Brief History of Martial Arts

                Martial Arts. When this word comes across you, what comes first in your mind? Is it Taekwondo, Karate, Kickboxing etc or anything that comes with butt kicking moves just like on the movies. Martial Arts are more than just butt kicking and taking down your opponent.

                The term “martial arts” simply means arts concerned with the waging of war. Many of the martial arts we know today were developed from ancient war skills. In time, man’s search for a deeper meaning to life, led to the development of a higher level of fighting.

                The martial arts of the Orient are shrouded in mystery and tradition. Each country seems to have developed its own fighting skills and through trial and error, honed them to perfection. Although many of these fighting arts differ tremendously from one another, there is one constant throughout-that is the almost pathological urge for anonymity. It is because of this brotherhood of secrecy that many of the martial arts we know today have only come to light within the last 50 years or so.

                Many martial arts of the East have their roots buried deeply in religion. Taoism and Buddhism and their many offshoots have all played important roles in the development of fighting systems. The servants of these religious disciplines, the monks and priests, were for the most part responsible for spreading the various fighting skills all over Asia.

                In the Middle East murals in tombs in the Nile Valley and hieroglyphics engraved in the pyramids prove that the Egyptians had an organized type of unarmed combat as early as 3500 BC. For more complete information on a systemized martial method of fighting we must also look to the Ancient Greeks. The works of the poet Homer (8th century BC) contained graphic descriptions of unarmed combat, and the philosopher Plato (428-348) BC mentions in his writings a kind of shadow boxing termed skiamachia. This was eventually combined with the Greek system of wrestling to form an art called pancration meaning ‘game of all powers’. In this system a wide variety of techniques was allowed. So far as is known, pancration was the first recorded fighting discipline that incorporated a method of kicking with punches and empty hand strikes. The art was eventually introduced, as a sport, into the Olympic Games in 648 BC.

                Some historians believe that we should regard Alexander the Great (356-323 BC) as the founder of martial arts bringing, through his invasion of India, the unarmed combat method of the Greeks to the East. However, it would seem somewhat naive to suppose that Asia had to wait for this Macedonian conqueror to invade her borders before the martial arts were born. Recent archaeological investigation in southern China has unearthed sketches and artefacts that suggest unharmed fighting methods were in operation long before his time.

                Combat is identified with fighting ad killing and yet, through the practice of martial disciplines, exponents have found increased spiritual awareness. Thus a strange paradox begins to emerge: a concept of inner peace beyond fighting. Ultimately, through continued studies, a search for a higher understanding of one’s self is fostered. No one can train in a martial art discipline without at some stage becoming aware of this fundamental theme. To realize this, is to be half way towards grasping the true martial arts.

From the book of Peter Lewis “the Martial Arts Origins, Philosophy, Practice”