Martial Arts Philosophy

For the past 30 years or so, American parents who give a darn about their kids have noticed that the marital arts teach their children about respect, discipline, hard work, sacrifice and humility. Children are likewise taught that they should walk away from trouble, lose the ego and fight only as a last resort. This blends in well with Western Christian principles such as turning the other cheek, the Golden Rule and forgiveness.

Yet these attitudes are taking a hit these days with the advent of UFC and MMA, where many fighters are in the martial arts for personal gain (money, fame, self-promotion, etc.) They’re not so much traditional, philosophically influenced martial artists as they are technicians bent on winning fights.

1. The historic philosophical foundation for Chinese martial arts mostly lies in Chan Buddhism, Taoism, Legalism and Confucianism. Moral codes from the Shaolin Temple and the world of Jiang Hu also have been heavily influenced by Chinese martial arts philosophy. The Shaolin philosophy, which you can find in martial arts across the globe, focuses ...
2. Japanese martial arts have been influenced by Chinese martial arts. As a result, strands of Chan (Zen) Buddhism are woven into the martial fabric of bushido (way of the warrior) and budo (martial way). Bushido emphasizes courage, honor, duty, respect, benevolence, wisdom, honesty, loyalty, rectitude, wisdom and ...
3. Historically, Korea has been in the middle of a tug-of-war campaign between China and Japan. Korea’s martial arts have thus arisen either because of Chinese and Japanese influences or from Korea’s need to develop military combative arts, which have then developed into combative sports. Therefore, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism and militarism ...
4. Traditionally, martial arts were defined as fighting arts that originated in Asia that had moral codes in which the art’s philosophy was a way of life and that one would train in the physical, mental and spiritual ways of the art. Those that trained in just one of these three ways weren’t considered complete martial artists. Western combative ...