Martial History Team

Introduction I (Richard) enjoy comparing translations of texts. For example, last year I published Comparing Translations of Itosu’s Ten Precepts of Karate  and Did Miyamoto Musashi Say Something Like "There is nothing outside of yourself..."?  Translation is key to this post as well. Douglas Wile Today I started reading T'ai Chi's Ancestors: The Making of an Internal Martial Art by Douglas Wile, 1999. I had just taken a look at his 1996 book  Lost T'ai-chi Classics from the Late Ch'ing Dynasty . In the 1999 book he includes the following story on pages 3 and 4: "Allusions to soft-style martial arts theory go back to the classical period. Chinese history and literature record two interesting encounters between martial artists and monarchs. The Wu-Yueh ch'un-ch’iu , Annals of the states of Wu and Yueh ) compiled during the Han (206 BCE - 221 CE) relates a dialogue between the King of Yueh and a woman warrior named Yueh Nu. In response to the King’s pl...

Welcome to the October 2021 reading survey!  Introduction In October 2021, I (Richard) continued my reading plan that prioritized print books that have been on my shelf for months, or years. This post describes the biographies of a collection of martial artists -- some famous, some not. The Life and Tragic Death of Bruce Lee, Linda Lee, 1975 Linda Lee (Cadwell) published  The Life and Tragic Death of Bruce Lee  in 1975. This is the London-based Star Books edition. In the United States, the book appeared as Bruce Lee: The Man Only I Knew, via New York-based Warner. This book seems ghost-written, but it might not be the case. It integrates some material from the late Mr. Lee's (1940-1973) writings, most or all of which have subsequently been published.  I like this book because it is one of the earliest by a family member, and it contains bits of information not seen elsewhere. For example, Ms. Lee notes that Mr. Lee participated in reserve military training as a stude...