Reconstruction

Attempts at the reconstruction of historical fighting arts have occurred since the Victorian age most notably with the work of Egerton Castle and Alfred Hutton and of the French Academie D'Armes circa 1880-1914.

With the advent of the Society for Creative Anachronism (a historical re-enactment organization founded in 1966)

there was a renewed interest in the practice of historic fighting arts. Dividing their focus between Heavy Armored Fighting, to simulate early medieval warfare, and adapted sport Rapier fencing, to reenact later renaissance styles, the SCA regularly holds large re-creation scenarios, throughout the world. Their styles are often criticized by other groups as lacking discipline and scholarship. Since the organization is effectively a collection of like-minded hobbyists (with individual exceptions), participants who view their fighting sport objectively accept it as an outlet for stress and a source of pleasure, rather than a literal re-creation of historical fighting methods.

Another approach to the reconstruction of Medieval and Renaissance martial arts in the USA was pioneered by John Clements in the mid-1980s that focused on the analysis of the works of the historical masters and realistic martial practice. In the early-1990s Clements took over the leadership of The Association for Renaissance Martial Arts (ARMA), then known as HACA (The Historical Armed Combat Association), and focused the organization on a true martial arts approach to the reconstruction of these fighting arts. To ensure that a martial focus is maintained in its reconstruction efforts ARMA excludes all sport, re-enactment, role-playing, and persona activities, as well as choreographed theatrical swordplay. ARMA also started providing to the general public the fight books of the historical masters through its web site.

During this same period several other researchers in Europe and the United States started collecting and analysing the works of the historical masters. By the late 1990s there were more groups and organizations. Since 1999 a number of these groups have held the annual Western Martial arts Workshop (WMAW). In 2001 the Historical European Martial arts Coalition (HEMAC) was created to act as an umbrella organization for groups in Europe. Since 2002, the HEMAC has organized the annual International Historical European Martial arts Gathering in Dijon, France, hosted by De Taille et d'Estoc. A number of groups and organizations who were originally focused on Medieval and Renaissance re-enactment have since changed their focus to the study of Historical European Martial arts.

Modern period (1700 to 1918)

Academic fencing (1725 etching)

Academic fencing (1831 painting)

The martial arts of the post-Renaissance period can be divided roughly into civilian duelling/self defence, sporting and military applications. There is considerable overlap between these classifications, however, in that some systems fit into more than one category.

Examples of martial arts practiced primarily by the military during this period include bayonet fencing, sabre fencing and the use of the lance by cavalry soldiers.

The duelling and self-defence categories include smallsword and later styles rapier fencing, walking-stick fighting and Bartitsu (an early hybrid of Eastern and Western schools popularized at the turn of the 20th century).

European combat sports of the 1700s to early 1900s include boxing, numerous regional forms of wrestling, the French kickboxing art of Savate, quarterstaff and singlestick fencing as well as stick fighting methods such as Jogo do Pau and Juego del Palo.

Some existing forms of European martial arts and combat sports can trace direct teacher-student lineages to the 19th century. Notable examples include the French kickboxing art of savate and the stick fighting methods of Portuguese Jogo do Pau, Italian Paranza and some styles of Canarian Juego del Palo. Direct continuity between the 18th and 19th centuries is more difficult to establish, but to a certain extent needs to be assumed by necessity: not least because the terminology of modern fencing is directly based on that introduced by Henry de Sainct-Didier in 1573. Likewise, academic fencing has a continuous tradition from the 16th century to the present day.

Early Modern period (1500 to 1700)

Students fencing with rapier and dagger, ca. 1590

Academie de l-Espee (Girard Thibault, 1628)

In the 16th century, compendia of older Fechtbücher techniques were produced, some of them printed, notably by Paulus Hector Mair (in the 1540s) and by Joachim Meyer (in the 1570s).

In the 16th century German fencing had developed sportive tendencies. The treatises of Paulus Hector Mair and Joachim Meyer derived from the teachings of the earlier centuries within the Liechtenauer tradition, but with new and distinctive characteristics. The printed fechtbuch of Jacob Sutor (1612) is the last in the German tradition.

The Italian school is continued by the Dardi school, with masters such as Antonio Manciolino and Achille Marozzo. From the late 16th century, Italian rapier fencing attained considerable popularity all over Europe, notably with the treatise by Salvator Fabris (1606).

• Antonio Manciolino (1531) (Italian)
• Achille Marozzo (1536) (Italian)
• Angelo Viggiani (1551) (Italian)
• Camillo Agrippa (1553) (Italian)
• Jerónimo Sánchez de Carranza (1569) (Spanish)
• Giacomo Di Grassi (1570) (Italian)
• Giovanni Dall’Agocchie (1572) (Italian)
• Henry deSainct Didier (1573) (French)
• Frederico Ghisliero (1587) (Italian)
• Vincentio Saviolo (1590) (Italian)
• George Silver (1599) (English)
• Luis Pacheco de Narváez (1600) (Spanish)
• Salvator Fabris (1606) (Italian)
• Nicoletto Giganti (1606) (Italian)
• Ridolfo Capo Ferro (1610) (Italian)
• Joseph Swetnam (1617) (English)
• Francesco Alfieri (1640) (Italian)
• Francesco Antonio Marcelli (1686) (Italian)
• Bondi' di Mazo (1696) (Italian)

Late Middle Ages (1350 to 1500)

Longsword guards (1452 manuscript)

The central figure of late Medieval martial arts, at least in Germany, is Johannes Liechtenauer. Though no manuscript written by him is known to survive, his teachings were first recorded in the late 14th century MS 3227a. From the 15th century into the 17th, numerous Fechtbücher (German "fencing-books") were produced, of which some 55 are extant; a great many of these describe methods descended from Liechtenauer's.

Normally, several modes of combat were taught alongside one another, typically unarmed grappling (Kampfringen or abrazare), dagger (Degen or daga, often of the rondel variety), long knife (Messer) or Dussack, half- or quarterstaff, pole arms, longsword (langes Schwert, spada longa, spadone), and combat in plate armour (Harnischfechten or armazare), both on foot and on horseback. Some Fechtbücher have sections on dueling shields (Stechschild), special weapons used only in judicial duels. The long sword had a position of honour among these disciplines, and sometimes Historical European Swordsmanship (HES) is used to refer to swordsmanship techniques specifically.

Important 15th century German fencing masters include Sigmund Ringeck, Peter von Danzig, Hans Talhoffer and Paulus Kal, all of whom taught the teachings of Liechtenhauer. From the late 15th century, there were "brotherhoods" of fencers (Fechtbruderschaften), most notably the Marx brothers (attested 1474) and the Federfechter.

An early Burgundian French treatise is Le jeu de la hache ("The Play of the Axe") of ca. 1400.

The earliest master to write in the Italian was Fiore dei Liberi, commissioned by the Marquis di Ferrara. In approximately 1410, he documented comprehensive fighting techniques in a treatise entitled Flos Duellatorum covering grappling, dagger, arming sword, longsword, pole-weapons, armoured combat and mounted combat. The Italian school is continued by Filippo Vadi (1482-1487) and Pietro Monte (1492, Latin with Italian and Spanish terms)

Three early (before Silver) natively English swordplay texts exist, all very obscure and of uncertain date; they are generally thought to belong to the latter half of the 15th century.

Dance

As mentioned above, some martial arts in various cultures can be performed in dance-like settings for various reasons, such as for evoking ferocity in preparation for battle or showing off skill in a more stylized manner. Many such martial arts incorporate music, especially strong percussive rhythms.

Examples of such war dances include:

Capoeira is a martial art traditionally performed with a dance-like flavor and to live musical accompaniment, as seen depicted here.

• Buza - From Russia.
• Panther Dance - Burmese Bando with swords (dha)
• Gymnopaidiai - ancient Sparta
• European Sword dance or Weapon dance of various kinds
• Haka - New Zealand
• Sabre Dance - depicted in Khachaturian's ballet Gayane
• Maasai moran (warrior age-set) dances
• Aduk-Aduk - Brunei
• Ayyalah - Qatar
• Khattak Dance - Afghanistan and Pakistan
• Brazil's Capoeira, as well as some similar Afro-Caribbean arts
• Dannsa Biodag - Scotland and Scottish sword dances
• Hula & Lua - from the traditions of indigenous Hawaiian
• Combat Hopak - From Ukraine
• Yolah - From Oman/UAE

Light- and medium-contact

These types of sparring restrict the amount of force that may be used to hit an opponent, in the case of light sparring this is usual to 'touch' contact, e.g. a punch should be 'pulled' as soon as or before contact is made. In medium-contact the punch would not be 'pulled' but not hit with full force. As the amount of force used is restricted, the aim of these types of sparring is not to knock out an opponent; a point system is used in competitions.

A referee acts to monitor for fouls and to control the match, while judges mark down scores, as in boxing. Particular targets may be prohibited (such as the face or groin), certain techniques may be forbidden, and fighters may be required to wear protective equipment on their head, hands, chest, groin, shins or feet. In some styles (such as fencing and some styles of taekwondo sparring), competitors score points based on the landing of a single technique or strike as judged by the referee, whereupon the referee will briefly stop the match, award a point, then restart the match. Alternatively, sparring may continue with the point noted by the judges.

Some critics of point sparring feel that this method of training teaches habits that result in lower combat effectiveness. Lighter-contact sparring may be used exclusively, for children or in other situations when heavy contact would be inappropriate (such as beginners), medium-contact sparring is often used as training for full-contact.

Full-contact

"Full-contact" sparring or fighting is considered by many to be requisite in learning realistic unarmed combat. Full-contact sparring is different from light and medium-contact sparring in several ways, including the use of strikes that are not pulled but are thrown with full force, as the name implies. In full-contact sparring, the aim of a competitive match is either to knock out the opponent or to force the opponent to submit. Full-contact sparring may include a wider variety of permitted attacks and contact zones on the body.

Where scoring takes place it may be a subsidiary measure, only used if no clear winner has been established by other means; in some competitions, such as the UFC 1, there was no scoring. Due to these factors, full-contact matches tend to be more aggressive in character, but rule sets may still mandate the use of protective gloves and forbid certain techniques or actions during a match, such as punching the back of the head.

Nearly all mixed martial arts leagues such as UFC, Pancrase, Shooto use a form of full-contact rules, as do professional boxing organizations and K-1. Kyokushin karate requires advanced practitioners to engage in bare-knuckled, full-contact sparring while wearing only a karate gi and groin protector but does not allow strikes to the face, only kicks and knees. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Judo matches do not allow striking, but are full-contact in the sense that full force is applied in the application during grappling and submission techniques.

Sparring debates

Some practitioners believe that sports matches with rules are not a good measure of hand-to-hand combat ability and training for these restrictions may inhibit effectiveness in self defence situations. These practitioners may prefer not to participate in most types of rule-based martial art competition (even one such as vale tudo where there are minimal rules), electing instead to study fighting techniques with little or no regard to competitive rules or, even perhaps, ethical concerns and the law (the techniques practiced may include attacking vulnerable spots such as the groin or the eyes). Others maintain that, given proper precautions such as a referee and a ring doctor, sparring, in particular full-contact matches with basic rules, serves as a useful gauge of an individual's overall fighting ability, and that failing to test techniques against a resisting opponent is more likely to impede ability in such situations.

Testing and competition

Testing or evaluation is important to martial art practitioners of many disciplines who wish to determine their progression or own level of skill in specific contexts. Students within individual martial art systems often undergo periodic testing and grading by their own teacher in order to advance to a higher level of recognized achievement, such as a different belt color or title. The type of testing used varies from system to system but may include forms or sparring.

Various forms and sparring are commonly used in martial art exhibitions and tournaments. Some competitions pit practitioners of different disciplines against each other using a common set of rules, these are referred to as mixed martial arts competitions. Rules for sparring vary between art and organization but can generally be divided into light-contact, medium-contact, and full-contact variants, reflecting the amount of force that should be used on an opponent.

On the modern battlefield

Some traditional martial concepts have seen new use within modern military training. Perhaps the most recent example of this is point shooting which relies on muscle memory to more effectively utilize a firearm in a variety of awkward situations, much the way an iaidoka would master movements with their sword.

During the World War II era William E. Fairbairn, a Shanghai policeman and a leading Western expert on Asian fighting techniques, was recruited by the Special Operations Executive (SOE) to teach Jujutsu to U.K., U.S. and Canadian Special Forces. The book Kill or Get Killed, written by Colonel Rex Applegate, became a classic military treatise on hand-to-hand combat. This fighting method was called Defendu.

Traditional hand-to-hand, knife, and spear techniques continue to see use in the composite systems developed for today's wars. Examples of this include the US Army's Combatives system developed by Matt Larsen, the Israeli army trains its soldiers in Kapap and Krav Maga, the US Marine Corps's Marine Corps Martial Arts Program (MCMAP), and Chinese San Shou.

Unarmed dagger defenses identical to that found in the fechtbuch of Fiore dei Liberi and the Codex Wallerstein were integrated into the U.S. Army's training manuals in 1942 and continue to influence today's systems along with other traditional systems such as Eskrima.

The rifle-mounted bayonet, which has its origin in the spear, has seen use by the United States Army, the United States Marine Corps, and the British Army as recently as the Iraq War.

Variation and scope

Martial arts vary widely, and may focus on a specific area or combination of areas, but they can be broadly grouped into focusing on strikes, grappling, or weapons training. Below is a list of examples that make extensive use of one these areas; it is not an exhaustive list of all arts covering the area, nor are these necessarily the only areas covered by the art but are the focus or best known part as examples of the area:

Some arts have a very specific focus while others, such as Mixed martial arts, are more syncretic.

Striking

• Punching - Boxing (Western), Wing Chun
• Kicking - Capoeira, Savate, Taekwondo
• Other strikes (e.g. Elbows, knees, open-hand) - Muay Thai, Karate, Shaolin Kung Fu

Grappling

• Throwing - Glima, Judo, Jujutsu, Sambo, Shuai jiao
• Joint lock - Aikido, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Hapkido
• Pinning Techniques - Judo, Wrestling

Weaponry

• Traditional Weaponry - Fencing, Gatka, Kendo, Silambam
• Modern Weaponry - Eskrima, Jogo do Pau, Jukendo

Many martial arts, especially those from Asia, also teach side disciplines which pertain to medicinal practices. This is particularly prevalent in traditional Chinese martial arts which may teach bone-setting, qigong, acupuncture, acupressure (tui na), and other aspects of traditional Chinese medicine.

Early history

The foundation of the Asian martial arts is likely a blend of early Chinese and Indian arts. Extensive trade occurred between these nations beginning around 600 BC, with diplomats, merchants, and monks traveling the Silk Road. During the Warring States period of Chinese history (480-221 BC) extensive development in martial philosophy and strategy emerged, as described by Sun Tzu in The Art of War (c. 350 BC).

An early legend in martial arts tells the tale of the Indian monk Bodhidharma (also called Daruma), believed to have lived around 550 A.D. The martial virtues of discipline, humility, restraint and respect are attributed to this philosophy.

The teaching of martial arts in Asia has historically followed the cultural traditions of teacher-disciple apprenticeship. Students are trained in a strictly hierarchical system by a master instructor: Sifu in Cantonese or Shifu in Mandarin; Guru in Sanskrit, Hindi, Telugu and Malay; Sensei in Japanese; Sabeom-nim in Korean; Kalari Gurukkal or Kalari Asaan in Malayalam; Asaan in Tamil; Achan in Thai; Guro in Tagalog and Saya in Myanmar.

Recent history

Europe's colonisation of Asian countries brought about a decline in local martial arts, especially with the introduction of firearms. This can clearly be seen in India after the full establishment of British Raj in the 19th century. More European modes of organizing police, armies and governmental institutions, and the increasing use of firearms, gradually eroded the need for traditional martial training associated with caste-specific duties in India. The British colonial government banned kalarippayat in 1804 in response to a series of revolts. The resurgence of public interest in kalarippayat began in the 1920s in Tellicherry as part of a wave of rediscovery of the traditional arts throughout South India which characterized the growing reaction against British colonial rule. Similar phenomena occurred in Southeast Asian colonies. Other forms of Indian martial arts, such as thang-ta also witnessed a resurgence in the 1950s.

The Western interest in Asian martial arts dates back to the late 19th century, due to the increase in trade between America with China and Japan. Relatively few Westerners actually practiced the arts, considering it to be mere performance. Edward William Barton-Wright, a railway engineer who had studied Jujutsu while working in Japan between 1894–97, was the first man known to have taught Asian martial arts in Europe. He also founded an eclectic martial arts style named Bartitsu which combined jujutsu, judo, boxing, savate and stick fighting.

As Western influence grew in East Asia a greater number of military personnel spent time in China, Japan, and Korea. Exposure to martial arts during the Korean war was also significant. The later 1970s and 1980s witnessed an increased media interest in the martial arts, thanks in part to Asian and Hollywood martial arts movies. Jackie Chan and Jet Li are prominent movie figures who have been responsible for promoting Chinese martial arts in recent years.

Americas Martial Arts

Native peoples of North America and South America had their own martial training which began in childhood. Some First Nations men, and more rarely some women, were called warriors only after they had proved themselves in battle. Most groups selected individuals for training in the use of bows, knives, blowguns, spears, and war clubs in early adolescence. War clubs were the preferred martial weapon because Native American warriors could raise their social status by killing enemies in single combat face to face. Warriors honed their weapons skills and stalking techniques through lifelong training.

Capoeira, with roots in Africa, is a martial art originating in Brazil that involves a high degree of flexibility and endurance. It consists of kicks, elbow strikes, head butts, and sweeps. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is an adaptation of pre-World War II Judo and jujutsu. Created by Carlos Gracie and his brother Hélio, it was restructured into a sport with a large focus on groundwork. This system has become a popular martial art and proved to be effective in mixed martial arts competitions such as the UFC and PRIDE.

As of 2003, over 1.5 million US citizens practice martial arts.

Europe Martial Arts

Boxing was practiced in the ancient Mediterranean

Martial arts existed in classical European civilization, most notably in Greece where sports were integral to the way of life. Boxing (pygme, pyx), Wrestling (pale) and Pankration (from pan, meaning "all", and kratos, meaning "power" or "strength") were represented in the Ancient Olympic Games. The Romans produced Gladiatorial combat as a public spectacle.

A number of historical fencing forms and manuals have survived, and many groups are working to reconstruct older European martial arts. The process of reconstruction combines intensive study of detailed combat treatises produced from 1400–1900 A.D. and practical training or "pressure testing" of various techniques and tactics. This includes such styles as sword and shield, two-handed swordfighting, halberd fighting, jousting and other types of melee weapons combat. This reconstruction effort and modern outgrowth of the historical methods is generally referred to as Western martial arts. Many Medieval martial arts manuals have survived, the most famous being Johannes Lichtenauer's Fechtbuch (Sword Tome) of the 14th century. Today Lichtenauer's tome forms the basis of the German school of swordsmanship.

In Europe, the martial arts declined with the rise of firearms. As a consequence, martial arts with historical roots in Europe do not exist today to the same extent as in Asia, since the traditional martial arts either died out or developed into sports. Swordsmanship developed into fencing. Boxing as well as forms of wrestling have endured. European martial arts have mostly adapted to changing technology so that while some traditional arts still exist, military personnel are trained in skills like bayonet combat and marksmanship. Some European weapon systems have also survived as folk sports and as self-defense methods. These include stick-fighting systems such as bataireacht of Ireland, Jogo do Pau of Portugal and the Juego del Palo style(s) of the Canary Islands.

Other martial arts evolved into sports that no longer recognized as combative. One example is the pommel horse event in men's gymnastics, an exercise which itself is derived from the sport of Equestrian vaulting. Cavalryriders needed to be able to change positions on their horses quickly, rescue fallen allies, fight effectively on horseback and dismount at a gallop. Training these skills on a stationery barrel evolved into sport of gymnastics' pommel horse exercise. More ancient origins exist for the shot put and the javelin throw, both weapons utilized extensively by the Romans.

Martial Arts in China

Antiquity (Zhou to Jin)

A hand-to-hand combat theory, including the the integration of notions of "hard" and "soft" techniques, is expounded in the story of the Maiden of Yue in the Spring and Autumn Annals of Wu and Yue (5th c. BC).

The Han History Bibliographies record that, by the Former Han (206 BCE – 8 CE), there was a distinction between no-holds-barred weaponless fighting, which it calls shǒubó (手搏), for which "how-to" manuals had already been written, and sportive wrestling, then known as juélì or jiǎolì (角力).

Wrestling is also documented in the Shǐ Jì, Records of the Grand Historian, written by Sima Qian (ca. 100 BC). Jiǎolì is also mentioned in the Classic of Rites (1st c. BC).

In 39-92 CE, "Six Chapters of Hand Fighting", were included in the Han Shu (history of the Former Han Dynasty) written by Pan Ku. Also, the noted physician, Hua Tuo, composed the "Five Animals Play" - tiger, deer, monkey, bear, and bird, around 220 BCE

Middle Ages (Tang to Ming)

In the Tang Dynasty, descriptions of sword dances were immortalized in poems by Li Bai. In the Song and Yuan dynasties, xiangpu (the earliest form of sumo) contests were sponsored by the imperial courts. The modern concepts of wushu were fully developed by the Ming and Qing dynasties.

With regards to the Shaolin style of martial arts, the oldest evidence of Shaolin participation in combat is a stele from 728 CE that attests to two occasions: a defense of the Shaolin Monastery from bandits around 610 CE, and their subsequent role in the defeat of Wang Shichong at the Battle of Hulao in 621 CE From the 8th to the 15th centuries, there are no extant documents that provide evidence of Shaolin participation in combat. However, between the 16th and 17th centuries there are at least forty extant sources which provided evidence that, not only did monks of Shaolin practice martial arts, but martial practice had become such an integral element of Shaolin monastic life that the monks felt the need to justify it by creating new Buddhist lore. References of martial arts practice in Shaolin appear in various literary genres of the late Ming: the epitaphs of Shaolin warrior monks, martial-arts manuals, military encyclopedias, historical writings, travelogues, fiction, and even poetry. However these sources do not point out to any specific style originated in Shaolin. These sources, in contrast to those from the Tang period, refer to Shaolin methods of armed combat. This include the forte of Shaolin monks and for which they had become famous — the staff (Gun); General Qi Jiquan included these techniques in his book, Treatise of Effective Discipline. Despite the fact that others critized the techniques, Ming General Yu Dayou visited the Temple and was not impressed with what he saw, he recruited three monks who he would train for few years after which they returned to the temple to train his fellow monks..

The Chinese Ji Xiao Xin Shu dates to the 1560s.

Martial Arts in India

A martial art called Vajra Mushti is mentioned in Indian sources of the early centuries CE. Indian military accounts of the Gupta Empire (c. 240-480) identified over 130 different classes of weapons. The Kama Sutra written by Vātsyāyana at the time suggested that women should regularly "practice with sword, single-stick, quarter-staff, and bow and arrow."

Around 630, King Narasimhavarman of the Pallava dynasty commissioned dozens of granite sculptures showing unarmed fighters disarming armed opponents. These may have shown an early form of Varma Adi, a Dravidian martial art that allowed kicking, kneeing, elbowing, and punching to the head and chest, but prohibited blows below the waist.

Martial arts were not exclusive to the Kshatriya warrior caste, though they used the arts more extensively. The 8th century text Kuvalaymala by Udyotanasuri recorded martial arts being taught at salad and ghatika educational institutions, where Brahmin students from throughout the subcontinent (particularly from South India, Rajasthan and Bengal) "were learning and practicing archery, fighting with sword and shield, with daggers, sticks, lances, and with fists, and in duels (niuddham)."

The earliest extant manual of Indian marital arts is in the Agni Purana (c. 8th century), which contains several chapters giving descriptions and instructions on the fighting arts of Dhanur Veda. It described how to improve a warrior's individual prowess and kill enemies using various different methods in warfare, whether a warrior went to war in chariots, elephants, horses, or on foot. Foot methods were subdivided into armed combat and unarmed combat.^[12] The former included the bow and arrow, the sword, spear, noose, armour, iron dart, club, battle axe, discus, and the trident. The latter included wrestling, knee strikes, and punching and kicking methods.

The earliest description of wrestling techniques in Sanskrit literature is found in the Malla Purana (13th century).

Modern History

The systems of Japanese martial arts that post-date the Meiji Restoration are known as gendai budō. The most well known of these arts include judo, kendo, some schools of iaidō, and aikido.

The Western interest in East Asian Martial arts dates back to the late 19th century, due to the increase in trade between America with China and Japan. Relatively few Westerners actually practiced the arts, considering it to be mere performance.

Edward William Barton-Wright, a railway engineer who had studied Jujutsu while working in Japan between 1894–97, was the first man known to have taught Asian martial arts in Europe. He also founded an eclectic martial arts style named Bartitsu which combined jujutsu, judo, boxing, savate and stick fighting.

During the late 19th century and early 20th century, catch wrestling contests became immensely popular in Europe.

The development of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu from the early 20th century is a good example of the worldwide cross-pollination and syncretism of martial arts traditions.

During pre-war and World War Two shows the practicality of martial arts in the modern world and were used by Japanese, US, Nepalese (Gurkha) commandos as well as Resistance groups, such as in the Philippines, (see Raid at Los Baños) but not so excessively or at all for common soldiers.

The later 1970s and 1980s witnessed an increased media interest in the martial arts, thanks in part to Asian and Hollywood martial arts movies and very popular television shows like "Kung Fu", "Martial Law" and "The Green Hornet" that incorporated martial arts moments or themes. Jackie Chan and Jet Li are prominent movie figures who have been responsible for promoting Chinese martial arts in recent years.

History of Martial Arts

he early history of martial arts is difficult to reconstruct. Inherent patterns of human aggression which inspire practice of mock combat (in particular wrestling) and optimization of serious close combat as cultural universals are doubtlessly inherited from the pre-human stage, and were made into an "art" from the earliest emergence of that concept. Indeed, many universals of martial art are fixed by the specifics of human physiology and not dependent on a specific tradition or era.

Specific martial arts traditions become identifiable in Classical Antiquity, with disciplines such as Gladiatorial combat, Greek wrestling or Pankration in the west and descriptions found in the Spring and Autumn Annals in China.

The earliest evidence for specifics of martial arts as practiced in the past comes from depictions of fights, both in figurative art and in early literature, besides analysis of archaeological evidence, especially of weaponry.

Wrestling is a human universal, and is also observed in other great apes, especially in juveniles. The spear has been in use since the Lower Paleolithic and retained its central importance well into the 2nd millennium AD. The bow appears in the Upper Paleolithic and is likewise only gradually replaced by the crossbow, and eventually firearms, in the Common Era. True bladed weapons appear in the Neolithic with the stone axe, and diversify in shape in the course of the Bronze Age (khopesh/kopis, sword, dagger)

detail of the wrestling fresco in tomb 15 at Beni Hasan.

One very early example is the depiction of wrestling techniques in a tomb of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt at Beni Hasan (ca. 2000 BC). An even earlier depiction of Bronze Age military equipment is depicted on the "war panel" of the Standard of Ur (ca. 2600 BC), which does however not show actual combat.

Literary descriptions of combat begin in the 2nd millennium BC, with cursory mention of weaponry and combat in texts like the Gilgamesh epic or the Rigveda. Detailed description of Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age hand-to-hand combat with spear, sword and shield are found in the Iliad (ca. 8th century BC).

In fact, to the contrary of public perception, martial arts were not first developed in China, but rather in Mesopotamia, widely regarded as the cradle of civilisation. Written evidence (such as the Gilgamesh epic and the Rigveda mentioned above) exists which indicates that some form of weaponless fighting existed in Mesopotamia even as early as 3000 - 2300BC, much before any civilisation began to emerge in the far east.

Martial Arts

Martial arts are systems of codified practices and traditions of training for combat. While they may be studied for various reasons, martial arts share a single objective: to defeat one or more people physically and to defend oneself or others from physical threat. In addition, some martial arts are linked to spiritual or religious beliefs/philosophies such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism or Shinto, Confucianism while others have their own spiritual or non-spiritual code of honour. Many arts are also practised competitively most commonly as combat sports, but may also be in the form of dance.

The word 'martial' derives from the name of Mars, the Roman god of war. The term 'Martial Arts' literally means arts of war. This term comes from 15th century Europeans who were referring to their own fighting arts that are today known as Historical European martial arts. A practitioner of martial arts is referred to as a martial artist.

In popular culture, the term "Martial Arts" often specifically refers to the combat systems that originated in Asian cultures. However, the term actually refers to any sort of codified combat systems, regardless of origin. Europe is home to many extensive systems of martial arts, both living traditions (e.g. Jogo do Pau and other stick and sword fencing and Savate, a French kicking style developed by sailors and street fighters) and older systems collectively referred to as Historical European martial arts that existed until modern times and are now being reconstructed by several organizations. In the Americas, Native Americans have a tradition of open-handed martial arts, which includes wrestling, and Hawaiians have historically practiced arts featuring small and large joint manipulation. A mix of origins occur in the athletic movements of Capoeira, a practice that was created in Brazil by slaves and was based on skills brought with them from Africa.

While each style has unique facets that make it different from other martial arts, a common characteristic is the systemization of fighting techniques. Methods of training vary and may include sparring or forms (kata), which are sets or routines of techniques that are performed alone, or sometimes with a partner, and which are especially common in the Asian and Asian-derived martial arts.