Development of Unarmed Combat Methods
- Thread starter Tiefling
- Start date
The basic prereq is danger to force people to have to defend themselves, but limited availability of weapons. For instance, the traditional story is that the Okinawans were denied martial weapons (swords) by the conquoring Japanese, so they used their farm implements and bare hands.
To get the mystical trappings of the monk class, you'll also need a pervasive religion or philosophy to be practiced by these unarmed fighting men, based on some sort of introspection or self-perfection doctrine.
To get the mystical trappings of the monk class, you'll also need a pervasive religion or philosophy to be practiced by these unarmed fighting men, based on some sort of introspection or self-perfection doctrine.
Angcuru
First Post
Also factoring in that the predominant religions in the are, I.E. Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, etc.. all strive to attain peace. A WEAPON is a symbol of conflict and war, and not of peace. By training the mind, body,(perhaps the soul as well) to be one , you attain peace. And during all this, you have to STAY ALIVE so that you can enjoy that peace. The Development of martial arts not only helped further the unification process, but provided a means of self-defense..without weapons. Also, you can only kill with a weapon, while the body can give and nurture life.
Peace out, grasshopper.
Peace out, grasshopper.
Tonguez
A suffusion of yellow
Tiefling said:
First it is NOT entirely true that highly evolved combat arts only developed in the nations you named. Pratically every culture has some kind of combat art which incorporates unarmed tactics - the Greek Prankration, Hawaiian Lua, Viking Berserkrs (apparently it had a real name I just don't know it), Cumbrian Wrestling, Jaguar Knights, Capoeira, Savate, Boxing and Grande Baton (French Cane fighting).
The thing with Asian Arts is
1. Often peasants were banned from carrying weapons
2. Often the Nations were so big that peasants had no way of seeking justice and so had to defend themselves
3. Taoism and Buddhism both teach about self-perfection and so exercises and arts which allowed one to hone the body and free the mind were very popular
4. The 'Chinese' Empires which at various times covered huge parts of Asia meant that the Combat Arts could spread widely and gain some kind of uniformity
5. US Military personel returned from Asia after WWII and popularised/glamourised Asian Martial Arts
NoOneofConsequence
First Post
Points to consider:
1. European martial arts traditions were superseded by the use of firearms (certainly in the armies).
2. From the sixteenth century, Europeans experienced almost continuous warfare often using conscript armies (or at least large numbers of conscripts). An army cannot waste its time teaching a fighting system that takes ten years to master to conscripts that need to learn to fight in eight weeks. European armies discarded all but the simplest fighting skills - plus the gun of course.
3. In the East Asia (China, Korea, Japan) the same period of history was one of relative political stability (at least when compared with Europe) and limited technological advancement in weaponry. As such, mediaeval traditions of combat continued much later. Hence the emphasis of armed and unarmed combat arts, like Te, forms of Tae Kwon Do, Kung Fu etc. The lack of rifled bore firearms meant that such skills remained relevant to the battle field and the maintenance of professional warrior classes or groups (samurai, shaolin monks) meant that arts that took ten years to master were still effective.
4. Numerous unarmed forms of combat exist from Europe, most famously savate - french kickboxing - and capoeira - which was developed by slaves in Brazil.
5. Many cultures have traditional forms of exercise designed to keep the men of the culture in shape for warfare. Southern african nations had running; Greeks developed the Olympiad with games originally based on soldier's training (modern athletics derives from this tradition); there's a form of exercise from the Ottoman empire still practiced today in Turkey (I've forgotten the name); the Highland games in Scotland; in the case of East Asian countries and cultures, martial arts are this form of traditional exercise.
That's about as much as I know from the history. Someone's previous post about GI's bringing karate etc back after WWII/Korea is also an important point. East Asian martial arts are not the only ones, just the most well known.
1. European martial arts traditions were superseded by the use of firearms (certainly in the armies).
2. From the sixteenth century, Europeans experienced almost continuous warfare often using conscript armies (or at least large numbers of conscripts). An army cannot waste its time teaching a fighting system that takes ten years to master to conscripts that need to learn to fight in eight weeks. European armies discarded all but the simplest fighting skills - plus the gun of course.
3. In the East Asia (China, Korea, Japan) the same period of history was one of relative political stability (at least when compared with Europe) and limited technological advancement in weaponry. As such, mediaeval traditions of combat continued much later. Hence the emphasis of armed and unarmed combat arts, like Te, forms of Tae Kwon Do, Kung Fu etc. The lack of rifled bore firearms meant that such skills remained relevant to the battle field and the maintenance of professional warrior classes or groups (samurai, shaolin monks) meant that arts that took ten years to master were still effective.
4. Numerous unarmed forms of combat exist from Europe, most famously savate - french kickboxing - and capoeira - which was developed by slaves in Brazil.
5. Many cultures have traditional forms of exercise designed to keep the men of the culture in shape for warfare. Southern african nations had running; Greeks developed the Olympiad with games originally based on soldier's training (modern athletics derives from this tradition); there's a form of exercise from the Ottoman empire still practiced today in Turkey (I've forgotten the name); the Highland games in Scotland; in the case of East Asian countries and cultures, martial arts are this form of traditional exercise.
That's about as much as I know from the history. Someone's previous post about GI's bringing karate etc back after WWII/Korea is also an important point. East Asian martial arts are not the only ones, just the most well known.
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