Weapons, the Brennan Translations and History...
Posted: Mon Sep 19, 2016 11:48 pm
Mr. Brennan's translations are a gold mine for the student of tai chi chuan. Like a gold mine, they contain a lot of idle ore and a profitable bit of gold and not a darned thing else.
In reading the texts, I begin to note a few themes which seem to run through most if not all of them, and these themes are closely tied to China's history in the early- and mid-20th Centuries.
Simply put, a fair proportion of the texts were written while China was busy fighting the Japanese, or their own revolution; all of them were written after China had been beaten and ground down by the millstone of foreign occupation (after which it was Japan's turn), and EVERY LAST ONE of them desperately yearn for tai chi to restore China's vitality and "spirit."
In short, none of the authors are crowing about how great China is right-then-and-there, but all of them are hopeful that China might one day return to its former glory. Looking at China's history at that period, it's easy to see why they wrote like they did.
In going through the texts on weapons, most of them give the impression of military drill manuals; something an officer or senior NCO might use to train his soldiers. The saber texts in particular have this characteristic, as they all seem to stress the simplicity and ease of learning the use of the weapon, in addition to its economy versus firearms. Looking at the dao, especially photos of 20th Century Chinese soldiers and their sabers, they seem to be a rather humbler and less highly-regarded weapon than the jian; and I get the impression that it was about the best they could come up with when they needed to give their soldiers something - ANYTHING - to kill the Japanese with.
They do NOT leave the reader with the impression that the author feels as though he is communicating to an individual student. It's a hard thing to put one's finger on; but if you've read enough military manuals (or even Boy Scout Merit Badge books) you know it when you see it.
The authors writing from 1935 onward never bothered hiding their contempt for the Japanese as a culture, a nation and a race; then again, who could blame them?
There's something sad and tragic about reading these texts, and I get a sense of the vain hope that must have buoyed up their authors as they wrote about training a method of warfare which was far in the past. Through the benefit of hindsight, we know quite well how the Chinese did against the Imperial Japanese Army when it came to swords facing modern weapons. Mao Tse Tung and Chiang Kai Shek were able to prevail to the degree they did only with an infusion of foreign weapons and ordnance, in addition to that captured from the Japanese; even then, the Japanese still bled China white.
I have no deeper understanding than the dry historical record, so there is much I'm likely missing. I'm merely making these observations "cold," as it were. I'd be grateful if the more learned members of the board could help color in the white space on the canvas for me, in terms of things I'm missing that might inform how I go about reading these extremely illuminating and worthy texts, and do the authors the honor they merit by getting out of the texts all they had hoped to share.
gvi
In reading the texts, I begin to note a few themes which seem to run through most if not all of them, and these themes are closely tied to China's history in the early- and mid-20th Centuries.
Simply put, a fair proportion of the texts were written while China was busy fighting the Japanese, or their own revolution; all of them were written after China had been beaten and ground down by the millstone of foreign occupation (after which it was Japan's turn), and EVERY LAST ONE of them desperately yearn for tai chi to restore China's vitality and "spirit."
In short, none of the authors are crowing about how great China is right-then-and-there, but all of them are hopeful that China might one day return to its former glory. Looking at China's history at that period, it's easy to see why they wrote like they did.
In going through the texts on weapons, most of them give the impression of military drill manuals; something an officer or senior NCO might use to train his soldiers. The saber texts in particular have this characteristic, as they all seem to stress the simplicity and ease of learning the use of the weapon, in addition to its economy versus firearms. Looking at the dao, especially photos of 20th Century Chinese soldiers and their sabers, they seem to be a rather humbler and less highly-regarded weapon than the jian; and I get the impression that it was about the best they could come up with when they needed to give their soldiers something - ANYTHING - to kill the Japanese with.
They do NOT leave the reader with the impression that the author feels as though he is communicating to an individual student. It's a hard thing to put one's finger on; but if you've read enough military manuals (or even Boy Scout Merit Badge books) you know it when you see it.
The authors writing from 1935 onward never bothered hiding their contempt for the Japanese as a culture, a nation and a race; then again, who could blame them?
There's something sad and tragic about reading these texts, and I get a sense of the vain hope that must have buoyed up their authors as they wrote about training a method of warfare which was far in the past. Through the benefit of hindsight, we know quite well how the Chinese did against the Imperial Japanese Army when it came to swords facing modern weapons. Mao Tse Tung and Chiang Kai Shek were able to prevail to the degree they did only with an infusion of foreign weapons and ordnance, in addition to that captured from the Japanese; even then, the Japanese still bled China white.
I have no deeper understanding than the dry historical record, so there is much I'm likely missing. I'm merely making these observations "cold," as it were. I'd be grateful if the more learned members of the board could help color in the white space on the canvas for me, in terms of things I'm missing that might inform how I go about reading these extremely illuminating and worthy texts, and do the authors the honor they merit by getting out of the texts all they had hoped to share.
gvi