MARTIAL VIRTUE (武德）

The proper term for martial arts in China is Wushu (武術). The word “wu” (武) is made up of zhi止 (to stop) and ge戈 (an ancient Chinese weapon). Wushu is therefore often taken to mean “the art of stopping violence.” This is in keeping with the understanding that most masters come to - that the purpose of practising a martial art is to seek peace and harmony in a seemingly violent world.

This is the higher purpose of traditional martial arts. Great masters have gone so far as to say that “The true way of the martial artist is the way of Love.” This is not merely idealistic poetry. It is very practical. Love, enlightenment, and harmony with all things, is the most efficient way to victory. Great warriors throughout history have known that victory depends on knowing yourself and knowing your enemy. But you will never truly know anyone by hating them.

This practical idealism is also why being a martial artist has traditionally been very different from being a soldier. Soldiers in times of feudal warfare were seldom well trained martial artists. They simply didn’t have the time. They were usually poor uneducated peasants conscripted into the army and given a few weeks of combat training. A martial artist, by contrast, would spend a lifetime refining his or her skill.

Much of the soldier’s training would, out of necessity, consist of learning to follow orders, march, and embrace such emotions as fear, bravery, pride and discipline. To a martial artist, fear and pride are not virtues, and discipline can have a very different meaning to a martial artist than it does to a soldier.

A martial artist’s training includes profound and subtle refinement of combat skills, as well as a concurrent refinement of personality, calming the mind, and cultivating virtue. Traditional wushu incorporates the study arts, sciences, religion, medicine, psychology, and philosophy. No form of study is beyond the scope of martial arts. Everything that helps one to understand the Universe and one’s place in it, is a part of wushu.

Mastery includes the mastery of one’s life. A martial artist - using love and kindness as a guiding foundation - pursues chivalry, righteousness, modesty, faithfulness, honesty, integrity, and courtesy. These are not laws that one must follow. They are the natural result of seeking wisdom. Virtue is not the carrot or the stick. It is the horse.

Wude 武德 (martial virtue) is not an adjunct to combat training. It is an essential part of it. If one does not cultivate virtue, one will never achieve the high level skills of a martial art. It is possible to achieve a mediocre level of skill without virtue. But the highest level of combat skill has traditionally belonged to the people of highest virtue. That is why one is not surprising to look through history and find the greatest and most famous martial artists were not always soldiers. They were also monks, nuns, healers, teachers, and sometimes performers, engineers, aristocrats, and peasant farmers.

There are exceptions to every rule. But when martial historians find a famous martial artist who did not appear to be of high moral character, it is usually the case that, if such masters were not beaten in combat, they did tend to destroy themselves.