The Influence Of Traditional Chinese View Of Body On Martial Arts

Under the background that body has attracted much more focus, this thesis aims atrevealing how ancient culture affect the formation and development of martial arts fromthe perspective of literature and history (mainly Confucianism and Taoism) to explorehow traditional Chinese view of body affect martial arts and further summarize its value,hoping to understand martial arts deeply and raise some useful and practical suggestionsto its development. This essay has applied the literature material, logic analysis,historical research, comparative analysis to study the object.The following are my conclusions:Firstly, under different theoretical backgrounds and teaching traditions,Confucianism and Taoism have formed a completely different views about body. Thistwo kinds of thoughts have built a theoretical context together, prompting theinheritance and evolution of martial arts with strong national features.Secondly, through the arrangement and analysis of traditional Chinese views ofbody, the author has found that ancient Chinese cultural atmosphere, social environment,value orientation and appreciation of beauty have shaped the introversion of body views,political field of the body, the moral thoughts, the pursuit of artistic conception and soon. All these helped to form the characteristics of martial arts to "introversion","politics", from "defeating people" to "shaping oneself", from "skill" to "art".Meanwhile, Chinese people pay close attention to the integrity of body and pursue thebalance of both inside and outside. It is held that body is the existence of life and as theorganic part of the universe, connects with nature. Consequently, martial arts has thecorresponding form: martial arts training emphasizes "mind and soul","the unity ofbody and mind; the virtue of martial arts pays attention to the virtue of "loyalty","humility"; the techniques of martial arts pursue "nature and humanity". Thirdly, Chinese martial arts and western martial arts, though both are physicalactivities, have different tracks of evolution and development according to theirdifferent cultural views on body. Chinese martial arts pays attention to the inner of thebody, emphasizing the organic entirety and performances of the body; while westernmartial arts emphasizes on the extroversion of the body, focusing on differentiation andintegration. These is only the tip of the iceberg about the difference between Chineseand western martial arts, and requires more researches.Lastly, historically, the form of martial arts has many factors, be they the socialethics view of the body raised by Confucianism or the pursuit of natural avenue held byTaoism, are all very important. From our modern perspective, traditional physicalconcept does not conform to the contemporary development, and the development ofmartial arts has confronted a dilemma. For example, some traditional physical conceptrestrict the transmission of the continuation of martial art, technology, the popularity,and so on.