Sun Tzu's Life
Timeline
of Sun Tzu's Era
Effect
on Chinese History
Martial Arts History
Martial Arts History
Unlike other sports and exercise programs, the martial arts
train the whole person—body, spirit, and mind. Down through the millennia, the
knowledge on which the martial arts are based—known in China as the Bing-fa—was
suppressed. Today, most of those who practice martial arts are unfamiliar with
these principles except in how they have become embodied in martial arts
practice.
Martial arts are different because they are designed for
self-defense and self-development. They exploit a loophole in the natural law.
Nature says that the strong dominate the weak and the quick beat the slow. The
martial arts teach that through the use of knowledge and training, a warrior can
transform a stronger opponent into a weaker one.
This loophole was first discovered and explained
in a text written 2,500 years
ago. Today, we know this work as Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. The Chinese
title is Sunzi Bing-fa, which literally means "Master Sun’s Martial
Arts." The stateless warrior named Sun Wu of Qi grew up in a family of
mercenaries, learning from birth all the challenges of battle. His work explained for the first time that what people thought
of as power—size, strength, and wealth—were not real power but only the
illusion of power. Those who understood the true nature of power could easily
defeat these larger foes by leveraging their supposed strengths against them.
Sun Tzu’s success led to the emulation of his
methods throughout the states of China after his death. The use of citizen armies created wide
access to weapons and martial arts training. Professional mercenary families
gave rise to history’s first professional martial artists. The first such
martial artists are introduced in the Spring and Summer Annals of Wu and Yue
when the old man Yuan Gong meets the young swordswoman Yue Nu in battle. These
early martial artists eventually became demigods in the Chinese pantheon.
Around 298 BC, the historian Zhuang Zi recorded that life in
the state of Zhoa had become prosperous because of the practice of martial arts
using the sword. King Wen of Zhoa invited more than 3,000 sword martial
artists to practice against one another in his court. Zhuang Zi said that Sun
Tzu’s theory had been incorporated into the martial arts techniques of both
offense and defense and of both armed and unarmed combat. Sun Tzu’s ideas were
the fundamental principles in the Book of Sword Fighting and Internal
Boxing (Nei kia Quan), both published late in the Warring States
period.
Sun Tzu’s methods, originally taught in the context of larger
wars, were now seen as the key to individual contests. In armed contests, Sun
Tzu’s lessons on positioning are echoed in Zhuang Zi’s description of the key
methods used. "The best sword fighters," he wrote, "pretended to be without
preparation as if offering an opening to the enemy. They then gained mastery by
striking only after the enemy has struck."
Sun Tzu's descendent, Sun Bing (Sun Ping)
repopularized the work of Sun Wu. Eventually this teaching made its way to
a young
nobleman named Ying Zheng. Using the ancient secrets of the Bing-fa, Ying Zheng
became the ruler of his kingdom, Qin, and began conquering neighboring kingdoms.
By 221 BC, Ying became the first emperor of all of China
and changed his name to Qin Shi Huangdi.
From that time, the Bing-fa was kept
secret and passed down
only to those of royal blood. While practicing the Bing-fa themselves, various
Chinese emperors promoted other, less aggressive philosophies—first Taoism and
later Buddhism—in connection with the martial arts. Though its complete
philosophy was hidden, martial arts practice took the form of a physical exercise known
as Tai Chi Chuan (The Grand Ultimate Fist) that became popular in China in about
the third century AD. By the fifth century, the physical science was being
advanced by monks at the Buddhist monastery of Shao
Lin, who may have received a secret copy of
the text of the Bing-fa from a member of the royal family of China, who were now
Buddhists. This was the beginning of what was known as Kung-Fu (literally, "hard
work"). The philosophy was spread both through armed combat and unarmed combat
(since peasants were denied arms) through all of Asia.
Over the centuries, the martial arts took a myriad of
forms as they spread out from China. These skills are known collectively in China today as Wu Shu (martial
skills). In Korea, they were originally called Mu Sool (martial arts), but the
most popular Korean forms today are from Japanese influence, known as Hap Ki Do
(total arts school) and Tae Kwon Do (art of kicking and punching). In Japan, the
main martial arts are Daito Ryu Yawara (Eastern-style soft skills, sometime
called Jujitsu), Aikido (way of spiritual harmony), Karate (empty hand), Judo
(gentle way), and Kendo (way of the sword). More recently, the Philippines developed
Escrima (skirmish) and Arnis (arnis de mano, meaning "harness of the
hand").
As you can tell from their names, all these schools
preserve the Bing-fa’s original concept of leveraging knowledge, focus, and
balance against raw size and strength. Several martial arts schools use the "Before
Heaven" version of the Bagua as a training tool. As we show in our Amazing Secrets book, this diagram is the
basis for understanding the Bing-fa. However, we didn't realize that connection
until a reader who was also a martial arts student pointed it out. The Bagua is
studied especially in several schools of Tai Chi, which makes sense
because that art dates closest to the period of Sun Tzu.
The original text of the Bing-fa was also preserved and
passed down among the noble houses of China. Though dynasties changed, its
secrets were kept from the common people and reserved for the powerful. As China
entered the modern era, several versions of this text made their way to the
West, first through a Jesuit missionary who translated it into French at the
end of the 18th century. The translation fell into the hands of a
young French officer who used it to become the leader of the French army and
eventually the emperor of Europe. We know him as Napoleon.
As the text of the Bing-fa became more broadly known,
Sun Wu became known as "Master Sun," that is, Sun Tzu. Those who misunderstood
his work and its philosophy translated the term Bing-fa into English as The
Art of War.
