Revealing Fake Martial Arts

[Flying Crane]

There' so much wrong or silliness out there...

One of our security guards informed me that he has a "first black" in Shaolin Kung Fu, and regaled me with an origin myth about how their founder was an orphan, abandoned by his parents because he was 'covered in hair, like a bear', adopted by Monks, but never "really" a monk. And how this allowed him to travel from one monastery to another and learn all different sorts of Kung Fu secrets, which he passed on to our guards instructor.
He seemed annoyed when I pointed out that TCMA doesn't have belt ranks. He got offended when I expressed skepticism about the "history" he reported.

Oh I know those guys too. The guy I knew was actually a pretty nice guy, but there are some big problems with those stories.

 

[Xue Sheng]

Oh I know those guys too. The guy I knew was actually a pretty nice guy, but there are some big problems with those stories.

Try hanging out with Taiji people and listen to the origin stories

 

[mograph]

Try hanging out with Taiji people and listen to the origin stories

The more sickly the founder was, the better!

(edit: not dissing taijiquan, just the tall tales.)

 

[Xue Sheng]

The more sickly the founder was, the better!

(edit: not dissing taijiquan, just the tall tales.)

But only if he trained in a secret cave with a bird and a snake where he found a golden book

 

[Phobius]

Problem with history, even world history. There are several versions of each story even among professors that have researched these their entire lives. Each version has several books written down and each story is claimed to be a true story. So how can they all be true? Simple, if the one doing the research find any evidence supporting their claims it becomes a true story. Another researcher finds evidence that point to something else and contradicts the other story. Both are equally true both in the eyes of the universities, the world and schoolars.

Believing that history is just a single coherent story is something that is taught to children. Telling them most retellings of historical events are never more than one plausible option out of many would be damaging their education and mess with their minds.

If we can not even find our actual history, how can we believe to find the single truth to a martial art origin?

(There are some events in near history that are deemed undeniable, like major events tragical or not. But the details surrounding even those events no longer exist as a single proven story.)

 

[Steve]

As the great Miles Davis once said, "It's not the notes you play; it's the notes you don't play." History is like jazz. It's not just what you say. What you don't say can make a big difference.