The significance of Chinese martial arts

Chinese martial arts is a culture with Chinese characteristics. Of course, it should first and foremost be a fighting art. The significance of the origin and circulation of Wushu lies in its fighting value, but unlike Muay Thai, Taekwondo, Boxing, and Grossi Jiu-Jitsu, it incorporates medical and philosophical components in addition to the fighting part. Therefore, martial arts cannot be equated with fighting techniques. We know that each school of traditional martial arts has its own methods of healing and mindfulness. Discarding the nebulous and bizarre elements, it must be recognized that there is a rationale for the treatment of bone injuries and external trauma in the martial arts, and the boxing proverbs and sword techniques circulated in the martial arts community contain too much philosophical reasoning.

The Chinese martial arts, as I understand them, have several aspects: self-defense (fighting), physical fitness (medical), and spiritual cultivation (philosophical). All three together make a Chinese martial art. This is very different from other pure fighting arts, and thus can be considered unique. In this respect, Japanese Kendo is the same. It's just that it's a Japanese martial art, not a Chinese one.

I thought martial arts were the most comprehensive as far as fighting goes. There is no shortage of techniques in Chinese martial arts such as punches, kicks, drops, knees, elbows, and so on that other fighting arts possess, but Wushu possesses techniques that other fighting arts simply don't have and yet are powerful in their own right. The inch hand in Wing Chun, for example, you will never find in any other fighting art (Interceptor has the inch hand, but in my understanding, Interceptor is also a martial art, a modern one, but of course it can't be said to be absolutely perfect.)

A big reason why martial arts have a hard time proving themselves in the ring is that the traditional followers of martial arts don't meet the physical requirements of fighting. Under the same level of physical fitness and training intensity, martial arts do not lose to other fighting arts. For example, the fact that Muay Thai can beat Sanshou does not mean that Muay Thai's fighting techniques and concepts are better than Sanshou's. Muay Thai's advantage lies in the extraordinary physical fitness of Muay Thai fighters as a result of intense training. (For those of you who care about sparring, you can see that Pau Ligao, with his superb physique, can also KO unbeatable Muay Thai fighters.)

I say this not to ignore the importance of technique in fighting. I'm almost certain that two fighters of the same caliber would have an advantage over a kickboxer in a fight, just as a person with systematic combat training would certainly have an advantage over someone of the same caliber who has no combat training. This is because the techniques of Muay Thai are better suited to fighting. However, the difference between two fighting styles with similar techniques lies only in the quality of the fighters.

Most of the real martial arts masters in the ancient and modern times have tapped into their own physiques to a great extent, and their training intensity is far from that of the so-called martial artists nowadays. Bruce Lee's training style I believe many people have understood, it is that kind of hard training coupled with the study of technology to create the legend of the king of kung fu.