Research On Modern Inheritance Dilemma Of Chinese Martial Arts

Nowadays, martial arts are regarded as Kungfu in movies, or merely as one item of physical educational practices in schools and competitions. The master-and-apprentice relationship keeps its original cline in terms of its family, but it pays no more attention to the ideas such as arts and morality enjoying similar position, teaching and learning enhancing each other. It is even worse that some people request martial arts masters' teaching, but they do not practice martial arts at all. In brief, Chinese martial arts are losing its striking feature of transmitting culture in practicing martial arts.The study aims to reveal the plight of modern Chinese martial arts in its transmission and the possible causes of the problem. Then it will reflect on the value of modern martial arts and the master-and-apprentice mode of teaching in order to conclude a basic thinking concerning transmitting martial arts in the future. In this study, anthropological research methods including participant observation and in-depth interviews are applied to investigate the transmission situation of Meihua Boxing in southwestern areas of Shandong province. Conclusions are summed as following.The plight of modern Chinese martial arts in its transmission results from the evolution of education modes from master-and-apprentice to formal schooling in martial arts institutions. Changes occur in the following areas. Places of teaching martial arts are no longer countryside boxing sites, but modern schools. The relationship between teacher and student is no longer as close as father-and-son, but modern relation of teacher-and-student. The teaching contents focus more on training students'martial arts than on their moral performance together with their martial arts. The teaching methods are formalized as classroom activities rather than teaching by doing. Martial arts activities such as boxing performance on the stage evolves from volunteer folk customs to something organized by and controlled by the market and government. The ultimate purpose of practicing martial arts is reduced from a yearning for improving one's morality to a thirst for money and power.The transmission plight of Chinese martial arts in modern society has the following characteristics. The declining of countryside boxing spot, the rising of phenomenon that just entering with no practicing, and the athletic trend of school martial arts belonging to the behavioral dimension. That the pursuit of people to goodness and beauty gradually gave way to wealth and power is in value dimension. In religion dimension, the "eternal home" changed to atomized "present self". At institutional level, various disciplines are losing their effects, rules and regulations are under the control of the law.The plight indicates a problem of education-economic and political elements move ahead and above martial arts, a special education form, and they lead to the loss of spirit of culture transmission in teaching martial arts.Causes of the dilemma include inside and outside factors. The urban-rural dual structure with urban development as the center is the outside factor. Under the system, the relationship between people and land is becoming looser than ever. The atomization of family and village has weakened the links among and within martial arts groups and broken people's inter-dependency. Traditional beliefs and values have gradually disintegrated, but the new ones directing to fortune and power. Observing from the inside of martial arts, we find that the spiritual and mental communication between teacher and student is not as smooth as before, major functions of martial arts are shrinking, and pure training of martial arts skills with no moral teaching. These changes lead martial arts develop to fitness performances and games while it is losing its cultural connotations and geographical characteristics.The concept of harmony and special cognitive style of martial arts, as well as the structural way of human society, have universal value and significance to solve the modern crisis of human beings. The combination of learning martial arts with physical and spiritual adjustment, self-perfection in morality will become an effective way to rebuild human belief and concentrate the harmony concept between human and nature, individual and society, body and mind. Although master-and-apprentice approach education has been declining, its democratic ideas, spirit of practice, and moral character have long-lasting value and meaning to current and future school education.In nature, the real education should be an activity with which human beings develop their own ability to grasp, create and use knowledge. Its aim is to cultivate wisdom. It should include at least the following three aspects:concern the transmission of human civilization, promote the growth of the ability to control knowledge, and it should not subordinate to economy and politics, especially to power.As a special cognitive mode of human beings, Chinese martial arts must adapt to the changing times to survive. Martial arts'survival lies in that firstly, it must benefit the transmission of Chinese culture and spirit; secondly, it should be able to promote the development and perfection of individual's life, and should cultivate one's wisdom, otherwise, it will never become a shared culture by all humans; and lastly, it must become part of the individual's daily life and find its root in people's life.