Origins of Asian martial arts

Shaolin monks practicing the art of self defense.

Theories of the origins of Asian martial arts range from the highly diffusionist to models which show greater recognition of independent invention.

Gracie & Danaher (2003: 3–7) identify a number of different theories of the history of martial arts—the centralized origins theory, the shared conditions theory, the great person theory, the politico-historical conditions theory, and the sociological class theory—and state that a satisfactory account "will have to include elements of all these theories (with the exception of the centralized origins theory)".

Centralized Origins Theory

Bodhidharma by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi (1839-1892)

The centralized origins theory is the idea that the origin of the various martial arts is a single person, nation, or group of people.

Gracie & Danaher (2003: 4–5) give as their first example of the centralized origins theory "semilegendary figures such as the sixth-century Bodhidharma, who traveled from India to China and taught his combat exercises to the monks of the Shaolin Temple"; Gracie & Danaher (2003: 4–5) state that such claims have "little hard evidence or inherent credibility", and that "fundamental weaknesses...severely undermine" their credibility.

The first weakness is that hard historical evidence often shows the existence of purportedly derivative martial arts prior to the supposed central origin.

The Maiden of Yue's exegesis of the ideas of "hard" and "soft" in the martial arts (as recorded in the Spring and Autumn Annals of Wu and Yue) shows that martial arts theory had reached a level of sophistication well before the arrival of Buddhism in China, let alone the construction of the Shaolin Temple or the purported arrival of Bodhidharma. 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), again, centuries before the construction of the Shaolin Temple or the arrival of Bodhidharma.

The Greek martial art of Pankration made its Olympic debut in the Olympiad of 648 B.C.E., roughly a century before the birth of Gautama Buddha. According to Todd & Webb (2005: 21), Tatsuo Suzuki, Hirokazu Kanazawa and Masutasu Oyama, the direction of martial arts influence ran from Greece to India.

Gracie & Danaher (2003: 12) state that "India, China, and even Ancient Greece are often cited as the original sources of jujitsu. All such claims are entirely lacking in hard evidence...the whole notion of an ultimate origin of jujitsu (or any other martial art for that matter) is inherently implausible." The record of an empty-hand duel in 23 B.C. in the Nihongi precedes the arrival of Buddhism in Japan, and prior documentation of schools of jujitsu precludes its attribution to the 17th century Chin Gempin; however, unlike Bodhidharma, there is at least contemporary documentation—in the form of the Kitô-ryû kempô stele—of Chin Gempin practicing martial arts and teaching them to others.

According to Gracie & Danaher (2003: 4–5), it clashes with common sense that one person or group of people "should gain a unique insight into combat technique that had eluded the rest of the world...the conditions that create a need for martial skills—war and civil strife—are not unique to one region or time. The reality of conflict would naturally inspire people of every region to create a fighting system."

Gracie & Danaher (2003: 4–5) ask: "If the true foundations of the martial arts genuinely come from one birthplace and were so much superior to everything else, why do we see such variation among them? To say the people subsequently modified them at a later date is inadequate. If we can presume that autonomous development of fighting arts is that common and simple, then we can probably doubt that it took one central originator to develop them all in the first place."

Shared Conditions Theory

The shared conditions theory is the idea that different people in different places at different times independently arrived at similar answers to the same problems (warfare, interpersonal conflict, crime).

The following passage by Gunji Koizumi encapsulates the shared conditions theory:

As to the origin and native land of jujitsu, there are several opinions, but these are found to be mere assumptions based on narratives relating to the founding of certain schools or some incidental records or illustrations found in ancient manuscripts, not only in Japan, but also in China, Persia, Germany and Egypt. There is no record by which the origins of jujitsu can be definitely established. It would however, be rational to assume that ever since the creation, with the instinct of self-preservation, man has had to fight for his existence and was inspired to develop an art or skill to implement the body mechanism for this purpose. In such efforts, the development may have taken various courses according to the conditions of life or tribal circumstance, but the objects of the body being common, the results could not have been so different from each other. No doubt this is the reason for finding records relating to the practice of arts similar to jujitsu in various parts of the world....

There is strong historical evidence supporting shared conditions theory as an explanation for both the origin of martial arts, and for the similarities between various styles; instruction manuals, illustrations, and artworks depicting similar combat styles are "from areas and times that cannot possibly be related to the development of jujitsu in Japan, or anywhere else in the Far East".

However, shared conditions theory has difficulty accounting for differences between, and change within martial arts, which are better explained by the great person, politico-historical conditions, and sociological class models.

Great Person Theory

Main article: Great man theory

The great person theory is the idea that the history of the martial arts is essentially the history of individual martial artists who rose to prominence and, if they were able to recruit and teach students, established a new school or style of martial arts.

Gracie & Danaher (2003: 7) draw an important distinction between the great person and centralized origins theories of martial arts: the great person theory is a model of how martial arts change and evolve, not of how the martial arts originated.

For example, the success of the Brazilian Gracie family in vale tudo and mixed martial arts competition convincingly demonstrated the value of ground grappling to the broader community of martial artists.

Politico-Historical Conditions Theory

Main gate of the Shaolin temple in Henan.

According to politico-historical conditions theory, changes in direction and development of the martial arts are often in response to changing political, historical, and cultural conditions.

Sociological Class Theory

Sociological class theory is the idea that every culture has a class system that ranks citizens into various groups based on income, occupation, lineage, and so on.