East Asian Martial Arts as Philosophical Practice 1 Alexus McLeod, University of Connecticut (forthcoming in Manyul Im, ed., APA Newsletter on Asian and Asian-American Philosophers and Philosophies) The Nature and History of the East Asian Martial Arts There are few practices more commonly associated with East Asia by people in the West than the martial arts. Perhaps the only practice more characteristically associated with Asia in the minds of many Westerners is meditation. As with that practice, there are many misundertstandings involved. First, and most characteristically, the idea that martial arts are a uniquely and particularly East Asian practice. Ask most people what comes to mind when they think of “martial arts”, and you’re likely to get mainly answers concerning Karate, Bruce Lee, maybe today Jiu-Jitsu and even mixed martial arts. While the Asian martial arts have had a massive influence in the way we think about “martial arts” as a category, the martial arts have been practiced worldwide throughout human history, and are certainly not limited to East Asia, even if we consider the arts that have become sports or pastimes. In addition to Karate, Taekwondo, Kung Fu, or Muai Thai, there is also Greco-Roman Wrestling, Boxing, Fencing, and even Arm Wrestling—all equally martial arts. Here, I am concerned with Asian martial arts specifically. Another common misunderstanding (one common even among many martial arts practitioners) is that modern martial arts such as those mentioned above are ancient in their origins, and that the arts we practice today in dojos and other training halls are manifestations of ancient systems of martial art constructed by revered martial sages. While they may have some connection to early practices (especially in the form of inspiration), the martial arts practiced today did not exist as such much prior to the 20 th century. Martial arts as we know and practice them are modern arts. Despite the modern origins of what are commonly called “traditional martial arts”, there are many ancient origin stories associated with the arts. Every style and school has such a story—though some are more forthright about their modern origins than others. Practitioners of my own art, Taekwondo, commonly attribute its origin to the practices of the hwarang 花郞 2 (“flower of youth”), a collective of upper class youths in the Silla kingdom in the 6 th century CE. In addition to practicing military arts, they followed a code of conduct drawn from Confucian and other elite cultural sources. These norms inspired the “codes of conduct” ubiquitous in contemporary Taekwondo schools. The problem with this story is that it is wholly an invention. Taekwondo is a fusion of modern Chinese and Japanese fighting forms integrated into a Korean context. The name ‘Korean Karate’ that was commonly used when Taekwondo was new to the U.S. 1 The version included here contains an additional section on Confucianism not included in the published version 2 화랑 in the native Korean Hangul phonetic system. Hangul did not exist at the time of the Silla.