martial arts

martial arts various forms of self-defense, usually weaponless, based on techniques developed in ancient China, India, and Tibet. In modern times they have come into wide use for self-protection, as competitive sports, and for exercise.

Jujitsu teaches skills that enable one to overcome a bigger, stronger opponent. A popular style of jujitsu is aikido, which uses wrist, elbow, and shoulder twists and graceful falls; it is noncompetitive and incorporates various spiritual concepts. Judo , a Japanese sport created in 1882, makes use of jujitsu principles. Other popular forms of martial arts include kung fu, karate, and taekwondo, all of which emphasize blows with the feet and the side of the hand, and kendo, in which leather-covered bamboo "swords" are used. Judo and taekwondo are Olympic sports. Capoeira, a dancelike Brazilian discipline whose movements are performed to rhythmic music, is gaining in popularity.

The traditional Asian martial arts emphasize allowing ki (cosmic energy; also known as chi) to flow through one's body. This belief in ki connects the martial arts with t'ai chi ch'uan, a meditationlike discipline that emphasizes slow, graceful body movements. The most popular form of individual exercise in China, t'ai chi is often performed publicly in large groups; it has been claimed to reduce stress and lower blood pressure.

martial arts. Martial arts is a broad term that covers a variety of schools and forms whose unity derives only from their origins in the arts of war and single combat. Thus, it covers the ‘empty-hand’ fighting style of karate as well as forms that concentrate on the use of various weapons, from swords and bows and arrows to farming implements such as sickles and threshers. Within Buddhist history, the martial arts have been closely identified with the teachings and practices of Ch'an and zen from an early period, a situation that arose when the military classes discovered that Zen practice enhanced fighting techniques by eliminating the fear of defeat and death and by enabling the combatant to keep his mind and energy focused in the present moment, thus shutting out distraction and enhancing concentration and reflexes.

In China, the origin of this connection is traced to the putative founder of Ch'an himself, Bodhidharma (3rd–4th centuries). It is said that when he arrived at the Shao-lin monastery (vihāra) in Honan Province, he found the resident monks in poor physical condition and subject to the depredations of local bandits, and so he taught them fighting techniques to improve their health and security. To this day, the monks of the Shao-lin monastery are famed for their fighting skills. A similar school of Buddhist Martial Arts (as opposed to ‘Royal Court Martial Arts’) arose in Korea. In Japan, the association of Zen and fighting led the samurai class to associate primarily with the Rinzai school from the mid-Kamakura period onward. They found in the Rinzai school an active, goal-oriented programme of self-cultivation that accorded with their own drive to self-discipline and achievement, and so a symbiotic relationship developed. Rinzai saw in the practice of martial arts a way to self-realization and expression of one's Buddha-nature of much the same sort that other arts (such as painting, calligraphy, and poetry) provided. The samurai found in Zen practice a way to further their own goals in becoming more skilled warriors. Some figures even straddled both worlds, such as Suzuki Shōsan (1579–1655), who as a young man was a warrior who made use of Zen in his combat, and later in life became a Zen monk whose teachings were filled with martial images.

mar·tial arts • pl. n. various sports or skills, mainly of Japanese origin, that originated as forms of self-defense or attack, such as judo, karate, and kendo. DERIVATIVES: mar·tial art·ist n.