Martial arts manual explained

Martial arts manuals are instructions, with or without illustrations, specifically designed to be learnt from a book. Many books detailing specific techniques of martial arts are often erroneously called manuals but were written as treatises.

Prose descriptions of martial arts techniques appear late within the history of literature, due to the inherent difficulties of describing a technique rather than just demonstrating it.

The earliest extant manuscript on armed combat (as opposed to unarmed wrestling) is Royal Armouries Ms. I.33 ("I.33"), written in Franconia around 1300.

Not within the scope of this article are books on military strategy such as Sun Tzu's The Art of War (before 100 BCE) or Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus' De Re Militari (4th century), or military technology, such as De rebus bellicis (4th to 5th century).

Predecessors

Some early testimonies of historical martial arts consist of series of images only. The earliest example is a fresco in tomb 15 at Beni Hasan, showing illustrations of wrestling techniques dating to the 20th century BCE. Similar depictions of wrestling techniques are found on Attic vases dating to Classical Greece.

The only known instance of a book from classical antiquity is Papyrus Oxyrhynchus 466 from the 2nd century CE, detailing Greek wrestling techniques.

There are some examples in the Chinese classics that may predate the turn of the Common Era: the Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian (c. 100 BCE) documents wrestling, referring to earlier how-to manuals of the Western Han (2nd century BCE), which have however not survived. An extant Chinese text on wrestling is "Six Chapters of Hand Fighting" included in the 1st-century CE Book of Han.[1]

All other extant manuals date to the Middle Ages or later.

The "combat stele" at the Shaolin Monastery dates to 728 CE.

The earliest text detailing Indian martial arts is the Agni Purana (c. 8th century), which contains several chapters giving descriptions and instructions on fighting techniques.[2] [3] It described how to improve a warrior's individual prowess and kill enemies using various methods in warfare whether they went to war in chariots, horses, elephants or on foot. Foot methods were subdivided into armed combat and unarmed combat.[4] The former included the bow and arrow, the sword, spear, noose, armour, iron dart, club, battle axe, chakram and trident.[5] The latter included wrestling, knee strikes, punching and kicking methods.[4]

The oldest extant European martial arts manual is Royal Armouries Ms. I.33 (c. 1300).

"Illustrations only" manuals do not become extinct with the appearance of prose instructions, but rather exist alongside these, e.g. in the form of the Late Medieval German illuminated manuscripts.

Historical European martial arts

German Fechtbücher

See also: German school of fencing.

(plural ) is Early New High German for 'combat manual', one of the manuscripts or printed books of the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance containing descriptions of a martial art. The term is usually taken to include 15th- and 16th-century German manuals, but the nature of the subject matter does not allow a clear separation of these from treatises from other parts of Europe on one hand (particularly from the Italian and French schools), and from manuals of later centuries on the other hand.

Notable include:

Italian treatises

The Italian school is attested in an early manual of 1410, at which time it is not yet clearly separable from the German school. Indeed, the author Fiore dei Liberi states that he has learned much of his art from one "Master Johannes of Swabia". The heyday of the Italian school comes in the 16th century, with the Dardi school.

French manuals

Similar to the situation in Italy, there is one early manual (c. 1400, dealing with the pollaxe exclusively), and later treatises appear only after a gap of more than a century.

British manuals

England

Apart from three rather opaque texts of the later 15th century,[11] the native English tradition of fencing manuals begins with George Silver's Paradoxes of Defense (1599).

Scotland

See main article: Historical fencing in Scotland. Scottish manuals detailing the use of the basket-hilted Scottish broadsword, besides other disciplines such as the smallsword and spadroon, were published throughout the 18th century, with early and late examples dating to the late 17th and early 19th centuries, respectively:

Iberian manuals

There are some manuals containing training advice for the medieval tournament and jousting, such as the early Portuguese work A ensinança de bem cavalgar em toda a sela by Edward of Portugal (1391 - 1438), a riding instruction manual that also included martial information.

In 1599, the swordmaster Domingo Luis Godinho wrote the Arte de Esgrima, the only fencing manual that preserved the older "Common" or "Vulgar" system of Spanish fencing, which has its traditions in the Middle Ages.

17th-century Spanish destreza is steeped in the Spanish Baroque noblemen mindset, so it does not contain graphical explanations of the fencing techniques so much as explanations based on mathematics and philosophical sciences in general. The subsequent difficulty in interpreting the theory and practice of correctly has frequently led to this school of fencing being misunderstood.

Historical Asian martial arts

Some texts on unarmed combat survive from Han China (c. 1st century). A list of wrestling techniques is contained in the Malla Purana of 13th-century Gujarat, India. The Chinese Jixiao Xinshu dates to the 1560s. The Korean Muyejebo dates to 1598, the Muyedobotongji dates to 1790. The Japanese The Book of Five Rings dates to 1645.

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Henning . Stanley E. . 1999 . Academia Encounters the Chinese Martial arts . China Review International . 6 . 2 . 319–332 . 10.1353/cri.1999.0020 . 1069-5834 . 23732172 . 145378249.
  2. Zarrilli, Phillip B. . 1992 . To Heal and/or To Harm: The Vital Spots (Marmmam/Varmam) in Two South Indian Martial Traditions Part I: Focus on Kerala's Kalarippayattu . Journal of Asian Martial Arts . 1 . 1 .
  3. P. C. Chakravarti (1972). The art of warfare in ancient India. Delhi.
  4. Web site: Svinth . Joseph R. . 2002 . Kronos: A Chronological History of the Martial Arts and Combative Sports . 2024-02-10 . Electronic Journals of Martial Arts and Sciences.
  5. Web site: Zarrilli . Phillip B. . 1994 . Actualizing Power and Crafting a Self in Kalarippayattu . 2015-11-06 . .
  6. Web site: Transkription der Fechthandschrift cgm582, Johann Lecküchner, Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek. . Pragmatische-schriftlichkeit.de . 2015-11-06.
  7. Web site: The Fight-Lore of Mertin Siber, 1491 AD. Thearma.org. 2015-11-06.
  8. Web site: Goliath. Thearma.org. 2015-11-06.
  9. Web site: Codex Guelf. Thearma.org. 2015-11-06.
  10. Web site: Di Accia Armato di Tutt'Arme . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20060621230211/http://www.achillemarozzo.it/it/trattati/anonimo_bolognese.htm . June 21, 2006 . it.
  11. Web site: Discover your martial heritage with the English Martial Arts Academy . Mymartialheritage.org . 2015-11-06 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110727104736/http://www.mymartialheritage.org/manuals.html . 2011-07-27 . dead .
  12. Web site: Harleian. Thearma.org. 2015-11-06.
  13. Web site: Additional Manuscript 39564 - 15th century English sword text. Thearma.org. 2015-11-06.
  14. Web site: Joseph Swetnam -- Part One. Thearma.org. 2015-11-06.
  15. Web site: Scots Fencing Master: Hope: Library: The Linacre School of Defence . Sirwilliamhope.org . 2015-11-06.
  16. Web site: Vade Mecum: Hope: Library: The Linacre School of Defence . Sirwilliamhope.org . 2015-11-06.
  17. Book: Highland Swordsmanship: Techniques of the Scottish Sword Masters . 2001-11-15 . . 9781891448157 . Rector . Mark . Wagner . Paul.
  18. Web site: Hope: Library: The Linacre School of Defence. Jonathan Miller, The Linacre School of Defence. sirwilliamhope.org.
  19. Web site: Observations: Hope: Library: The Linacre School of Defence . Sirwilliamhope.org . 2015-11-06.
  20. Web site: Vindication: Hope: Library: The Linacre School of Defence . Sirwilliamhope.org . 2015-11-06.
  21. Web site: Miller: On-line manuals: Library: LSD . Sirwilliamhope.org . 2015-11-06.
  22. Web site: Page: On-line manuals: Library: LSD . Sirwilliamhope.org . 2015-11-06.
  23. Book: Highland Broadsword:Five Manuals of Scottish Regimental Swordsmanship . . 2003 . 9781891448218 . Wagner . Paul . Rector . Mark.
  24. Anti-Pugilism, or The Science of Defense Exemplified In Short and Easy Lessons for the Practice of the Broad Sword and Single Stick Illustrated with Copper Plates, By a Highland Officer, London, Printed for J Aitkin, NO 14, Castle-street, corner of Bear Street, Leicester Fields 1790, www.hroarr.com/manuals/boxing-pugilism/Anti-pugilism.doc
  25. Web site: Cudgel Playing: Sinclair: Library: The Linacre School of Defence . Sirwilliamhope.org . 2015-11-06.
  26. Web site: Thomas Rowlandson / The Guards of the Highland Broadsword / 1799 . Davidrumsey.com . 2015-11-06.
  27. Web site: Digital Historical Documents . Peter Valentine . Thearma.org . 2011-11-06.
  28. Web site: Art of Defence on Foot, with the Broad Sword and Sabre: Adapted Also for the ... . John Taylor . 1938-06-22 . 2015-11-06.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Martial arts manual".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.