
On the other hand, every culture known has some sort of system of personal competition in the form of some sort of wrestling or boxing or hitting with implements. Why does it need to be fancier than that?