First, the emergence and development of martial arts
As early as tens of thousands of years ago in primitive society, there were many animals and few people, and the natural environment was very bad. In the harsh struggle of "natural selection, survival of the fittest", people naturally produced primary offensive and defensive means such as punching and kicking, scratching and slapping, jumping and rolling. Later, I gradually learned to make and use stone or wooden tools as weapons, and unarmed and instruments produced some fighting and killing skills, which is the bud of martial arts. From the existing archaeological discoveries, in the Paleolithic Age, pointed stone tools, stone balls, stone hand axes and spears used to process bone angles have appeared; By the end of the Neolithic Age, a large number of stone axes, shovels, knives, harpoons, arrows and even bronze cymbals and axes appeared. These primitive production tools and weapons later became the forerunners of martial arts instruments.
At the end of primitive society, frequent tribal wars further promoted the development of Wushu. In tribal wars, bows and arrows and throwers are far used, while sticks, knives, axes and long weapons are near. Any production tool that can be used for capture and combat has become a combat weapon. The war practice of society puts forward the requirements of military skills for people. So people constantly sum up the offensive and defensive skills and experience gained from war practice. And handed down from generation to generation. The earliest martial artist Chiyou appeared in this period. At this time, Chiyou invented all kinds of weapons, some of which have evolved to this day.
Entering the class society, with the development of productive forces and the improvement of weapons, Wushu has also entered a new stage of development. During the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, due to the development of bronze industry, excellent weapons such as spears, daggers, halberds, axes, cymbals, knives and swords appeared, as well as the use methods of these instruments, and there were competitions to compete for martial arts. At that time, Wushu was mostly called "unarmed", "unarmed" and "thigh arm". According to historical records, Jie and Wu Yi are all technical experts in catching wild animals with their bare hands. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there were disputes among governors and wars were very frequent. Martial arts fighting has been attached importance to and developed rapidly in the army and the people. At this time, the appearance of ironware and the rise of cavalry make the content of weapons richer, not only of good quality, but also of various forms, length and width, which further highlights the offensive and defensive nature of martial arts, and at the same time, the fitness function of martial arts is also valued. At this time, Wushu competitions have become very common, paying great attention to offensive and defensive skills, and there have also been attacks, defenses, counterattacks, feints and so on. As early as more than 2,000 years ago, China had a relatively mature record of the theory of attack and defense, and put forward the idea of both internal and external cultivation and both form and spirit. It can be seen that Wushu at that time has gradually developed from a simple attack and defense action to a routine form that can be practiced alone.
The Han Dynasty is a period of great development of martial arts, and routine sports such as sword dance, sword dance and double halberd dance often appear at court banquets, such as solo dance, duet dance or group dance. The unarmed boxing performances and competitions are also highly valued by the rulers. Ban Gu, a historian of the Eastern Han Dynasty, recorded in Hanshu that Emperor Ai of the Han Dynasty was a fan of "border drama", saying that he "liked both refined and popular tastes, so he could observe the border and shoot martial arts". Wu Zhi personnel in the Han Dynasty were also selected through "trial lifting" (boxing assessment). In addition to practical skills such as "self-defense to kill the enemy" and "winning the offensive and defensive", there are ornamental and fitness pictographic dances in the Han Dynasty, such as "monkey dance", "dog fighting dance", "drunken dance", "six-bird play" and "five-bird play". These can be regarded as early pictographic boxing books. During this period, martial arts works also increased significantly. There are 38 articles on kendo and 6 articles on handball in Han Art Literature and History alone, all of which are monographs on the ways of attack and defense.
During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Wushu developed further. In the Tang Dynasty, the martial arts system was implemented, and excellent martial arts talents were selected through examinations, which promoted the folk and official martial arts training activities from the policy. Shaolin Temple, which was famous for its martial arts at the end of Sui Dynasty, became more famous during the Tang Wude period (6 18-626) because it helped pacify the separatist king at the end of Sui Dynasty, and the government allowed it to set up its own camp and practice monk soldiers. At one time, there were more than 2,000 monks, and the wind of practicing martial arts gradually flourished.
During the Song Dynasty, there were frequent internal and external troubles, and the general public often formed associations to practice martial arts in order to protect themselves. For example, Jiaojiao Club, Shadow Club and Bow Club are relatively large folk martial arts organizations. The word "eighteen martial arts" also appeared in the classics of the Song Dynasty. According to the Song Dynasty's "Journey to the North through Cuiwei": "I heard that there are six weapons in thirty, the bow is the first, nine times out of ten martial arts, and the bow is the first." This article originally wanted to emphasize the importance of bows and arrows in the battle, but it has already reflected that there were far more weapons at that time than 18. We can get a glimpse of the development of Wushu in the Song Dynasty from several ancient novels, such as Yue Quanzhuan, Yang Jiajiang and Water Margin. , are describing many outstanding men and women with high martial arts and unique kung fu.
In Yuan Dynasty, due to the sharp ethnic contradictions, Mongolian rulers restricted folk Wushu, many martial artists remained anonymous, and Wushu organizations also turned into secret folk organizations, which greatly inhibited the development of Wushu. The Ming Dynasty is an era of all-round development of China Wushu. Ming Taizu Xian Yuanzhang advocated that "military commanders should learn etiquette, while literati should learn riding and shooting". In this way, in the Ming Dynasty, there were not only more boxing methods, but also more colorful equipment routines, and they also began to have powerful methods and boxing scores. Due to the omnipotence of martial arts in the Ming Dynasty, martial artists wrote books with pictures and texts, which reached the pinnacle, preserved precious martial arts heritage and provided an important basis for future generations to study martial arts. According to statistics, important monographs include Qi Jiguang's Ji Xiaoxin's Letter, Wu Debate, He's Zhan Ji and Mao's Wu Beizhi.
During the reign of the Qing Dynasty, the martial arts activities in the Qing Dynasty were not as good as those in the Ming Dynasty because Manchu nobles restricted martial arts in order to maintain their dominance. However, due to the broad mass base of Wushu among the people, and the existence of many anti-Qing organizations at that time, the folk practiced Wushu in an attempt to overthrow the Manchu rule, which made the martial arts schools in the world more colorful. There are southern schools and northern schools in the region, Shaolin and Wutangmen in the mountains and rivers, external skills of Buddhism and internal skills of Taoism in the religion, and Taiji Gate, Xingyimen, Baguamen, Jimimen, Changquan Class and Bentu Class in the categories. There are many schools of Wushu, which symbolize the prosperity of Wushu. However, there are also shortcomings that lack of communication between factions cannot make up for each other.
During the Republic of China, due to the development of society and the wide use of firearms, the fitness function of Wushu became more clear, mainly in the form of sports in social life. After the founding of New China, the Party and the government cared about people's health and attached importance to the inheritance and development of excellent national cultural heritage. They not only hold regular Wushu presentation performances, but also set up Wushu majors in normal universities and physical education institutes, and organize professionals to learn from others on the basis of inheriting traditional boxing methods, and sort out and simplify Tai Ji Chuan, intermediate Changquan, primary Changquan and equipment routines. These measures have greatly promoted the popularization and research of Wushu and made Wushu develop by leaps and bounds. Whether in urban or rural areas, mass Wushu is widely promoted. Especially in recent years, Wushu routines have made great improvements and breakthroughs in technical style, structural layout, quality and difficulty. There is also the team competition, which is a new achievement in the history of Wushu development.
China Wushu and China Culture
Wushu and China's Philosophy: China's ancient philosophy has formed its own unique style, with Yin and Yang gossip in the Book of Changes, Taoism of Laozi and Confucianism of Confucius as its core. It has strong social reality, broad system and distinct subjectivity. It is not only the induction and summary of other ideologies, but also has an inestimable influence on other social ideologies. Wushu, as an organic part of China traditional culture, has been influenced by philosophical reform, rejection of literature and emotion, and development and change in the historical process of its emergence, development and perfection. Many martial artists in history have consciously or unconsciously used ancient philosophical thoughts to analyze and explain their own boxing methods, and they can comprehensively create different styles of boxing methods. The so-called "Neijia Boxing" that appeared in the late Ming Dynasty, as well as Tai Ji Chuan's, Xingyiquan's and Baguazhang's explanations of boxing, are closely related to ancient philosophical thoughts and contain rich philosophies. As a means of human self-improvement, China Wushu, together with the philosophy of promoting the spirit of the Chinese nation, has built a Chinese cultural building. As the highest product of spirit, philosophy plays a guiding role in any physical and spiritual perfection of human beings and has considerable influence.
Wushu and China religion: Strictly speaking, China religion is a complex, a synthesis of various cultural concepts, ethical concepts and social concepts. As an ideology, religion has also played a certain role in the development of Wushu. From a historical perspective, martial arts and religion are inextricably linked. Shaolin Boxing is one of the oldest boxing styles in China, which is closely related to Buddhism. The emergence and development of "Neijiaquan" has a lot to do with Taoist immortal magic theory and its attempt in "health preservation". Later, boxing movements were combined with Taoism's "guidance" and "breathing" to create Tai Ji Chuan, "Bagua Palm" and other soft-oriented boxing. In addition, the ethical concepts put forward by Wushu practitioners, such as "respecting teachers and attaching importance to Taoism, putting filial piety first", "Ten Commandments" and "Five Don't preach", directly reflect the Confucian thoughts of "Three Cardinals" and "Five Certificates".
Wushu and traditional Chinese medicine: Wushu and traditional Chinese medicine belong to the category of human culture, share a common philosophical and methodological foundation, blend and penetrate each other in the same cultural field, and also enrich and develop together. Traditional medicine is based on the philosophy of materialistic vitality theory, and its fundamental characteristics and advantages are the overall comprehensive view and the dialectical view of yin and yang, and then it is put forward that "essence, qi and spirit" are the "three treasures" of the human body, which are integrated and interdependent. Wushu completely absorbs these theories of traditional medicine into its own theoretical system, and gradually forms the unity of form and spirit, both internal and external. The idea and way of keeping in good health by nourishing temperament internally and exercising muscles externally. In addition, martial arts and traditional medicine orthopedics also have flesh-and-blood ties. Not only TCM theories guide health preservation and martial arts, such as acupoints, pulse-cutting, broken bones and folk remedies in traditional medicine, but also some martial arts techniques enrich the treatment techniques of traumatology in TCM, such as "one-finger Zen massage" and "slapping therapy" in traumatology. The combination of Wushu and TCM not only created eight unique technical achievements such as China's health preserving, Kung Fu massage, martial arts traumatology, traumatology acupuncture, sports medicine, acrobatic therapy, deviation treatment and special Kung Fu, but also produced a large number of related academic works. Moreover, this historic combination will inevitably promote their common development in the future and become the theme song facing the world and benefiting mankind.
Third, Wushu originated in China and belongs to the world.
China Wushu first spread to Japan and Southeast Asia. According to records, Chen, a boxer in the Ming Dynasty, went to Japan to teach Shaolin Boxing, which laid the foundation for Japanese "Judo". As for Japanese karate, aikido, Korean Taekwondo, Thai Taoluo Boxing and Philippine cudgel, they are all influenced by China Wushu to varying degrees. As the birthplace of Wushu, China has sent people to perform and exchange Wushu in more than 60 countries on five continents in recent years, which not only publicized our national cultural heritage, but also enhanced international friendship. At present, China Wushu has been popular in Europe, America and other regions. The United States has established the National Chinese Wushu Association, and cities such as Chicago, new york and San Francisco have also established Shaolin Kung Fu Schools. Internationally, Wushu fever is in the ascendant. Kung Fu, Shaolin, Taiji and Wushu have become common words in English. The unique functions of China Wushu, such as fitness, attack and art appreciation, have attracted more and more foreign Wushu lovers. In terms of fighting skills, there are many skills abroad, such as boxing and karate, but these skills are too barbaric and lack of aesthetic feeling, which is really far from China Kung Fu with rich connotations. China Wushu has a long history, and it is always full of people's wisdom in its development and evolution. Long-term social practice has formed its unique national style and characteristics, which contains profound philosophical thoughts and moral concepts. Wushu, as a national art and cultural treasure, is not only deeply loved by the people of China, but also favored by international friends, and has become an emissary to spread friendship and promote health.
Wushu can multiply and develop day by day because it has dual functions of fitness and self-defense. Wushu can meet people's needs of keeping fit and cultivating temperament in peacetime, and become a means to resist violence and foreign aggression when encountering oppression or rape. Therefore, in the long feudal society of our country, the people who were bullied and persecuted had deep feelings for Wushu, which promoted the spread and development of Wushu and made Wushu form a unique national style in our country. With the expansion of China's opening to the outside world, Wushu has also gone abroad to show its elegant demeanor, which has contributed to the development of friendship with people of other countries and the promotion of cultural exchanges.