“Call for Martial Art Science”
Written by Han Jingyu
Translated by Timo Heikkil?
It was the 12th of
February, 2004. I was bringing the ashes of my father (Han Qiao, also known as
Han Xingqiao) to the peace of Dayangshan Cemetery. On the way back, I could
hear my father's voice in my mind. I couldn't help thinking of my father's
passing, and asking what he had finally left us. I went on to think, "What
did the old generation of martial artists untiringly pursue? What were their
lifetimes of painstaking effort directed to?" The answer is extremely
clear, it is “martial art science”.
Mr. Wang Xiangzhai once wrote: “... I do my utmost, the only goal being to let
martial art science progress. I don't dare to care for victory or defeat,
praise or blame, ...” In the works of Mr. Wang, the words “martial art science”
can be found everywhere.
Mr. Yao Zongxun also wrote:“The approach Mr. Wang had to the truth of martial
art was not that of the partial learning of specific skills and minor success.
He devoted all his energy during his entire life to this pursuit: exploring and
researching the very essence that lies within the complex exterior phenomena of
the whole realm of martial art science."
Madam Wang Yufang also wrote: “What is more important is my father's thoughts
on this science. No matter how great and abundant one's practical experience
is, if it has not been taken to a certain theoretical height it will always
contain the characteristic of blindness. Because only with correct theory is it
possible to reflect the essence and inherent laws of something, not the
assumptions people impose upon it.”
This shows that Mr. Wang Xiangzhai was the originator of martial art science.
He pioneered the path from martial arts to martial art science. The old
generation of martial artists all continuously made great efforts to progress
forward on this road. Only the pursuit of martial art science is the great
direction of Chinese martial arts.
Mr. Wang Xiangzhai called for: “... each person sharing the same path with me,
{to} shoulder the great responsibility of carrying forward martial art
science”. We later generations should also adopt the same attitude. We should
complete the great undertaking of martial art science and not betray the hope
our predecessors had for us.
What can be called martial art science, then? Martial art science is a
theoretical system that can analyze, explain, judge, and guide all the contents
within the whole realm of martial arts.
The establishment of a complete theoretical system should fulfill the following
requirements: to have a clear guiding vision and aim; to have a strict
theoretical system; to have systematic and effective methods of teaching and
training; and to have scientific and reasonable standards of judgment. All
martial arts phenomena and contents of human movement must be explained and
judged within this theoretical system. It can guide all concrete practice.
Thus, martial art science must have the following qualities: objective,
singular, universal, consistent, scientific, and systematic.
First of all, martial art science expresses the objective laws of the movement
of life of the human body. We know that any science expresses the movement laws
of a certain matter within a specific category. Being a law, it objectively
exists. We can only discover objective laws, but cannot create them. This is
like when Newton saw an apple fall down and discovered the law of gravity. This
mechanical law existed already before Newton discovered it. In the same
principle, all the movement laws revealed by martial art science also exist
before they are recognized. The movement laws of martial art are inborn in the
bodies of all people. No matter whether you are Oriental or Occidental, no
matter which country you are from or which race you belong to, it exists in
your body in the same way. It is an inborn ability of the physical body. Thus
we say that the laws of martial art objectively exist. Martial art science
belongs to the whole human race.
Martial art science, being the knowledge of objective laws, is singular. Mr.
Wang Xiangzhai said: “Only science is universally sacred, a publicly owned
master”. For our singular world, there can only be one "publicly owned
master". It is like a trigonometric function, despite being independently
discovered by three different mathematicians in three different places, what
they all found was the same. That is because there can only be one objective
law. It is out of question for everyone to invent their own trigonometric
function. Martial art science is naturally like that too, there can also be
only one. This is the singularity of an objective law.
Speaking from the perspective of logic, “martial art science” points to the
unification of all kinds of theories related to “martial art”. It expresses the
whole theory of martial art. The whole is made of numerous parts. If martial
art is discussed and researched from only one viewpoint, what is seen is only
partial truth of martial art. While affirming this partial truth of martial art
science, we cannot negate the existence of other parts. Thus while we affirm
the achievements of our own research, we must also see the results of other
people's research. We cannot be like “the blind touching an elephant”. [An
idiom of blind people touching an elephant to determine what it is like. One
touching the ear and concluding that an elephant is like a big leaf, one
touching the leg and thinking that an elephant is like a tree, one touching the
tail and noticing that an elephant is like a snake, and so on.] Even though what
each of them touched was a real elephant, the truth that was revealed to each
of them was only from a certain perspective, thus the truth gained was limited.
If one only persists to one's own view, one can commit the mistake of taking a
part for the whole. At the same time, we must know that within the same system
of martial art science, the relationship between each part should be mutually
coordinated and fused together, and be without contradictions. At the same
time, they are under the control of the overall theory. Thus a complete martial
art science system must be able to include all knowledge related to martial
arts.
Now, let us discuss the consistency of martial art science. Being a branch of
science, it must have a complete theoretical basis. We know that the
establishment of a true theory must be consistent, while the establishment of
an erroneous theory only needs one example. In other words, to establish a
complete system of martial art science, it must make use of all the contents of
martial arts and human movement, without a single exception. Further on, to
express the contents of martial art science, we must use the form of
proposition, not the form of negative proposition. The reason is very simple,
if the form of negative proposition is made use of, it only points out what is
not, or what is wrong. Although what was said was true, but the negated
contents does not fall under the spectrum of martial art science, therefore
leading to the situations of “no” and “wrong” being infinite in number. It
would be impossible to list them all, thus it would not advance the
establishment of martial art science theory. This is also the logical
requirement of establishing a system of martial art science. Naturally, when
discussing the theoretical issues of martial art science one must have the
general knowledge of logic.
We know that martial art science is a boundary science containing the natural
sciences and the humanities. Thus the establishment of martial art science must
not only be in accordance with the other sciences, but they must also maintain
the relation of harmoniously proving each other. All theories of martial art
science must at the same time have the characteristic of natural sciences of
being provable, and the characteristic of humanities of being understandable
and perceivable. Only this way can the scientific nature of martial art science
be guaranteed. Only this way can falling into the erroneous district of
idealistic subjective assumptions be prevented.
The system of martial art science must remain completely systematic, without
letting the theories within itself be in contradiction. Thus, being a complete
system of martial art science, there must be constant association between the
overall guiding ideology and the concrete training. That is, possessing the
coordination and unity within the system.
Having defined the requirements for the establishment of martial art science,
we cannot continue to be satisfied with the orthodox transmission of this
technique and that move, or this style and that school. Neither can we be
satisfied with learning and experiencing only a few words and phrases left
behind by the predecessors. Furthermore, we cannot be satisfied with
understanding and annotation from a single viewpoint. Nor can we continue to be
intoxicated with the feeling of satisfaction that comes from minor success.
The dispute between the different schools of martial arts has raged for
centuries without rest. Today, apart from the all kinds of martial arts schools
and styles at different places, new styles are being initiated all the time.
This has led to martial arts becoming ever more diverse, complex and abstruse.
Mr Wang Xiangzhai once wrote: “Our nation's martial arts are disorderly and
unsystematic, one can only sigh without knowing what to do. In a nutshell, they
have abandoned the essence and gathered the scum, nothing more.” The progress
of Chinese martial arts cries for the achievement of a substantial
breakthrough. It is in sore need of walking up the healthy road of science.
But how do we face the diverse and varying Chinese martial arts? Here we can
take an example of the way of thought of the predecessors.
In the first half of the 20th century, a Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure
(1857-1913) made a great contribution by answering the question of how the
language of humankind appeared. The basis of de Saussure's thoughts on
linguistics, was that language is a kind of symbolic system with a special
structural form. De Saussure thought that the object of research should not focus
on individual language systems, otherwise you get lost in the labyrinth of all
the languages differing in thousands of ways, namely the concrete expressions
of a language. That is to say, even though the languages of humankind differ in
thousands of ways, they all follow a certain structural form and have a common
law of movement. If you want to understand the essence of language, you should
not get distracted by its thousands of different presentations. Overemphasis of
specific nature can conflict with the advance the understanding of the common
nature and the essence. One must penetrate through these appearances to
understand its essence. This is the same situation with the martial arts. Even
though its appearances are diverse, the complicated phenomena are nothing more
than different variations of human movement. Being human movement, it
inevitably contains the common law of movement of the human body. Thus we must
penetrate through the complicated outward phenomena of the martial arts, and
carry out thorough research on the essence of the movement of the human body to
discover the common law that represents the essence of martial arts movement.
This will enable the establishment of a complete theoretical system of martial
art science.
Here another master of Buddhist philosophy from China's Sui Dynasty, Zhiyi
(538-597), will be introduced. During his days he faced the numerous and
complicated schools of Buddhist philosophy. Each school looked at the
problems from their own perspective. Although they each highlighted certain
principles, they were unable to communicate with one another. This created
barriers to understanding. In order not to be limited by disparate points of
view, he sought to integrate them in order to reach harmony, ultimately raising
them to the state of perfection, using the guiding principles: "there is
only one ultimate truth", and “boundaries are limiting and therefore
wrong, conversely, harmonious integration is right”. Creatively he used
the Panjiao [classificatory scheme of teachings] method, and eventually formed
a complete system of learning for Buddhist philosophy.
The Panjiao method is comprehending and assimilating all kinds of
theories together, and allocating the theories of all schools into an
orderly system according to a certain standard, and systematically arranging
them to form a sequential process. Thus leading to the theories of all schools
being absorbed together into a certain form. All theories together form a
harmonious state of mutual absorption without creating contradictions. Thus
arriving to the goal of the maturity of the scientific theory.
The creation of a Panjiao normally cannot exclude two factors. First of all
there must be a unified standard of judging. Secondly, on the basis of science,
all knowledge must be placed into a unified orderly system. Only this way, can
a complete system of science be established.
Although the form of Panjiao in Buddhist philosophy is a product of a past era,
but its use of the Panjiao method to absorb the way of thought of all kinds of
cultures already forms the basic form of how Chinese scholars digest the
knowledge of all kinds of cultures. Its way of thought still has a deep, actual
significance to us.
The establishment of martial art science also requires a system of judging to
evaluate all contents of martial arts. This resembles the trade of commercial
products, there must first be a unified weights and measures. For there to be
real estate business, there must first be a standard of assessment for real
estate. Otherwise there is no way to do normal business. It is also like
fractional calculation, the different denominators must first be unified to get
a common denominator. Only then can the calculation be done. Following the same
principle, to analyze, understand, and evaluate with unified standards, we
must first establish a common judgment system for the martial arts. To
arouse wide attention of the martial arts circles to establishing a system of
judgment for martial arts, "casting a brick to attract jade", I introduce
the key points of my viewpoint of “martial arts judgment method of one
consciousness, two paths, and three stages” to everyone, hoping that through
everyone joining to discuss this together, a scientific judgment system of
martial arts can soon be established. Building a strong base to the theory of
martial art science.
The contents of the “martial arts judgment method of one consciousness, two
paths, and three stages” is as follows: (for detailed information, please read
my past writings)
One consciousness: because all human actions are enveloped by the activities of
the consciousness, the activities of human consciousness form the common
starting point of the research and cognition of all contents of martial arts.
Two paths: the rational and the perceptual are the two ways all people share to
cognize the world. Thus from these methods of cognition, all the concrete
methods of learning in all martial arts styles can be analyzed and understood.
The three stages: cognition of the objective, cognition of oneself, and
cognition of cognition. This is the common law of the development of cognition
in the humankind's cognition of the world. With these three stages of cognition
we can differentiate which stage of cognition each of the various styles of martial
arts lies at. And thus come to understand their different perspectives and
consequently reach the understanding of the contents they express.
The happy news that China has won the right to hold the 2008 Olympic games has
filled the whole nation with joy. At this moment, we should examine our
consciences, how will Chinese martial arts represent themselves at that great
event? It is as if I again heard the call for “martial art science” from Mr.
Wang Xiangzhai and the old generation of martial artists.
This article expresses respect to and cherishes the memory of my father and the
old generation of martial artists!
Mr. Fan Wuping expressed numerous valuable opinions towards this article, I
want to express my sincere gratitude here.
December 2nd, 2004
Han Jingyu in Zhuhai
拳學(xué)研究
