Chinese Martial Arts

[PbloPicasso]

We know that China has a rich history embedded within their culture that predates any known recorded civilization. The culture seems very disciplined in ways that we rarely see these days. In that ancient culture, up until about the turn of the 19th/20th century, there was no concept of God, but ancestors. It seems that people admired and adored the ancestors the way we, Christians, adore or venerate our celestial beings (Angels), along with the Saints. In essence, they believe in an after life with their ancestors. I’m not sure what they believe dealing with evil people though.

Any “experts” in here that can shed some light for conversation. Interest. I love to watch Chinese and Japanese stories with warriors and honor. Just watched Jet Li’s Fearless. I also recently enjoyed LP Man and LP Man II. There have been some others as well. But in those films the men were considered honorable by doing honorable things. Won’t expound on that, but it’s movies. Now reality is that today we find China a Communist nations that our government seems to be afraid of for probably very good reasons.

 

[Cavaradossi]

We know that China has a rich history embedded within their culture that predates any known recorded civilization. The culture seems very disciplined in ways that we rarely see these days. In that ancient culture, up until about the turn of the 19th/20th century, there was no concept of God, but ancestors. It seems that people admired and adored the ancestors the way we, Christians, adore or venerate our celestial beings (Angels), along with the Saints. In essence, they believe in an after life with their ancestors. I’m not sure what they believe dealing with evil people though.

Any “experts” in here that can shed some light for conversation. Interest. I love to watch Chinese and Japanese stories with warriors and honor. Just watched Jet Li’s Fearless. I also recently enjoyed LP Man and LP Man II. There have been some others as well. But in those films the men were considered honorable by doing honorable things. Won’t expound on that, but it’s movies. Now reality is that today we find China a Communist nations that our government seems to be afraid of for probably very good reasons.

Most Chinese people who have any sort of religious tendencies (and aren’t strict adherents to just one religion like Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, etc.) tend to follow what we would call a syncretic combination of beliefs commonly referred to as ‘Chinese folk religion.’ For example, a Chinese person might have a shrine with a taoist prayer tag, a spirit tablet (for ancestor veneration), a statue of a buddha or bodhisattva, or a statue of a folk god, like guan gong or the eight immortals. It’s somewhat hard to explain, I guess. Really the only way to have any sort of understanding of it is to be exposed to the culture for long enough.

 

[Izdaari]

We know that China has a rich history embedded within their culture that predates any known recorded civilization. The culture seems very disciplined in ways that we rarely see these days. In that ancient culture, up until about the turn of the 19th/20th century, there was no concept of God, but ancestors. It seems that people admired and adored the ancestors the way we, Christians, adore or venerate our celestial beings (Angels), along with the Saints. In essence, they believe in an after life with their ancestors. I’m not sure what they believe dealing with evil people though.

Any “experts” in here that can shed some light for conversation. Interest. I love to watch Chinese and Japanese stories with warriors and honor. Just watched Jet Li’s Fearless. I also recently enjoyed LP Man and LP Man II. There have been some others as well. But in those films the men were considered honorable by doing honorable things. Won’t expound on that, but it’s movies. Now reality is that today we find China a Communist nations that our government seems to be afraid of for probably very good reasons.

I too am a fan of the Chinese and Japanese martial arts traditions, and also a practitioner. I began in Japanese karate (Shito-ryu) and currently train in a form of JKD-based MMA. I also have some Japanese ancestry. I believed, before I returned to the Christian fold, in a blend of Zen and Taoism, which are very compatible and even in some ways identical. I never had much interest in Confucianism or Shinto except as part of the cultures. But for all that, I don’t even consider myself an expert, just a person who has some background with the cultures.