alright, defining the word "martial" as "of or pertaining to the military", and "art" as "art", where did the term "martial art" come from? gongfu, karate and such have just about nothing to do with the military; at least, they have much less to do with the military than guns and tanks. guns and tanks take skill to use, but those skills are never referred to as "martial arts". you could argue that, when the phrase was invented, gongfu really was a military skill. but it was used more by monks than by the military, which was primarily concerned with things like horseback riding, coordinating troop movements and armor technology. and besides, as i'm sure we're all aware, the word "gongfu" means something like "skill achieved through effort", and doesn't even have any specific combat connotations, much less military. so what gives?
from what i gather, the term was a political invention of the japanese. about the time there were changing all their style names from "-jutsu" to "-do" (to reflect a more spiritual, artistic even, emphasis), and they were changing "karate" meaning "chinese hand" to "karate" meaning "empty hand", they came up with the phrase "martial art", to please the very nationalistic and military-oriented population at the time (i think this was around the 20's and 30's). in other words, it was propaganda.
before WW2, here in america we would generally categorize all gongfu as simply "chinese boxing", and we had an acquaintance with judo. but after WW2, we had servicemen coming back from japan with a knowledge of japanese styles, and with it they brought the terminology of "martial art".
anyway, the only reason this matters is because of the pages and pages of philosophical discourse some people write about the meaning of the phrase "martial art" and its ancient origins. if this is true, and it seems to be the only plausible explanation i've heard of the term yet, then all of this discourse is just a waste of time, since the term is not ancient at all, and the true meaning is political.
- zach
from what i gather, the term was a political invention of the japanese. about the time there were changing all their style names from "-jutsu" to "-do" (to reflect a more spiritual, artistic even, emphasis), and they were changing "karate" meaning "chinese hand" to "karate" meaning "empty hand", they came up with the phrase "martial art", to please the very nationalistic and military-oriented population at the time (i think this was around the 20's and 30's). in other words, it was propaganda.
before WW2, here in america we would generally categorize all gongfu as simply "chinese boxing", and we had an acquaintance with judo. but after WW2, we had servicemen coming back from japan with a knowledge of japanese styles, and with it they brought the terminology of "martial art".
anyway, the only reason this matters is because of the pages and pages of philosophical discourse some people write about the meaning of the phrase "martial art" and its ancient origins. if this is true, and it seems to be the only plausible explanation i've heard of the term yet, then all of this discourse is just a waste of time, since the term is not ancient at all, and the true meaning is political.
- zach
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