Martial arts manual

Martial arts manuals are instructions, with or without illustrations, specifically designed to be learnt from a book. Many books detailing specific techniques of martial arts are often erroneously called manuals but were written as treatises.

Prose descriptions of martial arts techniques appear late within the history of literature, due to the inherent difficulties of describing a technique rather than just demonstrating it.

The earliest extant manuscript on armed combat (as opposed to unarmed wrestling) is the I.33, written in Franconia around AD 1300.

Not within the scope of this article are books on military strategy such as Sun Tzu's The Art of War (before 100 BC) or Vegetius' De Re Militari (4th century AD), or military technology, such as De Rebus Bellicis (4th to 5th century).

Predecessors

Detail of the wrestling scenes at Beni Hasan.

Some early testimonies of historical martial arts consist of series of images only. The earliest example is a fresco in tomb 15 at Beni Hasan, showing illustrations of wrestling techniques dating to c. 2000 BC. Similar depictions of wrestling techniques are found on Attic vases dating to Classical Greece.

The only known instance of a book from Western antiquity is P.Oxy. III 466 (2nd century), detailing Greek wrestling techniques. There are some examples in classical Chinese literature that may predate the turn of the Common Era: the Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian (c. 100 BC) documents wrestling, referring to earlier how-to manuals" of the Former Han (2nd century BC) which have however not survived. An extant Chinese text on wrestling is "Six Chapters of Hand Fighting" included in the 1st-century AD Book of Han.[1]

All other extant manuals date to the Middle Ages or later. The "combat stele" at Shaolin Monastery dates to AD 728. The earliest text detailing Indian martial arts is the Agni Purana (c. 8th century), which contains several chapters giving descriptions and instructions on fighting techniques.[2][3] It described how to improve a warrior's individual prowess and kill enemies using various methods in warfare whether they went to war in chariots, horses, elephants or on foot. Foot methods were subdivided into armed combat and unarmed combat.[4] The former included the bow and arrow, the sword, spear, noose, armour, iron dart, club, battle axe, chakram and trident.[5] The latter included wrestling, knee strikes, punching and kicking methods.[4] An old Indian "martial arts manual" is a list of wrestling techniques contained in the Malla Purana, 13th century, Gujarat.

The oldest extant European martial arts manual is MS I.33 (c. 1300).

"Illustrations only" manuals do not become extinct with the appearance of prose instructions, but rather exist alongside these, e.g. in the form of the Late Medieval German Bilderhandschriften.

Historical European martial arts

German Fechtbücher

Further information: German school of fencing
fol. 2r of the Cod. 44 A 8, depicting two fencers in the vom tag and alber wards.

Fechtbuch (plural Fechtbücher) is Early Modern High German for "combat manual",[6] one of the manuscripts or printed books of the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance containing descriptions of a martial art. Usually, the term is taken to include 15th- and 16th-century German manuals, but the nature of the subject matter does not allow a clear separation of these from treatises from other parts of Europe on one hand (particularly from the Italian and French schools), and from manuals of later centuries on the other hand.

A list of Fechtbücher include:

Italian treatises

The Italian school is attested in an early manual of 1410, at which time it is not yet clearly separable from the German school. Indeed, the author Fiore dei Liberi states that he has learned much of his art from one "Master Johannes of Swabia". The heyday of the Italian school comes in the 16th century, with the Dardi school.

French manuals

Similar to the situation in Italy, there is one early manual (c. 1400, dealing with the poleaxe exclusively, and later treatises set in only after a gap of more than a century.

British manuals

England

Apart from three rather opaque texts of the later 15th century,[12] the native English tradition of fencing manuals begins with George Silver's Paradoxes of Defense (1599).

Scotland

Scottish manuals detailing the use of the basket-hilted Scottish broadsword, besides other disciplines such as the smallsword and spadroon, were published throughout the 18th century, with early and late examples dating to the late 17th and early 19th centuries, respectively:

Spanish and Portuguese manuals

There are some manuals containing training advice for the medieval tournament and jousting such as the early Portuguese work A ensinança de bem cavalgar em toda a sela by Edward of Portugal (1391–1438). A riding instruction manual that also included martial information.

17th-century Spanish Destreza is very much steeped in the Spanish Baroque noblemen mindset, so doesn't contain much graphical explanations of the fencing techniques so much as hard to understand explanations based on mathematics and philosophical sciences in general. The subsequent difficulty on interpreting the theory and practice of Destreza correctly has led many times to this school of fencing being misunderstood.

Historical Asian martial arts

Further information: History of Asian martial arts

Some texts on unarmed combat survive from Han China (c. 1st century). The Indian Malla Purana (13th century) includes portions dealing with wrestling techniques. The Chinese Ji Xiao Xin Shu dates to the 1560s. The Korean Muyejebo dates to 1598, the Muyedobotongji dates to 1790. The Japanese Book of Five Rings dates to 1645.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Henning, Stanley E. (1999). ""Academia Encounters the Chinese Martial arts"" (PDF). China Review International. 6 (2): 319–332. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  2. ↑ Zarrilli, Phillip B. (1992). "To Heal and/or To Harm: The Vital Spots (Marmmam/Varmam) in Two South Indian Martial Traditions Part I: Focus on Kerala's Kalarippayattu". Journal of Asian Martial Arts 1 (1).
  3. ↑ P. C. Chakravarti (1972). The art of warfare in ancient India. Delhi.
  4. 1 2 J. R. Svinth (2002). A Chronological History of the Martial Arts and Combative Sports. Electronic Journals of Martial Arts and Sciences.
  5. ↑ "Actualizing Power and Crafting a Self in Kalarippayattu". Spa.ex.ac.uk. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  6. ↑ fechten is cognate to English fight and still meant "fight, combat" in general in Early Modern times; in contemporary Standard German, fechten translates to "fencing", while the noun Gefecht retains the generic meaning of "fight, battle".
  7. ↑ "Transkription der Fechthandschrift cgm582, Johann Lecküchner, Bayerischen Staatsbibliothek.". Pragmatische-schriftlichkeit.de. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  8. ↑ "The Fight-Lore of Mertin Siber, 1491 AD". Thearma.org. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  9. ↑ "Goliath". Thearma.org. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  10. ↑ "Codex Guelf". Thearma.org. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  11. ↑ Archived June 21, 2006, at the Wayback Machine.
  12. ↑ "Discover your martial heritage with the English Martial Arts Academy". Mymartialheritage.org. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  13. ↑ "Harleian". Thearma.org. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  14. ↑ "Additional Manuscript 39564 - 15th century English sword text". Thearma.org. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  15. ↑ "Joseph Swetnam -- Part One". Thearma.org. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  16. ↑ "Scots Fencing Master: Hope: Library: The Linacre School of Defence". Sirwilliamhope.org. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  17. ↑ "Vade Mecum: Hope: Library: The Linacre School of Defence". Sirwilliamhope.org. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  18. 1 2 Highland Swordsmanship: Techniques of the Scottish Sword Masters, by Mark Rector (editor) and Paul Wagner (editor), Published by The Chivalry Bookshelf (Nov 15, 2001)
  19. ↑ Jonathan Miller, The Linacre School of Defence. "Hope: Library: The Linacre School of Defence". sirwilliamhope.org.
  20. ↑ "Observations: Hope: Library: The Linacre School of Defence". Sirwilliamhope.org. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  21. ↑ "Vindication: Hope: Library: The Linacre School of Defence". Sirwilliamhope.org. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  22. ↑ "Miller: On-line manuals: Library: LSD". Sirwilliamhope.org. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  23. ↑ "Page: On-line manuals: Library: LSD". Sirwilliamhope.org. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  24. 1 2 3 4 5 Highland Broadsword:Five Manuals of Scottish Regimental Swordsmanship, by Paul Wagner (editor) and Mark Rector (editor), Published by The Chivalry Bookshelf (July 2004)
  25. ↑ Anti-Pugilism, or The Science of Defense Exemplified In Short and Easy Lessons for the Practice of the Broad Sword and Single Stick Illustrated with Copper Plates, By a Highland Officer, London, Printed for J Aitkin, NO 14, Castle-street, corner of Bear Street, Leicester Fields 1790, www.hroarr.com/manuals/boxing-pugilism/Anti-pugilism.doc
  26. ↑ "Cudgel Playing: Sinclair: Library: The Linacre School of Defence". Sirwilliamhope.org. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  27. ↑ "Thomas Rowlandson / The Guards of the Highland Broadsword / 1799". Davidrumsey.com. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  28. ↑ Peter Valentine. "Digital Historical Documents" (PDF). Thearma.org. Retrieved 2011-11-06.
  29. ↑ John Taylor (1938-06-22). "Art of Defence on Foot, with the Broad Sword and Sabre: Adapted Also for the ...". Books.google.com. Retrieved 2015-11-06.

External links

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