Abstract
The paper highlights various basic ideas of Chinese martial arts and strategy schools such as Perfection through constant practice (kungfu), unassailability, evasion, deception, preference of the “weak” over the strong (as in Japanese Judo, the “soft way”) as well as winning without fighting. These elements are regarded as the quintessence of Chinese martial arts, which have also (in variants) reached Japan and Korea. A close connection to the philosophical teachings of Daoism can be shown, which can also be understood as an art of life or art of survival. Its principles have played a central role in the life of the Chinese until today, namely, as an instruction for coping with everyday life—the “life struggle.” Thus the ultimate goal of fighting is not the destruction of the opponent but the creation of harmony at the end of the fight.
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Notes
- 1.
An earlier version of this paper appeared in Möller and Wohlfart (2008, pp. 17–32).
- 2.
Mencius, 2B1.
- 3.
Mencius, 7A26.
- 4.
Mr. Miagi to Daniel-san in the movie “Karate Kid.”
- 5.
Cf. Clausewitz: “Invincibility lies in the defence; the possibility of victory in the attack.”
- 6.
This is the wording of the standard text; Wang Bi, actually, has a version that is the same as in the Mawangdui texts: “There is no greater disaster than having no viable opponent (wu di)” (Lynn 1999: 176).
- 7.
Cf. Chap. 33 of Laozi: “One who knows others is wise, but one who knows himself is perspicacious. One who conquers others has strength, but one who conquers himself is powerful” (Lynn 1999: 110f).
- 8.
Gawlikowski offers this interesting observation: “‘Public performances’ were shaped by Confucian virtues and norms, real actions were shaped by the School of Strategy. Thus, beautiful speeches on high values usually disguised pragmatic immorality and trickery, raised to the level of a real art and sophisticated analysis, to the bewilderment of the foreigners” (Gawlikowski 1985: 197–98).
- 9.
The value given to both wen and wu is analogous to the estimation of the two famous founding fathers of the Zhou Dynasty: King Wen and King Wu.
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Pohl, KH. (2023). Kungfu—Musings on the Philosophical Background of Chinese Martial Arts. In: Jiao, D., Li, D., Meng, L., Peng, Y. (eds) Understanding and Translating Chinese Martial Arts. New Frontiers in Translation Studies. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-8425-9_1
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