Self Defense: Stopping the Spear

As a Buddhist and a Martial Arts Instructor, it is important for me to instill a sense of compassion and restraint in my students.  While learning any form of Martial Arts, it is important to remember that even the most basic punching and kicking combinations can be devastating when applied to live opponent.  A strong front snap kick to the groin can kill, and has killed, a person.  To refrain from violent outbursts, fits of anger and loss of emotional control has to be central to the teaching of Martial Arts if we wish our tradition to be harmony with the ancient Martial Arts traditions.

The reason most teacher refer to traditional Martial Arts as self-defense is not arbitrary or opinionative.  The idea that combative techniques should only be used in extreme situations and to defend one’s self or those innocent is inherent in the culture, language and written words of Ancient China.  A good place to start exploring this idea is by looking at the Chinese Character which is used to mean military combat.

The Chinese Character 武, pronounced wǔ in Chinese and bu in Japanese, is most often translated as war, war-like, combat, fighting, martial or military.   This Character is used in the Chinese term Wu Shu, meaning Martial Arts, and the Japanese term Bushido or The Way of the Warrior.  A deeper inspection of the Character wǔ itself, however, reveals much about the Ancient Chinese concept of Warriorship and the Confucian ideals of moral and social duty. 

The Spring and Autumn Annals is a Chronicle of the Zhou Dynasty State of Lu between the years 722 BCE to 481 BCE.  Here, the Character wǔ is described as meaning stopping violence.  The Character wǔ is itself composed of two other Chinese Characters, 止- zhǐ: to stop or halt; and 戈- gē:  a spear, lance or halberd.  The character wǔ can therefore be translated as to stop a spear or to halt violence. Here, in the character most often translated as war or martial, we see the central morality of the Chinese Martial Arts – that combat skill is to be used for self-defense and never for revenge, out of spite or for personal gain. 

The Character wǔ does not describe a spear being thrust into a man or any other violent action.  It instead depicts the ceasing of a violent action. Therefore, the Character wǔ could be most accurately translated as self-defense or defending against an attack. The Warrior, then, was not be an aggressor thrusting his spear about wildly; but was to be a protector of the innocent, halting violent actions and stopping dangerous individuals.  A student of the Martial Arts should take this idea to heart, vowing to always stop the spear – and to never be the spear which need be stopped.