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Origins of Asian martial arts

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Foreign influence on Chinese martial arts, or more specifically, Shaolin Kung Fu, is endorsed by the traditional Shaolin temple claims and the claims of a majority of martial arts historians. Both versions agree that the foreign influence was vital on Shaolin temple's approach to institutionalized martial arts.

Main gate of the Shaolin temple in Henan

The Foreign influence

Establishment of the Shaolin temple

The Indian dhyana master Buddhabhadra was the founding abbot and patriarch of the Shaolin temple.

According to the Deng Feng County Recording (Deng Feng Xian Zhi), Bátuó came to China in 464 CE to preach Nikaya (小乘) Buddhism. Thirty-one years later, in 495, the Shaolin Monastery was built by the order of Emperor Xiaowen of Northern Wei for Batuo's preaching. The temple originally consisted of a round dome used as a shrine and a platform where Indian and Chinese monks translated Indian Buddhist scriptures into native Chinese languages.

Origins of Bodhidharma

The major accounts regarding the origins of Bodhidharma are given by Yáng Xuànzhī, Tanlin and Daoxuan.

According to Yáng Xuànzhī:

At that time there was a monk of the Western Region named Bodhidharma, a Persian Central Asian. He traveled from the wild borderlands to China.

— Yang Xuanzhi, The Record of the Buddhist Monasteries of Lo-yang (547)

Jeffrey Broughton notes that Yáng Xuànzhī may have been referring to a different monk named Bodhidharma, as he mentions a Bodhidharma twice.

Bodhidharma's original name was Bodhitara. The suffix "dharma" means duty in context of Dharmic religions. Yáng Xuànzhī may have been honoring another dharma teacher with the suffix (of dharma). There have been other Indian monks sharing the prefix of "Bodhi" (Sanskrit word for "awakening" or "enlightenment"), such as Bodhiruci, regarded as the patriarch of the Ti-Lun School.

According to Jeffrey Broughton, the term hu, mentioned in the account, relates to Central Asia and particularly to peoples of Iranian extraction. The man in Yáng Xuànzhī's description is an Iranian speaker who hailed from somewhere in Central Asia.

India occupied portions of Central Asia under the Kushan Empire and the Kidarite Kingdom. According to the Out of India theory and the Two wave theory, these empires cover the Indo-Iranian ethnicity mentioned in Yáng Xuànzhī's account.

The claim that Bodhidharma was South Indian has its origins in Tanlin's preface to the Two Entrances and Four Acts.

The Dharma Master was a South Indian of the Western Region. He was the third son of a great Indian King.

— Tanlin, The Two Entrances and Four Acts (pre-645)

Daoxuan adds more detail concerning Bodhidharma's origins, writing that he was "of South Indian Brahman stock" (南天竺婆羅門種 nán tiānzhú póluómén zhŏng).

Bodhidharma of South Indian Brahman stock.

— Daoxuan, Xu Gaoseng Zhuan (645)

Broughton notes that Bodhidharma's royal pedigree implies that he was of the Kshatriya warrior caste, though South Indian inscriptions in the 4th and 5th centuries imply that the Pallava dynasty also had Brahmin origins; hence, they may have belonged to the caste of Braham-Kshatriya (Brahmin in origin and Kshatriya by profession). Other Indian social groups, such as the Kayasthas also adhere to more than one varnas.

Bodhidharma

Bodhidharma by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839-1892)

Bodhidharma is credited with the establishment of the Chan and Zen sects of Buddhism. Bodhidharma arrived in China during the 5th century. He stayed and taught for several years in the Shaolin temple.

Grandmaster Wong Kiew Kit, 4th generation successor of the Southern Shaolin Monastery writes :-

It was during this time that the Venerable Bodhidharma came from India to China to spread Buddhism. In 527 CE he settled down in the Shaolin monastary in Henan province, and inspired the development of Shaolin Kung Fu. This marked a watershed in the history of of Kung Fu, because it led to a change of course, as Kung Fu became institutionalized. Before this, martial arts were known only in general sense.

Chinese martial arts, like martial arts of Greece and India, have existed before the arrival of Bodhidharma. Bodhidharma's status in martial arts is due to his role in the institutionalization of Chinese martial arts, presumably by introducing excercises, meditation, discipline, newer techniques etc. to the native fighting methods during his tenure at the Shaolin monastery.

In addition to being a master of Dhyana, Bodhidharma is also related to Yogacara (Sanskrit: "Practice of Yoga " ). He is described as a "master of the Lankavatara Sutra", and an early history of Zen in China is titled "Record of the Masters and Disciples of the Lankavatara Sutra" (Chin. Leng-ch'ieh shih-tzu chi).

It has also been suggested that these techniques which are the foundation for many martial arts today were never originally intended to be utilized as methods of fighting but were a manner in which the monks could attain enlightenment while preserving their bodies' health.

Similarities

Indian movement patterns of "Nata" were later incorporated into various martial arts. Shown here is the Nataraja pose.

Historians have noted foreign influences on aspects of Chinese culture, such as mythology (Sun Wukong and Guan Yin, which were influenced by Hanumana and Avalokiteshvara respectively ) and architecture (Pagodas influenced by Buddhist Stupas) in the past.

The similarities between arts of India and Chinese martial arts have also been noted by martial arts practitioners, historians and news organisations.

Around the 3rd century BC, Patanjali wrote the Yoga Sutras, which taught how to meditate single-mindedly on points located inside one's body, which was used in later martial arts, while various mudra finger movements were taught in Yogacara Buddhism. These Yoga elements, as well as finger movements in the nata dances, were later incorporated into various martial arts.

References to martial arts are found in early Buddhist texts. The Lotus Sutra also categorized combat techniques as joint locks, fist strikes, grapples, and throws, and also referred to a martial art with dance-like movements called Nara. Other stories suggest that Siddhartha Gautama was a champion wrestler and archer before becoming the Buddha.

Knowledge of the Indian arts was carried into China by Buddhist monks. Joyotpaul Chaudhuri notes that far too much attention is given to the Bodhidharma alone. Buddhist monks were active in China before Bodhidharma.

File:Matemple.jpg
Statues in an ancient hindu temple, showing warriors in combat

The Lankavatara Sutra repeatedly refers to the 108 steps. The 108 of the Yang long form and Wing Chun, taught by Yip Man having 108 movements are noted in this regard. The similarities between the posture of the "Nataraja" and bong sau and bong gurk in one hand and one foot position are also noted.

Historians have also noted that Indian works of art and particularly in temple sculptures show warriors in positions similar to modern day East Asian martial arts.

Similarities were also recorded by the British Broadcasting Corporation in a television documentary in 1981 titled "Kalari, the Indian way" which noted that a Southern Kalaripayattu practitioner performed martial arts identical to one found in a branch lineage from the Wong-Hon-Wing line of Tibetan Hop-Gar Kung-Fu.

Discovery Channel also notes "Possibly the oldest martial art in the world, Kalarippayattu is still being practiced widely today in the Indian state of Kerala. Shaolin chuan is said to have evolved from Kalarippayattu."

Mesopotamia, Egypt and Greece

Some of the The oldest known records concerning combat techniques are hieroglyphic scrolls from Egyptian tombs, dating as far back as 4000 B.C. The Beni Hasan tombs are shown in the picture.

Early martial arts can be traced to Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt. There was an extensive maritime trade network operating between the Indus Valley and Mesopotamian civilizations as early as the middle Harappan Phase, with much commerce being handled by the "middlemen merchants from Dilmun". Ancient Egypt had trading relations with India. Ancient Greece was in contact with India before Alexander the Great's Invasion. The Greek Pankration system was practiced by Alexander the Great's army. It has been suggested that over time, concepts in primitive martial arts spread east to India, where they fell on fertile ground and began their development in relationship to Yoga, dharma, and dharmic religions, and were eventually transmitted to China.

Extent of acknowledgement of the foreign influence

Views from the martial arts community

A painting on a wall in the temple showing lighter skinned Chinese monks and darker skinned monks, similar in skin tone to Indians

Martial arts journalists and authors across the world, including June Lordi, Charles C. Goodin, Hidetaka Nishiyama, Cezar Borkowski, Simmone Kuo, Robin L. Rielly, Howard Reid, Liow Kah Joon and Kah Joon Liow, Annellen M Simpkins and C Alexander Simpkins, Bruce Thomas, Thomas D. Seabourne and Yeon Hwan Park, Steve De Masco, Stephen Kuei, Pat Zukeran, Ervin de Castro, BJ Oropeza and Ron Rhodes, Christopher Wren, Howard W. French, Prof. J. Roe, P. E. Katzer, Joyotpaul Chaudhari, Dr. William Durbin, Bruce A. Haines, Jess O'Brien, Lawrence Galante and Betsy Selman, Robert Scaglione, George A. Kirby, George E. Mattson and Tony Sims have noted the foreign influence on Chinese martial arts.

Claims that that Chinese martial arts are independent of any foreign influence whatsoever have also been rejected by prestigious martial arts institutions, including the Gracie Barra, International Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Federation, Florida Federation of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and the Shaolin temple.

The foreign influence has also been recognized by legendary martial arts practitioners and authorities, including Chojun Miyagi, Funakoshi Gichin, Wong Kiew Kit, Tadashi Nakamura, Carlos Machado, and Rickson Gracie.

In addition, reputed organizations such as the British Broadcasting Corporation, the New York Times, The Hindu and the Discovery Channel to name a few, have also taken a note of the foreign influences.

Conflicting theories

Further information: Bodhidharma, the martial arts, and the disputed India connection

Like the Bible or the Koran, the foreign influence on Chinese martial arts has also been subjected to revisionism by a minority of the martial arts community.

In order to revise history associated with Bodhidharma, some historians have conducted their independent research. This has yet to yield result as seperate attempts at revising history have led to different conclusions, often dramatically conflicting in nature.

Historian Matsuda Ryuchi dates the Yi Jin Jing, a text often associated with Bodhidharma, to 1827. His claim is rejected by another historian, Lin Boyuan, whose research dates it to over two centuries earlier in 1624. Ling Tingkan concluded that the author of the Yì Jīn Jīng must have been an "ignorant village master." This claim has also been rejected by Lin Boyuan who attributes the Yì Jīn Jīng to the Taoist priest Zining writing in 1624. Historian Paul Pelliot presents a version claiming that Bodhidharma did not exist at all, he is an entirely fictional creation, a proposal which conflicts with revisionist versions as presented by Matsuda Ryuchi, Lin Boyuan and Ling Tingkan.

The revisionist theories also do not address the establishment of the Shaolin temple under Batuo, Bodhidharma's association with Dyana and Yogacara, previous foreign influences on aspects of Chinese culture and similarities between Indian arts and arts of China. These theories mostly revolve around disproving the Yi Jin Jing, a text associated with Bodhidharma.

Most accounts of martial arts history have credited the foreign influence, disregarding the conflicting theories.

References

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  11. "Western Region" is the Chinese literary term for the region that encompasses the territory between present-day Kazakhstan in the north and the tip of the Indian subcontinent in the south. "The Dharma Master was from South India, which is part of the Western Region" is a valid interpretation of this sentence.
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See also

Further reading

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