Wushu: a culture of adversaries

ABSTRACT

Wushu is widely misunderstood and its essentially combative nature is being challenged in public discussion. Understanding and recovering its essential nature has become a core issue. This paper first conducts a review of the history of the Chinese hieroglyphic 武 (Wu) which is the core of the phrase of Wushu, and explores the word’s two most widely-accepted interpretations: ‘to carry a dagger-axe to fight with’ and ‘to put away the dagger-axe and stop fighting’. Understanding these two interpretations of Wu is the key to understand Wushu which is an art about Wu. Second, this paper, referencing cultural history, analyzes different methods of Wushu practice: Gedou (free combat), Taolu (compiled routine) and Gongfa (basic prowess). Third, based on Wittgenstein’s concept of family resemblance, this paper analyzes the different sorts of opponents, either real or imagined, in Taolu, Gedou, and Gongfa. Finally, this paper redefines Wushu as a culture of adversaries where such adversaries implicitly transfer the practitioner’s focus ‘from non-human to human’ and ‘from others to the self’.

KEYWORDS:

• Wushu
• Gedou
• Taolu
• Gongfa
• adversary
• archeology of knowledge

Acknowledgments

The authors of this paper appreciate all the reviewers’ and editors’ suggestions on the revision. Special thanks should go to Professor Paul Gaffney for his warm encouragement in helping us improve the paper. We also thank Dr. Ben Judkins for his generous help and advice. Any errors are our own and we accept any and all criticism or correction.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. According to the report of Chinese Cultural Cognitive Investigation among Foreigners released in 6 June 2015 by Capital Cultural Innovation and Cultural Communication Institute of Beijing Normal University, foreigners’ favorite Chinese traditional cultures include Beijing opera, Chinese tea, Chinese martial arts, Chinese traditional painting, and Chinese medicine. See survey: Panda is the Chinese cultural mark with highest international prestige. Available at http://www.chinanews.com/cul/ 2015/06-06/7326654.shtml (accessed 17 August 2017).

2. For example, Wen Jiabao, the former Premier of People’s Republic of China was once asked 54 questions in a letter written by more than 30 students from, Kansas, USA. One of these questions is ‘Are you able to do martial arts, premier’. See Kang G.W., Qiu P.X., Dai G.B. 2004. ‘Cong Wenhua Haoqi Dao Wenhua Zhanlue [From the cultural curiosity to culture strategy]’. Sports Culture Guide (6): 12–13.

3. Available at http://www.ziyexing.com/files-5/xunzi/xunzi_15.htm (accessed 12 December 2017).

4. Available at http://so.gushiwen.org/guwen/bookv_3766.aspx (accessed 12 December 2017).

5. In the first interpretation, 止 represents toes, while in the second interpretation, 止 represents stop or cease, meaning ‘put down and stop’. In this sense, we say that the former definition is foot-related and the later hand-related.

6. See Hanfeizi: Five Moths. Available at http://wyw.5156edu.com/html/z3554m2013j937.html (accessed 18 December 2017).

7. See Shangshu: Da Yu Mo. Available at https://shici.chazidian.com/shi62063/ (accessed 18 December 2017).

8. Book of Songs (shi jing) is said to have been compiled by Confucius. Available at http://so.gushiwen.org/gushi/shijing.aspx (accessed 18 December 2017).

9. See Judkins’ academic martial arts blog Kung Fu Tea: https://chinesemartialstudies.com/2018/04/06/sophia-delza-vs-the-black-belt-ethos-post-materialism-in-the-chinese-martial-arts/.

Additional information

Funding

Key projects of the national social science foundation of China[14ATY005].