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This article was nominated for merging with History of martial arts on 27 April 2014. The result of the discussion was No consensus. |
It seems like an argument is being phrased and weighted towards one side. Regardless, no citation is give to certain ideas. What are the Indian (or Chinese) texts that describe Bodhidharma's origin as a Southerm Kschtriya? What are the texts that show the monastery was founded prior to Bodhidharma's arrival? Finally as a point of logic, one author seems to be claiming that because a text has been discredited that means Bodhidharma could not have contributed to Shaolin Kung Fu. A Daoist priest forges the prefaces according to the information submitted by the author. The priest claims "the monks selfishly coveted it, practicing the skills therein, falling into heterodox ways, and losing the correct purpose of cultivating the Real." Why would a text used to discredit the monks be used by the monks themselves to define their history? The monks themselves are claiming the origin of martial arts from Bodhidharma, and the author claims that this has been from the forgery of the text. It seems spurious that anyone would take a myth denigrating them as fact when up till then they did not believe the myth. Arch7 ( talk) 08:36, 25 January 2008 (UTC)
- I agree, this article very heavily favours one side of the debate. Furthermore, Renzo Gracie is not a historian or an authority on martial arts history. While he is a talented practioner of Brazillian Jiu Jitsu, that does not give his opinions historical or scholarly cache. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.101.186.190 ( talk) 01:55, 4 April 2009 (UTC)
The result of the proposal was move to Disputed Indian origins of East Asian martial arts, per the discussion below. Merges can be discussed separately. Dekimasu よ! 06:13, 18 July 2007 (UTC)
"Bodhidharma, Shaolin Kung fu, and the disputed India connection" is an enormously awkward page name. It should be moved back to "Disputed Indian origins of East Asian martial arts". JFD 17:19, 11 July 2007 (UTC)
The two paragraphs, one starting "Shaolin monastery records state..." and the following one starting "Years before the arrival of Bodhidharma..." contain essentially the same information and statements. Perhaps someone familiar with the references could combine and improve? Is "...the tin staff." referenced by both 11 and 13? DAG 06:26, 19 July 2007 (UTC)
Just as a disclaimer, if individuals will check this article's edit history, it will reveal that I've tried hard to keep this article well sourced and NPOV.
I know that this article began as a large POV fork for hindu nationalists, and that there was a proposal to merge it with its counter-article has been there since March. (Heck, I was the one who placed the original merge proposal.) However, there is a whole scale difference between merging articles and replacing the article. This especially doesn't make sense when the replacing article began life as criticism article.
Can someone explain to me what was wrong with the version of the article from last month? I agree that contents that currently take up the article's entirety should be included, but it shouldn't be exclusive.
Djma12 ( talk) 03:08, 26 August 2007 (UTC)
If neither you nor Djma12 have any objection, I'm going to change the title of this article to "Asian martial arts (origins)" or "Origins of Asian martial arts". JFD ( talk) 15:21, 31 January 2008 (UTC)
I am not sure this was a smart move. The article doesn't touch upon the various Southeast Asian martial arts. You may have widened the scope more than is appropriate. dab (𒁳) 16:14, 23 February 2008 (UTC)
I think other articles of this type could also be re-named or merged so that they refer to all of Asia instead of over-emphasizing the sub-regions. Information on Southeast Asian martial arts could always be added in. Morinae ( talk) 11:08, 26 February 2008 (UTC)
The Shaolin Monastery: History, Religion, and the Chinese Martial Arts by Meir Shahar was just published by the University of Hawai'i Press. Shahar is a professor of East Asian studies at Tel Aviv University and holds a PhD in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from Harvard. Moreover his articles on martial arts have been published in peer-reviewed journals including the Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies and Asia Major.
What this means is that we finally have in English a comprehensive academic source (as opposed to more narrowly focused journal articles) and therefore ought to start distinguishing material which can be attributed to reliable sources from material attributed to unreliable ones.
JFD ( talk) 13:44, 26 February 2008 (UTC)
this article was originally a pov fest to the effect "Chinese martial arts came from India", unsurprisingly created by an Indian patriot, who is also permabanned for sockpuppetry. But the article by now contains valid material, mostly on the "Bodhidharma legend". What are we going to do with that material? {{ split}} to Bodhidharma, Shaolin_kung_fu#Legend_of_Bodhidharma and history of martial arts? -- dab (𒁳) 09:48, 7 September 2009 (UTC)
This is one horrible article. I just removed a huge chunk of it because much of the info is based on legend that has been disproven time and time again. And many of the cited experts are not historians at all. A master passing on a story is not the same as a researcher who analyzes contemporary documents. Also, there are many tags on this page that say "not in the citation listed," meaning much of the info could be some editor's original research hidden under an umbrella of a citation. -- Ghostexorcist ( talk) 17:05, 14 November 2009 (UTC)
I'm not criticising any particular individuals here. I agree with what you said about masters not being as reliable as researchers. I'm saying this article needs to be revamped. It should be more akin to the History of martial arts article instead of propounding different "origin theories". Morinae ( talk) 11:37, 17 April 2010 (UTC)
Okay, we have comment after comment on how POV and silly this article is (not to mention the name of the article itself.) Having had various warnings for over 12 months, I'm gonna' man up and just start slashing things. I'm first going to remove every loaded or POV word in the article--there really is no place for a "however" or negative slurs about sources. a Please don't revert my edits collectively--feel free to revert various ones individually if you explain it here. The first thing this article needs is some moderators who know wiki law, and second, enough eyeballs to make it valid for a wiki format. We need to write from a position of equity, and right now we're fighting on the defensive from well-intentioned vandals. The third thing this article needs is for someone else to be doing the slashing, because I don't know enough about the primary sources to be doing such (cf. point 1). -- Mrcolj ( talk) 15:40, 16 December 2011 (UTC)
The reference to the book Bodhisattva Warriors by Terrance Duke has been removed a couple of times. This edit summary claims the book is untrustworthy. Wushinbo claims to have provided evidence for why this is on "Mushindo Kempo and the general martial arts project page." However, Talk:Mushindo Kempo doesn't have any evidence and the discussion on the WikiProject Martial arts talk page only has personal anecdotes and links to forums and Amazon book reviews. I'm afraid more concrete evidence is needed. Forums are not allowed to be used as sources on Wikipedia articles. The same should hold for disproving any sources that may appear in an article. Amazon book reviews don't even come close to being a source. There has to be a reliable third party source that has written of the book's unreliability. -- Ghostexorcist ( talk) 12:08, 28 September 2012 (UTC)
I have started this section in the hopes that anon 24.205.183.170 will discuss his objections of the Alexander the Great material. As someone who studies martial arts history, I understand why they object to it, but the fact remains that it is a cited source. The author of the material says Alexander "may have sown the seeds of modern Asian martial arts". It is simply a suggestion, not a statement of fact. Besides, the Wikipedia policy on Neutral Point of View dictates that all views on a subject must be covered. -- Ghostexorcist ( talk) 20:24, 21 April 2013 (UTC)
But there is significant archaeological evidence that makes it far fetched, so is it possible to make a disclaimer talking about its lack of weight. such as the fact that these cultures have had significant military histories prior to the hellenic expansion? such as the fact that much of chinese martial arts positions resemble Manuscript drawing of physical exercises dao-yin (guiding the energy flow) from an ancient tomb of the Han dynasty which predates the entry of buddhism and central asian influences into china. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.109.204.166 ( talk) 00:39, 27 April 2013 (UTC)
This article, and the articles which merged with it, were originally used for presenting evidence for and against the Bodhidharma legend, along with other improbable "theories". Although I do prefer its current state, I'm wondering if it's really necessary. The history of martial arts already has its own article, which is adequately divided into countries and regions. And if anyone wanted more detail, they could check more specific articles like the one on Japanese martial arts or Korean martial arts. Why do we need a separate article for Asia? I say just merge it. Morinae ( talk) 15:35, 27 April 2014 (UTC)
If Bodhidharma is of Indian heritage, why is his information not placed on (the indian section), why did you put him on the chinese section just to be degraded as a fake?
His work which is now in the hands of the chinese was written in a rare indian writing system, his teachings were brought from the south of india and used in china such as the (Muscle/Tendon Change Classic) (Eighteen Arhat Hands) and book of (washing bone morrow) it was only At the end of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), That Zhue Yuen, Li Sou and Bai Yu Feng developed the five animal form, which helped to complete the new shaolin system and had a major impact on the state of shaolin kung-fu.
Also why has the editor of this page not written anything or added anything on the wrestling in india? it's the oldest sport of combat in india thatwas even noted by the portuguese during the historical visits by Domingo Paes in the fifteenth century he writes:
"Then the wrestlers begin their play. Their wrestling does not seem like ours, but there are blows so severe as to break teeth, and put out eyes, and disfigure faces, so much so that here and there men are carried off speechless by their friends; they give one another fine falls too."
Domingo Paes also talks about watching men haven legs and arms broken in locks ect, so i mean why not include indian wrestling such as the oldest? 92.236.96.38 ( talk) 15:59, 10 October 2014 (UTC)caplock
"regarding Bodhidharma, all information about him comes from Chinese records. There are no mentions of him in native Indian records, so some historians believe he was not a historical person"
So what are basically saying is?
Bodhidharma is of chinese heritage because the chinese wrote a fake story about his life being a indian prince? Okay If this scripture is fake, does this mean that the story of buddha is a fake because the story is written and recorded by the indians within the indian pali text and not the nepa text of nepal from which buddha was said to be born,or does this propganda only count for the chinese historians?
I think you should remove all information of Bodhidharma as i dont think a fake story is appropriate for the history of martial arts. 92.236.96.38 ( talk) 19:42, 19 October 2014 (UTC)Caplock
few obvious connections are the training clubs of karate and their indian clubs like equipment, which are not discussed here, some training push ups of karate like some of their push ups resemble hindu push ups, the penchak silat and its kungfu type moves, even though silat was inspired by indian martial arts, how judo resembles the game of burmese naban, both of them apparently having no common ancestor of each other, naban being inspired by malla yuddha and judo being inspired by god knows what. i think that somebody needs to dig out proper resources and authors who discuss these stuff and how naban is related to judo even though it doesnt share its ancestory and how penchak silat involves kungfu moves even though its foundation is based on indian martial arts. Not to state the obvious that japanese kick boxing has musti yuddha parenthood for instance. These some of the hard evidences are virtually irrefutable if discussed properly here. I was reading one research paper which also states that judo and jiujitsu have roots in sanskrit yuddh. There are some obvious institutionalization of martial arts of seemingly two unrelated martial arts cultures happening on very similar lines.
The evolution of the martial arts has been described by historians in the context of countless historical battles. Building on the work of Laughlin (1956, 1961), Rudgley (2000) argues that the martial arts of the Chinese, Japanese and Aleut peoples, Mongolian wrestling all have "roots in the prehistoric era and to a common Mongoloid ancestral people who inhabited north-eastern Asia."
This quote and theory has some major falws in it, the author is most probably hinting the evidence of mongolian wrestling shown in the cave arts and hence all east asian martial arts tracing their history to mongol ancestry. This theory also uses the very convenient excuses like proto indo european, even though we indeed can argue that some forms of asian martial arts descended from mongol cave drawings, but does the cave drawing also show kungfu like moves, judo, karate skills etc?, the mongol wrestling is only one form of grappling sports and nothing else and mongolian wrestling if you observe is to be honest very crude form of martial arts, which is not refined like other asian varieties, mongol grappling is still not widely practised in china and can only be truely seen in sports like sumo and thats about it. how does a mongol cave drawing reflect on complicated moves of locking involved in judo for instance?, i think that instead of making such sweeping statements that east asian martial arts are all descendent from mongol cave drawings and mongol wrestling, why not also post an elaborate context behind this misleading statement? 60.52.50.71 ( talk) 05:05, 7 February 2019 (UTC)
This is the
talk page for discussing improvements to the
Origins of Asian martial arts article. This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject. |
Article policies
|
Find sources: Google ( books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL |
Archives: 1 |
This article is rated C-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | |||||||||||||||
|
This article was nominated for merging with History of martial arts on 27 April 2014. The result of the discussion was No consensus. |
It seems like an argument is being phrased and weighted towards one side. Regardless, no citation is give to certain ideas. What are the Indian (or Chinese) texts that describe Bodhidharma's origin as a Southerm Kschtriya? What are the texts that show the monastery was founded prior to Bodhidharma's arrival? Finally as a point of logic, one author seems to be claiming that because a text has been discredited that means Bodhidharma could not have contributed to Shaolin Kung Fu. A Daoist priest forges the prefaces according to the information submitted by the author. The priest claims "the monks selfishly coveted it, practicing the skills therein, falling into heterodox ways, and losing the correct purpose of cultivating the Real." Why would a text used to discredit the monks be used by the monks themselves to define their history? The monks themselves are claiming the origin of martial arts from Bodhidharma, and the author claims that this has been from the forgery of the text. It seems spurious that anyone would take a myth denigrating them as fact when up till then they did not believe the myth. Arch7 ( talk) 08:36, 25 January 2008 (UTC)
- I agree, this article very heavily favours one side of the debate. Furthermore, Renzo Gracie is not a historian or an authority on martial arts history. While he is a talented practioner of Brazillian Jiu Jitsu, that does not give his opinions historical or scholarly cache. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 59.101.186.190 ( talk) 01:55, 4 April 2009 (UTC)
The result of the proposal was move to Disputed Indian origins of East Asian martial arts, per the discussion below. Merges can be discussed separately. Dekimasu よ! 06:13, 18 July 2007 (UTC)
"Bodhidharma, Shaolin Kung fu, and the disputed India connection" is an enormously awkward page name. It should be moved back to "Disputed Indian origins of East Asian martial arts". JFD 17:19, 11 July 2007 (UTC)
The two paragraphs, one starting "Shaolin monastery records state..." and the following one starting "Years before the arrival of Bodhidharma..." contain essentially the same information and statements. Perhaps someone familiar with the references could combine and improve? Is "...the tin staff." referenced by both 11 and 13? DAG 06:26, 19 July 2007 (UTC)
Just as a disclaimer, if individuals will check this article's edit history, it will reveal that I've tried hard to keep this article well sourced and NPOV.
I know that this article began as a large POV fork for hindu nationalists, and that there was a proposal to merge it with its counter-article has been there since March. (Heck, I was the one who placed the original merge proposal.) However, there is a whole scale difference between merging articles and replacing the article. This especially doesn't make sense when the replacing article began life as criticism article.
Can someone explain to me what was wrong with the version of the article from last month? I agree that contents that currently take up the article's entirety should be included, but it shouldn't be exclusive.
Djma12 ( talk) 03:08, 26 August 2007 (UTC)
If neither you nor Djma12 have any objection, I'm going to change the title of this article to "Asian martial arts (origins)" or "Origins of Asian martial arts". JFD ( talk) 15:21, 31 January 2008 (UTC)
I am not sure this was a smart move. The article doesn't touch upon the various Southeast Asian martial arts. You may have widened the scope more than is appropriate. dab (𒁳) 16:14, 23 February 2008 (UTC)
I think other articles of this type could also be re-named or merged so that they refer to all of Asia instead of over-emphasizing the sub-regions. Information on Southeast Asian martial arts could always be added in. Morinae ( talk) 11:08, 26 February 2008 (UTC)
The Shaolin Monastery: History, Religion, and the Chinese Martial Arts by Meir Shahar was just published by the University of Hawai'i Press. Shahar is a professor of East Asian studies at Tel Aviv University and holds a PhD in East Asian Languages and Civilizations from Harvard. Moreover his articles on martial arts have been published in peer-reviewed journals including the Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies and Asia Major.
What this means is that we finally have in English a comprehensive academic source (as opposed to more narrowly focused journal articles) and therefore ought to start distinguishing material which can be attributed to reliable sources from material attributed to unreliable ones.
JFD ( talk) 13:44, 26 February 2008 (UTC)
this article was originally a pov fest to the effect "Chinese martial arts came from India", unsurprisingly created by an Indian patriot, who is also permabanned for sockpuppetry. But the article by now contains valid material, mostly on the "Bodhidharma legend". What are we going to do with that material? {{ split}} to Bodhidharma, Shaolin_kung_fu#Legend_of_Bodhidharma and history of martial arts? -- dab (𒁳) 09:48, 7 September 2009 (UTC)
This is one horrible article. I just removed a huge chunk of it because much of the info is based on legend that has been disproven time and time again. And many of the cited experts are not historians at all. A master passing on a story is not the same as a researcher who analyzes contemporary documents. Also, there are many tags on this page that say "not in the citation listed," meaning much of the info could be some editor's original research hidden under an umbrella of a citation. -- Ghostexorcist ( talk) 17:05, 14 November 2009 (UTC)
I'm not criticising any particular individuals here. I agree with what you said about masters not being as reliable as researchers. I'm saying this article needs to be revamped. It should be more akin to the History of martial arts article instead of propounding different "origin theories". Morinae ( talk) 11:37, 17 April 2010 (UTC)
Okay, we have comment after comment on how POV and silly this article is (not to mention the name of the article itself.) Having had various warnings for over 12 months, I'm gonna' man up and just start slashing things. I'm first going to remove every loaded or POV word in the article--there really is no place for a "however" or negative slurs about sources. a Please don't revert my edits collectively--feel free to revert various ones individually if you explain it here. The first thing this article needs is some moderators who know wiki law, and second, enough eyeballs to make it valid for a wiki format. We need to write from a position of equity, and right now we're fighting on the defensive from well-intentioned vandals. The third thing this article needs is for someone else to be doing the slashing, because I don't know enough about the primary sources to be doing such (cf. point 1). -- Mrcolj ( talk) 15:40, 16 December 2011 (UTC)
The reference to the book Bodhisattva Warriors by Terrance Duke has been removed a couple of times. This edit summary claims the book is untrustworthy. Wushinbo claims to have provided evidence for why this is on "Mushindo Kempo and the general martial arts project page." However, Talk:Mushindo Kempo doesn't have any evidence and the discussion on the WikiProject Martial arts talk page only has personal anecdotes and links to forums and Amazon book reviews. I'm afraid more concrete evidence is needed. Forums are not allowed to be used as sources on Wikipedia articles. The same should hold for disproving any sources that may appear in an article. Amazon book reviews don't even come close to being a source. There has to be a reliable third party source that has written of the book's unreliability. -- Ghostexorcist ( talk) 12:08, 28 September 2012 (UTC)
I have started this section in the hopes that anon 24.205.183.170 will discuss his objections of the Alexander the Great material. As someone who studies martial arts history, I understand why they object to it, but the fact remains that it is a cited source. The author of the material says Alexander "may have sown the seeds of modern Asian martial arts". It is simply a suggestion, not a statement of fact. Besides, the Wikipedia policy on Neutral Point of View dictates that all views on a subject must be covered. -- Ghostexorcist ( talk) 20:24, 21 April 2013 (UTC)
But there is significant archaeological evidence that makes it far fetched, so is it possible to make a disclaimer talking about its lack of weight. such as the fact that these cultures have had significant military histories prior to the hellenic expansion? such as the fact that much of chinese martial arts positions resemble Manuscript drawing of physical exercises dao-yin (guiding the energy flow) from an ancient tomb of the Han dynasty which predates the entry of buddhism and central asian influences into china. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.109.204.166 ( talk) 00:39, 27 April 2013 (UTC)
This article, and the articles which merged with it, were originally used for presenting evidence for and against the Bodhidharma legend, along with other improbable "theories". Although I do prefer its current state, I'm wondering if it's really necessary. The history of martial arts already has its own article, which is adequately divided into countries and regions. And if anyone wanted more detail, they could check more specific articles like the one on Japanese martial arts or Korean martial arts. Why do we need a separate article for Asia? I say just merge it. Morinae ( talk) 15:35, 27 April 2014 (UTC)
If Bodhidharma is of Indian heritage, why is his information not placed on (the indian section), why did you put him on the chinese section just to be degraded as a fake?
His work which is now in the hands of the chinese was written in a rare indian writing system, his teachings were brought from the south of india and used in china such as the (Muscle/Tendon Change Classic) (Eighteen Arhat Hands) and book of (washing bone morrow) it was only At the end of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), That Zhue Yuen, Li Sou and Bai Yu Feng developed the five animal form, which helped to complete the new shaolin system and had a major impact on the state of shaolin kung-fu.
Also why has the editor of this page not written anything or added anything on the wrestling in india? it's the oldest sport of combat in india thatwas even noted by the portuguese during the historical visits by Domingo Paes in the fifteenth century he writes:
"Then the wrestlers begin their play. Their wrestling does not seem like ours, but there are blows so severe as to break teeth, and put out eyes, and disfigure faces, so much so that here and there men are carried off speechless by their friends; they give one another fine falls too."
Domingo Paes also talks about watching men haven legs and arms broken in locks ect, so i mean why not include indian wrestling such as the oldest? 92.236.96.38 ( talk) 15:59, 10 October 2014 (UTC)caplock
"regarding Bodhidharma, all information about him comes from Chinese records. There are no mentions of him in native Indian records, so some historians believe he was not a historical person"
So what are basically saying is?
Bodhidharma is of chinese heritage because the chinese wrote a fake story about his life being a indian prince? Okay If this scripture is fake, does this mean that the story of buddha is a fake because the story is written and recorded by the indians within the indian pali text and not the nepa text of nepal from which buddha was said to be born,or does this propganda only count for the chinese historians?
I think you should remove all information of Bodhidharma as i dont think a fake story is appropriate for the history of martial arts. 92.236.96.38 ( talk) 19:42, 19 October 2014 (UTC)Caplock
few obvious connections are the training clubs of karate and their indian clubs like equipment, which are not discussed here, some training push ups of karate like some of their push ups resemble hindu push ups, the penchak silat and its kungfu type moves, even though silat was inspired by indian martial arts, how judo resembles the game of burmese naban, both of them apparently having no common ancestor of each other, naban being inspired by malla yuddha and judo being inspired by god knows what. i think that somebody needs to dig out proper resources and authors who discuss these stuff and how naban is related to judo even though it doesnt share its ancestory and how penchak silat involves kungfu moves even though its foundation is based on indian martial arts. Not to state the obvious that japanese kick boxing has musti yuddha parenthood for instance. These some of the hard evidences are virtually irrefutable if discussed properly here. I was reading one research paper which also states that judo and jiujitsu have roots in sanskrit yuddh. There are some obvious institutionalization of martial arts of seemingly two unrelated martial arts cultures happening on very similar lines.
The evolution of the martial arts has been described by historians in the context of countless historical battles. Building on the work of Laughlin (1956, 1961), Rudgley (2000) argues that the martial arts of the Chinese, Japanese and Aleut peoples, Mongolian wrestling all have "roots in the prehistoric era and to a common Mongoloid ancestral people who inhabited north-eastern Asia."
This quote and theory has some major falws in it, the author is most probably hinting the evidence of mongolian wrestling shown in the cave arts and hence all east asian martial arts tracing their history to mongol ancestry. This theory also uses the very convenient excuses like proto indo european, even though we indeed can argue that some forms of asian martial arts descended from mongol cave drawings, but does the cave drawing also show kungfu like moves, judo, karate skills etc?, the mongol wrestling is only one form of grappling sports and nothing else and mongolian wrestling if you observe is to be honest very crude form of martial arts, which is not refined like other asian varieties, mongol grappling is still not widely practised in china and can only be truely seen in sports like sumo and thats about it. how does a mongol cave drawing reflect on complicated moves of locking involved in judo for instance?, i think that instead of making such sweeping statements that east asian martial arts are all descendent from mongol cave drawings and mongol wrestling, why not also post an elaborate context behind this misleading statement? 60.52.50.71 ( talk) 05:05, 7 February 2019 (UTC)