The topic - "Wushu" with its variety of styles, directions, trends, and since the beginning of the formation of the Chinese People's Republic, the practice of qigong appeared (working with energies, are they serious?) is very attractive, not only for the younger generation but also especially for those who promote it ( in the bad sense of the word) being, there is such a modern word - networkers, managers, instructors (hiding behind the "great" teachers of China, who blessed them for business). 

The most amazing thing is that the range of disciplines that Wushu covers is very wide and practically satisfies the needs of any age category. A sort of placebo pill. I would say such a win-win project for the Сhina Empire. And this strategic plan has been working for many decades, and to be more precise, since 1949, the year of the formation of the PRC. The strategy lies in the fact that with such an extraordinary socio-economic development, they were able to fill this gap with orthodox pseudo-legends about the "thousand-year civilization" of Ancient China, with its triumvirate religion (this cannot be taken away), medicine, "martial arts." in fact, all of China's external wars ended in defeat for the most part. The only one over whom China has managed to gain the upper hand is over peaceful Tibet. Everything would have been local, within the framework of the country's internal development, if not for the fact that the PRC is positioning these areas as one of the forms of its own world economic enrichment. The concept of the revival of the "Silk Road". For better or worse, they thus survived.

The concept of reviving the Silk Road is a utopia. China is trying to improve its economic situation by injecting low-quality industrial goods into the world consumption market that do not correspond to either price or quality. It is a fact that they created jobs, but the Chinese government ignores its level of quality and compliance with European standards. Personal state ambitions do not allow realizing that the world is multipolar, according to the ancient Eastern concept of yin-yang, and can be much more civilized than China.

For many millennia, the Celestial Empire was in a state of civil strife, both internal and external enemies. Looking into history, we can say with confidence that the spirit, will, the character of this peace-loving and weak-tempered people did not become tempered but became more inert, subject to other people's influence, and the saddest thing is that their "inner" core did not strengthen, but became more and more ambitious. Not surprisingly, when Bodhidharma came from India to China with the aim of spreading the teachings of the Buddha, he encountered in the monasteries a mass indifference to what was happening and, in particular, to the study of the theoretical and practical foundations of the teachings of the Buddha. Damo (Bodhidharma) practically had to awaken the spirit, body and consciousness of novices for the internal self-development of sleeping monks of monasteries during sermons, but also, as we can see, for the whole nation!

And this pseudo-legend in the grandiose construction of Chinese civilization is the "Great Wall of China", supposedly built from external enemies. This is completely absurd, but the Chinese believe in it. If you pay close attention, you will see that the loopholes in the Chinese wall are directed towards China, and not outward. It follows from this that this structure was built from the Chinese themselves, from their importunity, claims and expansion into foreign territories. And, the country, the state, which was called - Tartary! It was she who brought many directions of her civilization to the development of China. Let's even take such a small example from the teachings of Using. There is such a legend in China that a turtle came out of the sea and trigrams were inscribed on its shell. It's funny. The world lives according to the laws of nature, space and it has an iron logic! The question is whether humanity wants or does not want to adopt these laws. If not, then it will be destroyed by nature, the higher powers of reason! So, for many millennia, the Chinese have not even bothered to interpret, to give the concept of Wuxing a logical foundation. This is how they interpret it with errors. And, according to the erroneous concept of Wuxing, the false teaching of the I Ching will naturally follow. The law of causation was initially violated!

Are the martial arts of ancient China reality or legend? 

Covered with a halo of mysticism, superpowers and abilities, it finds in the minds of adepts the need for self-affirmation. There is a certain category of people who are prone to self-deception. They tend to be in a state of hypnotic sleep, some ideas about "martial arts" and everything related to "meditative practices, qigong (by the way, this term was first used in the early fifties of the last century). There is such a term in psychology that characterizes personality - narcissism (narcissism with one's capabilities, body). So, in Wushu, there is practically no interaction with a partner (with the exception of formal "sparring") and it all comes down to performing and practising conventional forms (taolu) of various Wushu styles (animal styles, northern, southern directions, etc.). Underneath this is a universal idea - the self-development of spirit and body.

 Underneath lay an universal idea - the self-development of spirit and body. And for many years, and the instructors claim that it is necessary to improve trainer’s lives, invest to their health, strength and the worst thing in all this is money. And what is at the end of the Path? Many remain at a broken trough ("The Tale of a Goldfish" by A. Pushkin), since the system itself does not have any internal motivation for self-development and improvement. This system is emasculated, empty. Everything that the East tried to prove to us for so long that the "martial arts" contain techniques cultivating "internal" energy for development, cultivation and control turned out to be a myth, an illusion and just gymnastics, but with a tendentious orientation towards belonging to the martial arts. And what is the theoretical basis summed up, with the principles, rules, rituals, techniques, so that the Wushu adepts fulfill all these requirements. There is a complete zombie of the student by one or another school of Wushu, which the adept fell into with its mystified and fanned legend about the super masters of this school and direction.

There was no question of any martial arts (see videos below), since the level (you can imagine from the video posted) was primitive. But, once again, I will emphasize and give credit to the Chinese Communist Party to the Department of Ideology, Culture and Sports, which managed to bring the Wushu discipline to the rank of the legendary heritage of China, even outside the Celestial Empire.

I want to disappoint you that Wushu, as a kind of "martial combat", was formed precisely during the formation of the PRC. And, it was designed not as "martial arts" (although in the translation Wushu and corresponds to this name), but as artistic gymnastics. And it has nothing to do with martial arts. The various directions and styles of Wushu are based on formal exercises imitating the technique of fist work, with weapons and interaction with a partner. And all of this is based on the principles of the Chinese opera tradition. Where all the stage action and all the techniques of fist fighting, interaction without weapons and with weapons were based on non-contact interactions.

It is not surprising that many masters of martial arts, meditative-breathing practices which developed various types of fist fighting, possessed energy, were expelled from the country by the PRC regime for their protest and discrediting of the types of martial arts.

For many decades, we have seen in the cinema (staged fights), theatre (the art of stage combat), sections, Wushu schools, how plastic, movement culture and hand-to-hand combat techniques are improving. We are presented that it was precisely this technique (modern) that prevailed in those distant times. Although the video clearly shows what a primitive level of hand-to-hand techniques existed at the beginning of the 20th century, and what to say about the 6th century, when Damo began to teach the monks of monasteries in martial arts or those practices of "martial arts" that have come down to us relatively in the original - Taijiquan, Bagua, Xinyiquan and similar orthodox techniques. Even these technical movements can be used to judge the entire system as a whole. The martial arts were in their infancy at the time. And so it could remain to this day if the martial arts of the West did not burst into the Celestial Empire in a rapid stream.

Since that time, practically interaction with a partner, a group, a weapon was formed from the techniques of European masters who had practical experience in martial arts, sparring. At the beginning of the 20th century, European boxing had a great influence on the formation and development of Wushu in the field of combat interaction. The fighters who came to China showed in fights with local "masters" what a blow is, the ability to hold it, how to hold hands, movement, etc., in other words, the tactics and strategy of the fight. Subsequently, everything that China takes for self-development and self-enrichment in art, culture, sports, economy is further used as its own, while being clothed in a national idea and even a legend.

False Idols

I do not want to belittle the dignity of the Chinese people, each nation has its own beautiful and terrible sides, and in the language of orthodox ancient Chinese medicine (the concept of Wuxing), there were both yin and yang. But the point is different. I would like those who practice martial arts to properly perceive and evaluate what is presented under the brand name "martial arts" (Wushu). After all, it’s not surprising that Chinese Wushu instructors want to wishful thinking. And there is intensive propaganda at all levels of the media about the unique capabilities and abilities of Wushu. This is especially demonstrated by cinematography, where stuntmen and stage combat instructors perform various not actions, but tricks, where miracles and flights, ejections of "qi", "levitation" take place. And the forms (taolu) are invented in the mirror for spectacularity and spectacular perception by the viewer ... But do not forget that everything is possible in the cinema, but in real life, these people have nothing to do with martial arts! Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Samo Hung, Doni Yeon, Jet Li, Jean Claude Van Dam, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, etc. - they are stuntmen, stunt-masters, and not even actors since their acting skills are at the level of provincial theatres.

You will say that demonstrations of sparring Shaolin monks with Thai boxers or someone else began to appear on the platforms and videos. And supposedly the monk, having shown all his developments, piled on the Thai. That's funny. Why, yes, because the "iron shirt", as a rule, is developed under static conditions. Dynamics and statics are different forms and methods of "hard qigong". More often than not, the Chinese develop and sell it to "apologists" in a static form. In dynamics, it is practically difficult to form an "iron shirt", since a person is in motion and initially, anatomically assumes the musculoskeletal structure of clamping-relaxation, yin-yang. And, this, in turn, creates gaps for the enemy to hit the yin or yang area. And the tactics of interaction with the enemy is not standing with a pillar in front of a moving enemy, but the ability to move, and not receive blows. Everyone perfectly understands how it ends with age.

So, Wushu gymnastics is not martial arts, but a demo version of them, a trick, a parody, etc. In one of the films with the participation of Bruce Lee, there was a very interesting episode when he gives a professional assessment of martial arts and Wushu. For example, tossing up a watch taken off the hand. Bruce Lee explains why the opponent immediately rushed after the clock so that it would not fall to the ground ... This is martial arts, where the reaction, the speed of minimizing movements, everything works for the result. And in Wushu, formal movements for the ritual, style stands would be done, breathing exercises could be performed, and in the meantime, the clock would have long been broken on the ground. So, in Wushu, an extreme situation that could threaten an opponent is not really evaluated or perceived.

It follows from this that Wushu, as a section - "martial arts" - is a myth, an illusion, a soap bubble! This is artistic gymnastics that imitates formal exercises, which use elements of punches, kicks, with objects (sword, stick) and interaction with a partner. They are trying, and they succeed, to teach and believe, to attract you to the tradition of Chinese opera. And, we must pay tribute to them that the Celestial Empire succeeds. Over 200 million people all over the world are held captive by Wushu, this pseudo-history, pseudo-legend, pseudo-culture, which has nothing to do with martial arts. And adherents are trying to somehow enrich it with combat aspects, but most often it is all in vain since Wushu (artistic gymnastics) is based on completely different principles of building forms, interaction with a partner, weapons, etc.

But it's all the same for you to choose. Make no mistake, otherwise, it will be like with Chinese goods - catchy, but not productive, not effective, not economical and not expedient.