Introduction: The Butterfly Swords and Southern Martial Arts Defend the Nation I recently ran across two photographs that I think students of the southern Chinese martial arts may find very enlightening. They speak to interesting tactical and cultural questions. On... Continue Reading →
On Legends and their Grains Not all legends contain a grain a truth. Such an assertion is wishful thinking and sells short the remarkable faculty that is the human imagination. Still, grains manifest frequently enough that they keep historians... Continue Reading →
History as the cure for Ideology Everyone has a personal mental image of the Chinese martial arts. The detail may vary, but there are some undeniably common elements. Grainy photos, complex postures, exotic weapons, strangely vigorous old men. The... Continue Reading →
It goes by many names. Organization, bureaucracy…”hard work”… It’s the sort of social effort that defines modern industrialized life. Weber famously termed it the “iron cage” of rationality. We so frequently speak of, or imagine, the martial arts as... Continue Reading →
***Greetings! I am currently preparing for the upcoming Martial Arts Studies conference in Cardiff. As such we will be taking a deep dive into the archives for today's post. This essay and biographical sketch was first published four... Continue Reading →
First, the Important Stuff Is it possible to approach history without theory? I think not. It is the existence of some sort of preexisting story or framework of understanding that we carry around in our heads which... Continue Reading →
Introduction Spirit possession is a fascinating but rarely discussed aspect of the traditional Chinese martial arts. Reformers in the field of physical culture spent much of the 20th century attempting to erase the national embarrassment of the Boxer... Continue Reading →
Introduction I have been working on a couple of projects that have taken me away from the blog over the last couple of weeks. One of the more challenging of these has been a review David Faure’s very detailed writings... Continue Reading →
Introduction Classification remains one of our central problems in the study and analysis of the traditional Chinese martial arts. When thinking about the origin and relationship of these fighting systems most efforts begin with an attempt to create groups of... Continue Reading →
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