Question What is your understanding of Martial Arts?

From reading the question, you probably thought I meant how much you know about martial arts, but what truly meant was what you actually 'feel' is the true meaning of martial arts as a whole.

For example: I love Wuxia's and Xianxia novels. Especially ones like ISSTH and Martial World. Seeing how characters grow is really exciting, but my whenever I ask myself what I think martial arts actually is, I tend to lean more towards novels like Douluo Dalu.

The reason is simple: From my own understanding, martial arts isn't complex techniques nor strong moves, but instead it's 'style' one uses to take down their opponents.

When I say style, I don't mean standing their with your arms in a certain way, what I mean is the trail of thoughts a martial artist has.

To go deeper into what I mean by style. I'll have to bring up a well known martial arts anime and manga that was completed some time ago called Kenichi, History's strongest disciple. If one looked at the outer layer of it, you'd see a lot of overtop moved that are exaggerated to unrealistic proportions, but once you try to see what beneath you find that the author really did his best to portray martial arts as a battle of both physical attributes and wit.

This may sound like empty praise but if you really try to look past all those Ecchi moments you'll see that every character has a specific 'goal' while they are fighting opponents.

Kenichi himself is a talentless martial artist who is unable to adapt whenever something new appears in a fight, but with his strong will, he is able to remember the advice of his masters in critical moments and act out 'by the book' moves in ways that the opponent sometimes doesn't expect. His whole cowardly personality becomes part of the strategies he forms as well.

As for his masters, although they are ridiculous in various ways, their philosophy towards their 'styles' in martial arts blend with Kenichi as he grows. Let's take Apachai's Mauy Thai martial arts as an example:

When one see's Apachai's overall good natured personality, you may think he's a soft-hearted person, but whenever he uses his martial arts it becomes very obvious that his heart is the most decisive out of the five masters when it comes to killing.

Apachai didn't elaborate on his past in the first half of the manga, but he stated when Kenichi asked him about his martial arts that: 'Mauy Thai isn't a way of fighting. It's was created as a way for soldiers to survive survive on the battlefield.' (Or something close to that.)

In close combat, he would do whatever it takes to inflict lethal injuries to his opponents. Although it was made as a joke in the series, a good part of his character was really fleshed out due to what the reader can deduct from his actions.

You don't need to hear his backstory to know that he probably went through a lot of tough times trying to survive, and the reader knows intuitively that Apachai has probably killed a lot of people in order to perfect his 'style' of martial arts.

He doesn't retreat, nor does he show his back to his enemies, he decisively strikes with deadly force in order survive. If one was to put his 'style' simply... It's: "The only way to survive is to stop others from getting the chance to kill you." And the only way he knows how to do that is to kill his opponents before they act.

It is only later due to Kenichi's and friends influence that he learns how to change his 'style' and attack without bringing about death.

The moves he uses are exactly the same as before, his elbow strikes are still able to bring about lethal injuries to his opponents, but his growth as both a martial artist and a person allows him to spare foes.

To me, this change was quite significant, because it showed just how Apachai wasn't 'controlled' by his martial arts. It showed that he was the actual 'wielder' of his power.

This is what I mean by 'style', it's not the frame of mind nor attack pattern, but more on the persons goal while fighting. Although I love seeing Xianxia protagonists grow, I can't help but feel that getting physically stronger and being able to use more powerful isn't really martial 'growth'.

I binge read MW and found Lin Ming to quite an interesting character and have no qualms with the way the author wrote it. This is just my own opinion and my own 'understanding'.

My opinion, if it was in a Xianxia World, would probably be more useful to a Mortal instead of an Immortal. Since they wouldn't be able to understand the pain a martial artist goes through when their limits are unable to be expanded.

If you've read God of Highschool, a Manhua with the best fight scenes I've ever read, you'd see that the difference the 'way of fighting' both Humans and Gods show are completely different at a base level.

The human martial artists already know of their weaknesses, and they know that they would be unable to keep up with Gods in a fair fight, so they use 'Martial Arts' to make it up.

The concepts they've shown regarding martial arts definitely comes from the martial arts Chinese Kenpo. They always bring up the Hard Style of Martial Arts (Which is controlling the strength of ones body in order to mostly attack.) and the Soft Style of Martial Arts (Which is using the surroundings to mostly defend their bodies or restrict their opponent.) in a way that properly describes each characters moves.

The Main Character, Mori Hui and that Karate guy both classified as Hard Style users at first and that sword girl classified as a soft style user even if it was only barely.

These were the two characteristics of humanity's martial arts. However, Gods were unable to truly understand what a 'style' was due to them already being able to move mountains with their abilities.

Spoiler: The Rest (Spoiler Warning)

In the latest chapters, the difference between Satan 666 and the Monkey King was experience rather than moveset. Satan 666 was able to copy every one of Mori Hui's moves by reading his mind, but he couldn't copy the 'style' the Monkey King created through hardship as a 'weak' human. Allowing him to understand how to break his limits through sheer willpower and technique. Something that Satan 666 wasn't able to comprehend even after reading his mind for some time.

No one can understand suffering just by hearing about it. A good example would be how hearing about a war and actually being in the middle of a battlefield would affect a person.

This is what I call Martial Arts and this is my understanding.

 

I learned tai kwon do when I was a kid. Does that count?

 

Ermm....I also want to take abt it. And I have many words to say too. But then it will be a long para. Too much concentration, typing, wastage of time. So. Its better if I just give a like here

 

Lord Xue Xing or something like that is kind of similar to what you're talking about. His obsession of the spear is basically his "martial arts". Can't really explain it well.
EDIT: romance of snakes and dragon really explains it well in my opinion.

 

I don't really mind, just want to know what are your thoughts towards martial arts (novel wise) and what is your 'understanding' of what it truly is. An example of my opinion is at the top if you're interested.

 

That guy is great. I loved how spear techniques always levelled up.

 

I understand. I just had the urge to make a joke so I did. From my understanding of martial arts, it depends on either form, energy manipulation, or having some profound formula imprinted in your mind that let's you manipulate energy in a certain way to have a certain result

 

You're definitely a protagonist.

 

Your understanding is just a peck in the dust and I'm almost finished history strongest disciple currently at ep_48

 

I finished the entire manga, fully.

 

I learned karate when I'm still in high school. At that time, I'm participated in a tournament to gain an experience.

I lost on my first match, and guess what? My opponent won the tournament, and I heard he was a province athlete that won a lot of match.

Now you know how my luck is...

 

an answer from the world strongest person?

Spoiler: Martial arts

 

From the word of Saitama... martial arts is just moving your body around while trying to look kool

 

You should read romance of dragon and snake. Wang chao really love explaining stuff.

 

Dragon ball. That's the only 'meaning, feelin' that I get from martial arts in ISSTH, Martial World, etc. I mean... 10000 meters in one second, magical beams...

 

Martial art is self-defense, it will protect you from your enemy. If you learn Martial art seriously it will also give you peace of mind. I am learn Karate, its popular in my country.

 

holy shite man

thats a lot of words

 

idk, since i'm not good at sport that also includes physical exercises.
and not completely sure but i think (i also heard of it a little), its about understanding use of your physics and a suppression + control, which are control of your own physic, mental perception, and an understanding for offence and defense(skills/techniques)

else a monk wouldn't be called a monk

 

Explains the reason why it is called an 'art'.

What I'd say though, it's intent is obvious.

Given inputs A, it wants result B. Where A is you're faced off against X peeps who want to beat u up, and B is you defend urself and remain injury-less.

Most martial arts suggest strategies and manevueers to get from A to B. In the end though, given how much randomness and variability there will be involved, these martial arts suggestions are only approximations.

It's better to leave these sorts of problems to AI who have the processing power to consider all the potential possibilities.

 

Martial Arts can be perceived differently when writing stories most story incorporates martial arts as a way of imitating something. It acts as a medium to represent the original source. The same can be said for paintings and songs, but it presents itself in a destructive manner. The crux of it is to use the human body to resemble the forms you are enlightened in and channel it as a destructive power.

But most martial arts perceived has a single thing in common, that is to maximise the potential of the body. In a way, every single martial art written requires the strenuous and stringent training to be able to use the body to its fullest potential. So I think the essence of martial arts is mastering the body, the end of any martial arts always refers to no form as the greatest form. Because you do not need to follow rigid stances of positions to bring out the power that you imitate because you have reached the point where you can naturally control the body to unleash it even without the form.

That is to say, martial arts is to master the body. All the paths taken in the way of martial arts leads to a single road that is to slowly increase your body's potential and increase your control over it.

Desu~