What is martial arts?

Wushu: Boxing and the use of weapons are traditional sports in China. (Modern Chinese Dictionary)

Also known as Wushu or Wushu, it is a traditional sport in China. Its content is to combine kicking, hitting, throwing, taking, falling, hitting, chopping, stabbing and other actions into various offensive and defensive fighting techniques, routines and unarmed equipment single-potential exercises according to certain rules. Wushu has an extremely broad mass base and is a valuable cultural heritage accumulated and enriched by the people of China in the long-term social practice.

The origin of Wushu can be traced back to primitive society. At that time, human beings had begun to use sticks and other primitive tools as weapons to fight wild animals, one for self-defense and the other for hunting for means of subsistence. Later, in order to compete for wealth, people made more lethal weapons. Such as Shan Hai Jing? In the Wild North Classic, there is a record that Chiyou attacked the Yellow Emperor as a soldier. In this way, through fighting, human beings not only made weapons, but also gradually accumulated skills with certain offensive and defensive significance.

The development of bronze industry in Shang Dynasty was dominated by chariot warfare, and some bronze weapons appeared, such as spears, daggers, halberds, axes, cymbals, knives and swords. At the same time, the use of such weapons has also appeared, such as chopping, stabbing, stabbing and chopping. In order to improve the combat effectiveness, the form of competition appeared at this time. Such as the Book of Rites? "Wang Zhi" contains "Anyone who holds skill and strength should be suitable on all sides, barefoot, and definitely shoot", which means to compete with martial arts.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, ironware appeared and infantry cavalry rose. In order to play the role of walking, long-handled weapons have become shorter and short-handled weapons (especially the body) have become longer. In this way, the content of weapons has become richer, the attack and defense of Wushu has become more prominent, and the fitness function of Wushu has also been paid attention to. At this time, the forms of Wushu competitions have appeared widely, which further promoted the development of Wushu. According to the pipeline? According to the Seven Laws, there is a "Spring and Autumn Angle Examination" every year. Press Zhuangzi? Life "and" Xunzi? As "On Soldiers" said, at that time, the skills of Wushu were very particular, and the boxing methods included attack, defense, counterattack, feint and so on.

In the Qin dynasty, there were gladiators and hand fights, and there were judges, courts and certain costumes during the competition. 1975 On the back of a wooden grate unearthed from the Qin Tomb in Fenghuangshan, jiangling county, Hubei Province, the grand occasion of a game at that time was painted in color: there were three naked men on the stage, wearing only shorts, belts and toe caps, and two people were competing. 1 Each person held out his hands as a referee.

There are sword dance, knife dance, double halberd dance and cymbal dance in Han Dynasty. All these show that the martial arts dance in Han Dynasty has obvious skills and tricks, and most of them appear in the form of routines. The Han Dynasty was a period of great development of Wushu, which formed a variety of technical styles. For example, there are 13 and 199 two categories of "martial arts" in History of Han, which are martial arts monographs that "learn hands and feet, arrange equipment and accumulate organs to win the attack and defense".

During the Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, wars were frequent, and bureaucrats and nobles indulged in feasting or pursuing immortality, and their influence also penetrated into the lives of all walks of life. For example, they regarded the sword as a mysterious musical instrument, and even replaced it with wood blade, and replaced martial arts with absurd heresy, which led to the stagnation of martial arts.

During the Sui, Tang and Five Dynasties, with the development and prosperity of feudal society and economy, martial arts revived, and the Tang Dynasty began to implement the martial arts system, and awarded corresponding titles to those who had outstanding performance in martial arts through examinations, such as "warrior", "agile", "skilled" and "unskilled". There are specific criteria for obtaining each title. For example, a "vicious man" wants to "have a bow with five arrows, and a spear and halberd can be used well ..." ("Wu Beizhi? Too white and silent? "Selected Scholars" article 16). This system of selecting talents through examinations has promoted Wushu activities in society.

With the development of riding, Ge and Ji were gradually eliminated on the battlefield. As a military technology, sword is mostly replaced by knife, but as a routine exercise, it is still developing.

Folk Wushu organizations appeared in Song Dynasty, such as "Championship Club" (crossbow shooting), "British Club" (baton making) and "Jiao Jiao Club" (sumo wrestling). These societies, because of their simplicity, "created their own martial arts skills such as bladeless guns, bamboo standard rows, wooden bows and knives, Artemisia arrows" (Song History 19 1). In the city, according to "Twelve Capitals of Dongting", fighting martial arts in the streets and lanes is very lively. Performing martial arts includes gladiator, fist, kick, stick, cudgel, sword and gun dance, sword and crossbow shooting, etc. Fighting is called "condom fighting", including "gun against card" and "sword against card". At this time, collective events also developed rapidly. For example, The Record of Tokyo Dream has been published for seven years: "Two people dance in pairs. However, the antagonistic attack and defense technology gradually declined due to the influence of Song Neo-Confucianism advocating "main quietness".

The rulers of the Yuan Dynasty gathered people to hunt more than 200,000 people (Volume III of Yuan Zhang Dian Helping the Poor), and even hid weapons for the people. Martial arts are taught by secret family heirlooms, risking their lives.

The Ming Dynasty was a period of great development of Wushu, and technical schools had different styles. Boxing and equipment have been developed, especially the past martial arts experience has been summarized theoretically. His representative works include Ji Xiao Shu Xin, Wu Pian, and Can Shu. These works record the genre, evolution, action names, characteristics, action methods and technical theories of boxing and instruments to varying degrees, and some of them are accompanied by songs and action pictures, which provide an important basis for future generations to study Wushu.

In the Qing Dynasty, Wushu was forbidden by the rulers, and it was taught by the people in the form of secret clubs and gymnasiums. Among them, most famous boxing styles, such as Tai Ji Chuan, Bagua Palm, Xingyiquan, Baji Boxing and Guagua Boxing, were formed in Qing Dynasty.

During the Republic of China, various boxing clubs appeared in the society, which played a positive role in the spread and development of Wushu.

After the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC), Wushu, as an excellent national heritage, was inherited, sorted out and improved, and Wushu associations at all levels were established one after another. The state has set up special institutions to carry out Wushu and listed Wushu as an official competition. 1953 held the 1 national sports performance competition conference, and then held many national Wushu competitions or performance conferences. In order to promote the popularization and improvement of Wushu, the state has organized the compilation of prescribed routines for competitions, the compilation of primary routines required for mass Wushu activities and the simplification of Tai Ji Chuan, the publication of Wushu books and wall charts, and the shooting of Wushu movies and videos. In order to explore the value of Wushu, we also organized physiological measurement and research to make it scientific step by step. In addition, various physical education colleges and departments have successively set up martial arts courses and specialized courses, universities, primary and secondary schools have also listed martial arts as the teaching content in physical education class, amateur sports schools for young people have also set up martial arts courses, and various forms of martial arts consultation stations have been set up by local martial arts associations, attracting a large number of martial arts enthusiasts to practice martial arts, strengthen their health and treat diseases.

In the past, Wushu was divided into regions, mountains and rivers, surnames or families, and technical characteristics. Modern times are generally divided into five categories according to content; Regular adherence to Wushu exercise can effectively enhance physical fitness. All kinds of boxing and leg techniques in Wushu require high explosiveness and flexibility, especially the range of joint movements, which has a good exercise effect on muscles and ligaments. Wushu includes twisting, throwing, folding and other body movements, which require "hand-to-eye", "hand-to-eye" and "step by step" and require high coordination; The whole set of movements is often composed of dozens of movements, which can be completed in a certain period of time, so that all organs and systems of the body can be fully developed. Practicing Tai Ji Chuan's gentle and gentle fists, emphasizing intentional guidance, even breathing and deep breathing can make the whole body blood flow, which is suitable for patients with chronic diseases to keep exercising as a medical means and has obvious curative effect. Competitive sports such as Sanshou, Pushing Hands, Short-term Armed Forces and Long-term Armed Forces, combined with intense sports, can not only enhance physical fitness, but also cultivate good characters such as courage, wit and agility.

The concept of Wushu

The concept of Wushu is well known to people. The basis of learning martial arts. In the long historical process, the expression of Wushu concept is different in different periods, and its connotation and extension develop and change with the development of social history and Wushu itself.

There are many names of martial arts in history, which were called "Wu" in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. The word "Wu" appeared in the Han Dynasty and remained in use until the end of the Ming Dynasty: in the early Qing Dynasty, the word "Wu" was borrowed from Selected Works of the Southern Dynasties (referring to military affairs at that time); During the Republic of China, it was called "Wushu": after the founding of New China, the word "Wushu" was still used.

With the change of history, the gradual disappearance of cold weapons, the emergence of specialized martial arts equipment and a large number of boxing routines, the formulation of antagonistic events and martial arts competition rules, martial arts has evolved into one of the sports. Great changes have taken place in the content, form and training methods of Wushu, and the concept of reflecting the essential attributes of things is constantly changing. Today, the basic definition of Wulin can be summarized as: Wushu is a traditional sport in China, with martial arts and fighting as its main content and both internal and external training.

Wushu can be understood from this definition. First of all, Wushu belongs to China traditional Wushu. It is based on kicking, hitting, throwing and taking. The main content is martial arts movements such as hitting and stabbing, and the ability of attack and defense fighting is expressed by physical movements with bare hands or with the help of instruments. Both the antagonistic grappling action and the routine action with the same potential are based on China's traditional chess skills. As far as human social life is concerned, the art of attack and defense cannot be unique to China. Compared with martial arts all over the world, martial arts is not only richer in martial arts methods (such as fast throwing and grasping). ). In the form of sports, there are both routines and Sanshou, both combination and separation. This development mode is also very different from other martial arts in the world. The training method is both internal and external, and the training style is both physical and mental, which embodies the sports characteristics of China traditional Wushu.

Secondly, Wushu is a sport, which is obviously different from the practical offensive and defensive techniques that cause injuries and disabilities. Although routine sports contain rich means of attack and defense, its purpose is to improve the physical quality and attack and defense ability of businessmen through drills and compete their skills and skills. There are some differences between technical requirements and actual technology. Although the technique of Sanshou is closer to practical technology, it is limited to sports because of the rules of competition. In a word, it boils down to one point. Wushu has obvious sports attributes. Sports are mainly social philosophy, traditional Chinese medicine, ethics, military science, aesthetics, qigong and other traditional cultural ideas and modern martial arts concepts. Pay attention to both internal and external cultivation, such as holistic view, yin and yang change view, form and spirit theory, qi theory, dynamic and static theory, rigid and flexible theory and so on. , and gradually formed a unique national Wushu cultural system. Rich in connotation and profound in meaning. It not only has the same characteristics of human physical fitness, but also has the unique philosophy, science and artistry of oriental civilization, which embodies the wisdom of China people in the field of sports. It reflects the national cultural glory of the East from one side. Therefore, in a broad sense, Wushu is not only a sport, but also a national sport, which is a valuable cultural heritage accumulated by the people of China for a long time.