The following is Professor Ma Mingda’s speech at the Baijia Forum: I think it is the best explanation of Chinese martial arts:

Martial arts is a very fascinating topic because it is our It is a very important part of traditional culture, and martial arts has a lot of mystery, so everyone is always willing to talk about it. There are many contemporary martial arts novels and many martial arts films, which also lead us to become more and more interested in martial arts.

We always say that martial arts has a long history and is broad and profound. The so-called long history refers to its history, which has gone through a very long development process. It shows that it is a rooted culture and it is not a sudden phenomenon.

To say it is profound means that it is very profound, its content is very rich, large, and contains very sophisticated things. So I will mainly talk about my understanding from these two aspects.

When it comes to having a long history, I think it is easier to understand. It just means that our martial arts has an ancient history, and it is in sync with the five thousand years of history of our Chinese nation. But specifically when did martial arts come into being? This is very academic and a difficult question to answer.

To put it simply, we believe that at least in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, martial arts had formed a relatively complete structure. Some of the characteristics of our modern martial arts were generally already available at that time.

In terms of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, what was the most important content in martial arts at that time? It is the sword that everyone is familiar with. The sword was the highlight of martial arts culture at that time. As far as swords are concerned, there were already professional swordsmen in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. For example, Sima Qian once said that his ancestor Sima's branch in the Zhao Kingdom used to pass down swords. He became a local celebrity by teaching fencing techniques. At that time, in addition to swords, folk non-military hand-to-hand fighting techniques were also very developed, and an early form of boxing in my country appeared, called hand fighting. In fact, hand fighting means fighting with hands, and we still use this term today. Then in the Han Dynasty, we had our first officially issued, or in other words, our literature catalog selection in our formal system, which is the familiar "Hanshu·Yiwenzhi". In the "Hanshu·Yiwenzhi" category of military books, there is a category called military skill writers. This military skill expert includes some ancient martial arts works, such as "Kendo" and "Shoubo", as well as various specialized works on archery. With the emergence of these books, we can say with certainty that they contain The content should be earlier than the Han Dynasty. It is a symbol. It symbolizes that at least before the Han Dynasty, after passing through the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, through the Qin Dynasty, and through the early Western Han Dynasty, our country's martial arts had actually matured. And this maturity just means that it has gone through a very long-term development process.

Our country has been a unified multi-ethnic country since ancient times. The conflict and integration of national cultures have filled the entire process of our history. Therefore, the cultural phenomenon of martial arts was actually gradually formed through exchanges, integration, re-conflict, and re-integration of the Chinese nation's group identity, with the Han ethnic group as the main body. This inevitably determines the complexity of its structure. There are many schools of martial arts. As we all know, there are many schools of martial arts. So there are a lot of things from ethnic minorities here, which happens to be the most important cultural feature of martial arts that deserves our attention. It can be said to be one of its advantages.

The second point is that our country has never existed in isolation in the world. We and neighboring countries, we and even further European countries, even now have scholars studying it. Did our ancestors arrive in the Americas very early? We are constantly communicating with cultures other than ours, so-called foreign cultures or foreign cultures. This exchange has an impact on the overall culture of our Chinese nation, and also on martial arts. same. Then there are also external factors in martial arts, which will also have an impact on the complexity of the martial arts structure.

To give an example, take Shaolin, which we are most familiar with. We now call it Shaolin Boxing, or Shaolin Kung Fu, and even say that Chinese martial arts originated from Shaolin. Then everyone knows that the reason why Shaolin is so famous is Two reasons, one is that it is the ancestral home of the so-called Zen Buddhism.

The second is its martial arts, especially in the Ming Dynasty, its martial arts were very prominent. So in the so-called Shaolin Kungfu system represented by Shaolin Temple, it has external factors and the influence of Buddhist culture. Why is it said to be external? Because everyone knows that it is not Chinese culture, it is a culture that was introduced to our country from India. So many things related to this, many specific technical contents should also have external factors.

So during its development process and for a long historical period, we called martial arts martial arts. In fact, it was not until the end of the Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China that the term martial arts was chosen. Or as everyone knows, after the 16th year of the Republic of China, we called it national martial arts again. After the founding of New China, we definitely used the term martial arts, but as everyone knows, overseas, in areas where many Chinese and overseas Chinese live, it is also called Kung Fu. These names are all very different, and each name has its reasons, and there are also many cultural factors behind it.

So in our history, for a long time, it was called martial arts. Why is it called martial arts? This is because martial arts was mainly used in the military in ancient China. It can be said that martial arts has many functions. To put it simply, it has at least four functions.

The first function is the function of offensive and defensive fighting, the second function is the function of fitness and physical strengthening, and the third function is the function of practicing and viewing. We can even call it some kind of artistic function. Fourth, it is the function of self-cultivation that everyone often talks about. It is composed of these four aspects.

So which function has its dominant position? It is different in different historical periods. In ancient times, for a long time, its function should be said to be mainly offensive and defensive combat, and it served the military. Because in feudal countries or earlier than feudal countries, in early slavery societies, the main use of martial arts was for fighting and military activities. It is for this reason that the state has a relative monopoly on it, and it is impossible for it to allow civilians to If everyone comes to practice martial arts, or if everyone holds a knife or a gun, and everyone practices martial arts, then this country will be unstable and there will be no such stupid emperor.

So ancient martial arts actually formed one part of military martial arts and one part of folk martial arts. There are similarities and differences between the two. They are both martial arts. Military martial arts focus on fighting, and folk martial arts also focus on fighting, but the degree is different. Folk martial arts also use the fitness value of martial arts to try to obtain a strong body. So everyone knows that the form of sword dancing and the weapon of sword actually basically declined after the Han Dynasty. Because compared with the actual application of the sword in later military activities, it lags far behind the knife. So everyone knows that since the Han Dynasty, it has been the Han sword. Then the most glorious period for swords was the Bronze Age. The sword emerged from Wu Yue in the late Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. It was a short sword at first. Later in the late Warring States Period, Qin and Han Dynasties, and the early Han Dynasty, long swords made of iron or even steel appeared, and the sword reached its glorious period. But soon it slowly declined, because on the real battlefield, the practical value of the sword is not as good as the knife, it is easy to break, and the technique is relatively difficult. Knife is a technique mainly used for cutting, while sword is mainly used for stabbing.

Then, but it is different among the people. The purpose of the folk is not whether it is really useful for military activities, so the sword has always been retained among the people, and the sword has become a cultural sign and a symbol. It is because many literati, whether they practice it or not, are willing to wear a sword or hang a sword at home to show that they are both scholars and swordsmen. He is pursuing a kind of spirit. Everyone knows this spirit. Our ancient literati condensed it into two words, called the spirit of "book sword" and "book sword". So everyone knows that Li Bai's sword and articles are parallel. So this means that there are many things that have little value in military martial arts, but they still have room for survival and even room for development among the people. So everyone knows that in the Tang Dynasty, "Gongsun Auntie danced with swords". So the content of this dance has been traced back to us, from the Warring States Period to the Han Dynasty. It is said that "the sword dance in Xiangzhuang is intended for Pei Gong." He danced the sword there, and its value as an artistic appreciation has been preserved among the people. Not only has it been preserved, but it has also been developed. Therefore, folk martial arts have actually developed in parallel with military martial arts for a long time. This kind of development lasted until tomorrow, and it began to change tomorrow.

So for martial arts, what is the core of its changes? Military martial arts have declined, and martial arts are no longer the most important content in the army, but folk martial arts have become relatively prosperous. Folk martial arts are diverse, and the so-called prosperity is reflected in the emergence of a large number of new boxing techniques and the emergence of new schools, and these schools and boxings obviously have certain philosophical concepts. For example, Tai Chi, Xingyi, Bagua, and Tongbei. We can see from the names of its boxing styles that they are different from the names of more than ten boxing schools in the Ming Dynasty recorded by Qi Jiguang. What kind of sign is this? I personally think it is a sports transformation.

From the middle of the Qing Dynasty to the early years of the Republic of China, martial arts suddenly flourished. There are many schools and many famous artists. Such a process, in my opinion, is actually the process of martial arts completing its own sportsization. And we all know that it was not during the Republic of China or the late Qing Dynasty that Western sports culture was introduced to China. It was not like this. It is better than this Still early.

As early as around 1840, before and after the Opium War, through Macao and through the activities of Western missionaries in China, certain Western sports forms and its sports concepts, its sports culture had begun to China spread. After the Opium War, the Five Countries opened trade. Western missionaries gained a large area of ??missionary activities in China, running schools in China and spreading Western culture in China. Of course, this includes sports culture, which cannot help but have an impact on our own national sports. Therefore, the problem facing martial arts is not the conflict between military martial arts and folk martial arts, but our own local sports, or national sports and Western sports. Cultural conflicts are a problem.

Because of such a long historical process, and because we have a very rich cultural background and a very broad cultural background like our Chinese nation, the second characteristic of martial arts has emerged. It can also be said that one of its more important characteristics is the so-called broad and profound nature that we often talk about.

In its long history of development, martial arts has been influenced by Chinese classical military science, followed by philosophy. Martial arts itself has a very strong color of Chinese classical philosophy, and these things have been absorbed by many martial artists and many boxing schools, turning them into boxing principles and boxing techniques. Even something in the technique of boxing, then it forms an idea. In the traditional martial arts terminology of martial artists, it is called "ritual", which directly affects the level of Chinese martial arts etiquette, and from this ritual, laws and regulations are derived. Then these "etiquette and laws" will eventually penetrate into the specific behaviors of martial arts. The specific movements are called styles by martial artists. Qi Jiguang's thirty-two movements, or how many movements there are, many of our boxing schools use several numerical movements to indicate their technical structure. This has become a very important feature of martial arts.

So this is the so-called profoundness of our martial arts because it relies on our own traditional philosophical concepts.

The second point is that our country has had an independently developed fitness activity called health guidance since ancient times. It appeared very early, and originally there was not much information in this area. We have only seen a few words in the books of pre-Qin scholars, such as "Zhuangzi" and "Laozi", but now it is different. Due to the development of archeology, we have discovered a large number of works in this field, such as the guide map discovered in Mawangdui, and the "Jade Pendant Picture of Moving Qi" from the Warring States Period that was later discovered. For example, the "Yin Shu" found in the Han Dynasty Tombs in Zhangjiashan, etc., and the fifty-two disease prescriptions found in Mawangdui. This makes us pay attention to ancient health preservation and guidance, two cultural forms of fitness and disease elimination unique to our own nation. So health preservation and guidance should be said to be a major contribution of our nation to the world's human body culture.

To put it simply, guidance is a useful and regular action to strengthen the means of existence of one's life. Health preservation is to use a regular lifestyle, a regular lifestyle and comparison. Some complicated self-regulation and self-nurturing methods are the means to strengthen one's life, so this is such a way.

So health care and guidance were probably quite developed before the Warring States Period, and after we got the guidance map of Mawangdui, we knew that guidance was not as simple as we later imagined. Many of the moves in it are very difficult. In fact, we cannot be excluded from guidance and health preservation. We have also absorbed some cultural influences from our neighboring countries or from outside. For example, things from India, then in the Sui Dynasty, we can see from the records of famous medical scientists in the works of the Sui Dynasty that there are things from India in our classical medicine or classical health guidance. These things later relied on Buddhism and Taoism respectively, and also became an independent communication system among the people. It even developed into the Han Dynasty. Zhang Liang, one of the so-called Three Heroes who helped Liu Bang conquer the world, was a so-called "bigu" in his later years. He even strictly controlled his diet. Of course, it was not that he didn't eat, or that he didn't eat anything. The overall pursuit is to lower metabolism. Then strengthen your life and try to reduce your energy consumption.

What about health and guidance things and martial arts? There is crossover and communication. Especially in the later stages of martial arts, when folk martial arts flourished, many martial artists absorbed things from health-preserving guidance. There is one most important connection point between them, which is about breathing. Whether our martial artists or our predecessors’ health guides, they all noticed the importance of breathing. Breathe regularly, how to adjust your breath, how to solve this problem to get the maximum benefit and maximum fitness benefit. On these two points they found a union very quickly and easily. Therefore, our martial arts also has a lot of health-preserving guidance content. It is very clear that some boxing schools are influenced by health-preserving guidance. For example, in Tai Chi, the reason why Tai Chi uses a relatively slow movement method is to pay special attention to the regulation of breathing and the reasonableness of the rhythm of the movement. And put fitness or improving the quality of life first.

So Tai Chi is obvious. The reason why it has developed so fast is that it has absorbed health-preserving guidance.

The third point is that we have our own medical system, which is Chinese medicine. We cherish it and call it motherland medicine. In the historical process of the development of martial arts, it has also been deeply influenced by the medicine of our motherland, because we have our own set of views on life, and we always regard life and nature as one. This is the so-called The idea of ??"harmony between man and nature". In fact, we connect the existence, development, and ups and downs of our own lives with the entire external environment. We seek a kind of coordination between man, heaven, man, and the environment. Such an idea also reflects our Chinese medicine and martial arts. Therefore, the combination of medicine and martial arts is a natural thing. Even military martial arts, military martial arts, or the more intense parts of folk martial arts, it will be related to a branch of traditional Chinese medicine called traumatology.

They are linked together, because when practicing Qigong, there will always be bruises, and bruises will require treatment by trauma departments. This trauma department was also called Jinchuangke in ancient times. When we read ancient military books, in addition to those war-related military strategy and technology, they will always have the part of military medicine. We have a system. Our ancient army had such a system for dealing with surgical problems. good. Let’s think about it. Without this system, who would dare to join the army and fight?

Qin Qiong, a famous general of the Tang Dynasty, was not in good health in his later years. The Tang Dynasty always joked about how brave you were back then, why are you like this now? Then Qin Qiong was not happy after hearing this, so she took off her clothes and showed them to Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty, with scars all over her body. He told Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty that he had suffered this injury in that battle and where it had occurred. Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty was very moved and allowed him not to come to court in the future. Such a great relationship. This is how we think about it from a general perspective in understanding this story. But if we think about it in addition, Qin Qiong's dozens of injuries did not kill him, which means that he still received relatively good treatment.

In the case of cold weapon combat, one knife or one shot is enough to kill. Without appropriate treatment, the person will have no choice but to wait for death, so we have our own set of methods. The set of methods has been summarized as the so-called "Golden Innovation and Technology".

At the same time, our own traditional Chinese medicine also contains a lot of content that can help you practice Qigong. There are many exercises and martial arts abilities, and you need to use some traditional Chinese medicine methods to nourish them. This is why In addition to the content of martial arts in traditional Chinese medicine, martial arts itself was even created to strengthen the body. In the words of martial artists, to strengthen your body or even strengthen your bones, you need to strengthen your bones and strengthen your muscles, so this is a method.

The fourth point is that on the surface, practicing martial arts is just a kind of technical practice, acquiring a certain technique, and at the same time, in the process of acquiring this technique, the body is strengthened, but the deeper level is practicing martial arts. The pursuit of a kind of personality cultivation, which we generally call self-cultivation, is a very ancient tradition. So developed to this day, it has formed a content in the overall structure of martial arts, called martial ethics. Such a tradition actually existed before Confucius and in the Western Zhou Dynasty. Wushu means confrontation, and we Chinese have long proposed that the most deadly weapon of a soldier is the killing spirit, which is related to the survival of a country and a nation, and to the life and death of an individual, so it will have a Requirements for morality. Therefore, this point occupies a very important position in our traditional martial arts culture. Later, Confucius summarized it as "shooting with official virtue". Archery is the most important content in classical martial arts. Confucius did not regard your hit rate in archery as , your specific results will be regarded as first place. What he values ??more is the effect of archery on a person's character cultivation. He wants to see whether you complete archery according to strict archery principles, so he proposed the idea of ??archery. Based on Guande's concept, he even proposed that "shooting cannot be based on leather". The leather is the target for archery. The target of archery made of leather is not aimed at penetrating the target made of leather. See if you have the cultivation of a real archer and whether you can engage in archery activities in accordance with the strict etiquette agenda of archery. In the process of archery, is there such a kind of impatience and impatience, the kind of thing that seeks success and profit? It regards the process of archery as something to improve one's own level in the spiritual field, then this kind of thing is deeply It has a profound impact on ancient China and our own national sports concepts.

This is not the case among the people. If a person is good at martial arts and is brave and aggressive, it may become a source of uneasiness for one party. A guy appeared in Bianliang in the Song Dynasty, called "Hairless Big Insect Niu Er". I think everyone is familiar with this character. Because he was brave and aggressive, he suddenly became a source of unrest for this party. Niu Er came out and everyone ran away, saying The big bug is coming, the big bug is coming. Yang Zhi was surprised, how could there be a big bug in broad daylight, only to find out that it was a villain. I think you have seen many such villains in "Water Margin". Including Ximen Qing, his martial arts skills are not bad, including Jiang Menshen, who won three championships in the Taishan National Wrestling Competition, he is also a villain, he is not bound by morality, he is a danger to society. Therefore, in the dissemination of folk martial arts, martial ethics are placed in a very high position and become the first priority when broadcasting martial arts. This is one level.

The second level is not just to constrain you to abide by the law, not just that, but to train you through martial arts training to be a person with higher moral character than ordinary people, a person who pursues justice, and a person who pursues justice. By men of courage who stand up for what is right. So everyone knows that the most perfect person in "Water Margin" is Lu Zhishen. A famous scholar called Lu Zhishen's spirit the ultimate in human nature. He has been helping people all his life, and he will help people to the end. He has a famous saying: "Help people must be thorough, and murder must be bloody." The latter sentence sounds scary, but it is mainly to say that helping people must help Che, that is, people with high martial arts ethics.

So when we talk about martial ethics, we don’t just mean that after you practice martial arts, you don’t bully others casually and use the strong to bully the weak. It’s not like this. You are higher than him and appear to be more cultivated. Therefore, a good martial artist, a respected martial artist, should first be a humble gentleman, a model of health, and a model of morality. Anyone who is brave and aggressive, bullies the weak, or even makes up nonsense, all of these are not worthy of being a martial artist.

The last point is that martial arts is a science. Martial arts is not just a technique. Martial arts is different from a specific Western sports technology. Martial arts has a relatively complex structure. It is a system. So think of it as a science. When you really master it, it's not that simple. It's not just a few kicks, a few whirlwind kicks, or a whirlwind kick of seven hundred and two. Martial artists are not like this, so at this level of learning, in addition to what we have mentioned before, martial arts has its own independent literature system, which is an important reason.

We often encounter a question, that is, many foreign people who like martial arts will ask, what is the biggest feature of martial arts? If compared with the Olympic Games, which everyone is paying more and more attention to now, compared with European sports, compared with our surrounding countries, Japan and South Korea, what is the biggest feature of martial arts? Wushu is an important part of Chinese culture. Produced under the background that for thousands of years, the Chinese have poured a lot of their talents into martial arts, including our own sports talents.

Compared to Europe, we do not have institutionalized competitive sports like the Olympic Games in ancient Greece, but this does not mean that we did not have competitive sports in ancient China, nor does it mean that we did not have our own sports in ancient times. theory, and our own form of sport. If we study martial arts seriously, we can see that from the beginning to the present, martial arts actually contains a large number of the Chinese nation's own sports concepts, reflecting our sports wisdom. Our nation has not had no competitive activities in history. In fact, as early as the Shang and Zhou dynasties, there were many large-scale competitive activities in the army. When talking about etiquette in the Zhou Dynasty, it is said that Confucius taught his disciples the six arts of "ritual, music, archery, charioteering, calligraphy, and mathematics". In fact, he inherited a teaching system since the Western Zhou Dynasty. So we usually talk about the six arts. , "shooting and imperial" are both related to sports, one is archery and the other is driving. In fact, "Li", as the outline of the Six Arts, itself has elements of sports, as well as folk competitive activities. I think everyone is very clear about "Water Margin". "Water Margin" has repeatedly mentioned that after Liangshan's one hundred and eight generals were ranked, Yan Qing and Li Kui went to Mount Tai to compete. Yan Qing used his superb wrestling skills to win the battle. Optimus Prime, such a description of the whole process is historical reality and a literary version of historical reality. Because there was such a large-scale wrestling competition in the Song Dynasty and Yuan Dynasty, and it was combined with gambling activities, because it is advantageous that if it wins the championship, it will receive a very generous bonus. This reward is even collected by the local government. Those who came out were also sponsored by the private sector. Famous entrepreneurs gave another 100,000 yuan, so the private sector also had it, so everyone went to grab those profits. Then these things gradually disappeared after the Ming Dynasty. The strengthening of cultural absolutism made these Things are declining more and more. For example, polo has been very prosperous since the Tang Dynasty. It has been played in Liao, Jin, Song, Xi, Xia, and Yuan Dynasties. The game of polo has even changed into a cultural exchange among various ethnic groups. Form, especially archery, had a very good system in the Song Dynasty. For example, when an envoy from the Liao Kingdom came to the Song Dynasty, the Song Dynasty must send one of the best archers, a high-ranking Shentong Bow and Arrow, as an accompanying envoy. Then he would accompany him to a large sports ground in Kaifeng, called Yujin Garden, where he would go archery, and he must work hard to defeat the Liao envoy. It's a sporting competition in itself that has some sort of political implications, and we have that kind of competition.

The competitive characteristics of our Chinese martial arts are four words: "combination of practice and fighting". There is practice and fighting. We attach great importance to "practice". Practice is an individual's physical exercise, personal self-regulation, and improvement. A way of cultivating one’s own moral character. Then some people compete on the basis of training, that is, fighting. So we don't directly use it for competition like some sports in Europe. We attach great importance to this drill, that is to say, among the four important functions of martial arts, we combine the performance viewing and combat defense very well.

I think this is a very, very important feature of martial arts, and I even think it is the biggest feature. There is a figure that everyone is familiar with, an outstanding hero, and that is Bruce Lee. Bruce Lee's foundation was Wing Chun, which originated from Wing Chun in Fujian. He was a first-generation immigrant to the United States. He had a good foundation in traditional martial arts when he went to college there. He studied philosophy in college in the United States, and he was familiar with many Chinese cultural classics. . I have seen him reading some notes from Lao Tzu. He is a person who loves his own traditional culture very much. So he absorbed some foreign things on the basis of our own traditional martial arts, including Japanese, Korean, and overseas. , some free fighting stuff, created Jeet Kune Do, which was a great success. The four words "Chinese Kung Fu" spread all over the world. Bruce Lee became almost a person known to everyone in the world and became a symbol and symbol of Chinese Kung Fu. That’s why I once said in an article that Bruce Lee was one of the most outstanding national heroes of the last century. He promoted the spirit of the Chinese nation’s martial arts culture. To a large extent, Bruce Lee's success lies in his courage to absorb, communicate and integrate. He has given us great inspiration.

We feel very sorry for his early death and the fact that he died in his thirties. He left us a rich legacy, but generally speaking, because he died too young, he may have had many more profound thoughts. , nothing better was accomplished.

In the world martial arts we are facing now, martial arts needs the world, and the world also needs martial arts, we still have to boldly absorb all kinds of cultures, not only to maintain the cultural foundation of our martial arts, While preserving our own excellent traditions, we must also have the courage to face the world and absorb various cultures in the world, so that martial arts can move from classical to modern. Become a truly important part of world culture. It has become an integral part of world sports culture that best represents the characteristics of Eastern culture. I think all martial arts lovers and everyone who cares about martial arts are deeply looking forward to this day. I'll stop here today, thank you.