Study On TuJia Martial Arts Culture

Tujia nationality is a mountainous nation with tough, brave, militant and strong martial spirit nature. They have been living in the middle areas of China, mainly borders on the Provinces of Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing and Guizhou. Under harsh natural and social environment, the Tujia people created their unique culture in martial arts. This article, based on the historical study, using the theories of cultural anthropology, sociology, religion, and folklore. Employ various methods, such as bibliography, expert interview, field research, case study, logical reasoning etc. Traced the historical memories of the Tu Jia people about their martialism, illustrated the deep reasons for the popularity of martial spirit among Tu Jia, demonstrated the overall outlook and Cultural connotations of the Tu Jia martial arts, combed the martial arts culture in TuJia folk customs, and chose the representative sorts of Quan for the case study. Finally, this paper revealed the ecological crisis of the Tu Jia martial arts culture encountered under the changes of social environment, and proposed some realistic paths for the inheritance and development of Tujia martial arts. the article drew the following main conclusions.First, trace back to the origin, the main ancestors of Tujia is come from the BA people in pre-Qin period, that is the BA people is the origin of Tujia, and Tujia is the trunk stream of BA people. As a cultural phenomenon, Tujia martial arts culture is not only an important content of Chinese martial arts culture, but also an indivisible organic part of Tujia traditional culture system. As for the content system, Tujia martial arts has two main components, that is the body martial arts culture and the related martial arts culture.Second, The history of Tujia was full of martialism, the martialism is the national personality from BA people to Tujia. As the nation’s survival means, The martial arts spirit is the nerve centre of Tujia. In the pre-Qin period, the BA tribe has helped Emperor Huang to compete for the leadership of the mainland. the war of Crusade against King Zhou of Shang by King Wu of Zhou and Liu Bang crusade against San Qin highlighted the nation’ fighting force. In the period of native chieftain system, to defend the territorial integrity, the Tujia soldiers responsed to the call of court, crusade Japanese pirates in south and Qing Dynasty in north, manifested the staunch martialism and the sincere patriotism. In history, the Tujia people created flourishing weapon culture and excellent military martial arts, Which were the physical manifestations and the cultural microcosm of Tujia’s martial arts spirit. BA Manzi, Qin Liangyu, Peng YiNan, Tian Jiuxiao, Chen Liansheng and other heroes, perfectly interpreted the ambition of Tujia military officers die on the battlefield and ensure national security, which is the vivid record of Tujia’s human martial arts spirit.Third, the formation of Tujia’s martialism character is closely related to the natural and human environment. On the natural environment, the Tujia people living in the mountainous area of Wuling, to conquer and transform nature, to live and multiply in the steep mountains and great rivers, they must have toned body and indomitable spirit. On the social environment, as a remote minority, it was difficult for them to throw off the fate of been oppressed, exploited and requisitioned in history, the history of Tujia was accompanied by military wars, the cruelty of war urged them to attach great importance to the martial spirit. At the same time, because they were influenced by the strong and tough folk customs relic for a long time, “barbarism” was the reasonable thing for their character. In brief, the harsh natural environment, the turbulent social and history background as well as the strong and tough folk customs relic are all contribute to the formation of Tujia’s national character.Fourth, under the influence of historical tradition and national culture, Tujia’s totemism, hero worship, myths and legends, witchcraft rites, funeral customs, folk dance and other folk culture were deeply imprinted with features of martial arts culture. Tujia’s folk custom provided a broad living space for the martial arts culture. As an important part of Tujia’s traditional culture, Tujia’s martial arts embodied the core and essence of the nation’s martial spirit.Fifth, Tujia martial arts have a long history, wide range varieties, distinctive features, rich and profound cultural connotation. In terms of cultural characteristics, the full bodied nationality, distinctive regional, integration of culture, unique art of attack and defense as well as the conditionality of Wushu morality are all of the unique cultural characteristics which Tujia martial arts embodied. Yu Men quan and Tie Mu quan are two sorts of Quan which widely spread in Tujia area, Yu Men quan was originated from Hua Tuo’s Wu Qin Xi, Tie Mu quan was created by Tie Muzhen who lived in Yuan Dynasty. In the long process of their inheritance and development, benefited from the martial arts masters, they become Tujia’s excellent sorts of Quan with distinctive technical characteristics, rich cultural connotation and complete theory system. Yu Men quan, Tie Mu quan and other rare martial arts, have become important parts of Tujia’s mountain martial arts culture.Sixth, with the further intensified of social change, owing to the lack of survival soil and the weak of intergenerational inheritance, under the strong impacted of modern sports, Tujia martial arts which derived from the military war and hunting activities has encountered some unprecedented crisis of survival. For this reason, to inherit and develop of Tujia martial arts, on the one hand, we must protect its depressing culture space, on the other hand, we must expand its new living space, to provide some new opportunities and platforms for the inheritance and development of Tujia martial arts.