Taichido Newsletter - issue 76 september 2008

Over the years various experts have commented upon or criticised the word "taichido", saying quite correctly that it is a mix a two languages; Chinese and Japanese. I must confess that this is so and would only add that it might be a mixture of three; those two and English!
There follows a quite complicated justification, citing ancient and modern Chinese and Japanese martial art cultures, religions and societies to substantiate the entomological head on collision that is 'taichido'; but perhaps it just means "do tai chi"!

Due to isolationist policies that were brought about by a similar but different set of circumstances in Japan and China - and a mutual fear of debased western ways, all of the Japanese martial arts i.e. all other martial arts aside from Tai Chi - and by extension Kung Fu (see below), and ethnic western forms such as wrestling, boxing, fencing, archery etc. were all but unknown here in the west until only a matter of decades ago.
We obviously had our fighting traditions and sports here the west, including some similar to those in the east - but what we did not have since perhaps the medieval institution of knighthood and the age of chivalry was the 'art'.

Kung Fu
Kung fu or gongfu or gung fu is a well-known Chinese term often used by speakers of the English language to refer to Chinese martial arts. Its original meaning is somewhat different, referring to one's expertise in any skill, not necessarily martial.

The term "kung fu" was not popular until the 20th century, thus the word would be seldom found in any ancient texts. The term was first known to have been reported by a Westerner, French Jesuit missionary Jean Joseph Marie Amiot, in the 18th century and was known little in the mainstream English language until approximately the late 1960s, when it became popular because of the Hong Kong films, especially those by Bruce Lee, and later Kung Fu - the television series. Before that it was referred to primarily as "Chinese boxing".

It is hard to translate "kung fu" into English as we have no equivalent. In short it means "achievement through great effort" or simply virtue. It combines (kung) [sometimes gong] meaning achievement or merit, and (fu) which translates into man. In Mandarin, when two "first tone" words such as gong and fu are combined, the second word often takes a neutral tone, in this case forming gongfu.

Originally, to practice kung fu did not just mean to practice Chinese martial arts. Instead, it referred to the process of one's training - the strengthening of the body and the mind, the learning and the perfection of one's skills - rather than to what was being trained. It refers to excellence achieved through long practice in any endeavour. You can say that a person's kung fu is good in cooking, or has kung fu calligraphy. saying that a person possesses kung fu in an area implies skill in that area, which they have worked hard to develop. Someone with "bad kung fu" simply has not put enough time and effort into training, or seems to lack the motivation to do so.

For a process to be truly kung fu, Motivation, Self-discipline and Time must be present.

To "Romanize" any word from any other written and spoken language is to make that word look like and sound like our own i.e. English. This is very difficult with Chinese and Japanese because their 'written' words are pictures or more correctly, picturegrames and in most cases, one 'word' is illustrated with more than one picture. A simple sentence may therefore contain dozens of separate picture-grames. In both languages just precisely where one picturegramm is placed in relation to the one above, below or to the left and right may drastically alter the meaning of the word or sentence. This is further complicated in the Chinese in so much as that the spoken language is based upon five tones - so any one word may mean up to five different things even before it is written down! For instance, the picturegramm that illustrates "tao" may sometimes be articulated as "do" ... and both kung fu and gongfu are valid romanizations (or ...sations!) of the picturegramm that illustrates "achievement" and "man".

Once we had 'discovered' eastern arts, us westerners were perhaps most fascinated with thier rules of etiquette, philosophy and spirituality that made it an art, and not just a matter of fitness or survival.

The Japanese martial arts and martial art culture complete with esoteric rules of etiquette and ritual was the first to be brought to the west - and some of the codified behaviours such as bowing and the coloured belt grading system stuck; some were assimilated or altered and some were just plain dropped or ignored. Some of these rules that were by then irrelevant or non applicable were quite understandably dropped, but so too perhaps were some of the good or intrinsic ones. For instance, Karate used to be called Karate-do.
The 'do' that got taken away from Karate is like the do added to 'taichi' - and to explaining more I must now dissect the relevant Japanese martial art terms.

DO (Japanese)
In Japanese martial art culture the suffix 'do' transforms a sport into an art and indicates that some philosophy and correct moral discipline is intrinsic to it. For the Japanese do is an experiential term in the sense that the practice (the way of life) validates the discipline cultivated through a given art form. The 'art' in this case is martial art; though now we should remember that traditionally and at the conception of Japanese martial art this included poetry, painting, calligraphy and flower arranging to name but a few. Samurai were expected to be cultured and literate, and admired the ancient saying "Bun Bu Ryo Do" ( lit. literary arts, military arts, both ways) or "The pen and the sword in accord," The number of men who actually achieved the ideal and lived their lives by it was high.

BUDO
Budo is a compound of the Japanese words bu, meaning war or martial; and do, meaning path or way. "Bu" may be interpreted as meaning "courage" or "the way of war".
The practice of a budo art ultimately involves the practitioner in a commitment to a way of life dictated to enhancing the most creative and altruistic qualities of human character, and the simple and practical virtue of budo martial discipline is that it is an excellent means of awakening courage. Some of the arts that retain the suffix do are JoDO, AkieDO, TaikuanDO and a few more.

Budo arts are derived from the combat arts - they did not develop independently of them. Contemporary budo forms can be traced back to the Japanese hereditary warrior class, the Samurai (bushi).

The picturegram (as opposed to the word) (Jap) "DO" and (Chin) "TAO" is actually derived from the Sanskrit MARGA - meaning the 'path' or 'way' ... 'to enlightenment'.

"Budo" refers to the idea of formulating propositions, subjecting them to philosophical critique and then following a 'path' to realize them.

BUJUTSU
Bujutsu is a compound of the words bu, and jutsu, meaning science, craft, or art and the composite is therefore translated or interpreted as "science of war" or "martial craft". Bujutsu was the realm of the higher classes, aristocracy and warlord. These days, both budo and bujutsu are used interchangeably in English (Romanized) with the term "martial arts".

An early Japanese term for warrior, "uruwashii", was written with a kanji (picturegramm) that combined the characters for literary study ("bun") and military arts ("bu"), and from as early as the late 12th century the educated poet-swordsman is held up as the ideal of human endeavor. This class would call themselves "bujutsu-do"; those that follow the way of bujutsu.

The samurai (budo) army and the navy were modernized in 1854. In defining how a modern Japan should be, members of the Meiji government decided to follow the footsteps of United Kingdom and Germany, basing the country on the concept of "noblesse oblige." Samurai were not to be a political force under the new order and with more Meiji reforms in the late 19th century, the samurai class was abolished.

Tao (Chinese)
For the Chinese the word/sound that corresponds with 'do' is tao which at first means no more than just 'a way'; like the way of the gardener or the way of the poet, or the brick layer, and so on. Just "a way" … and to be on it is to be in accord with the way and be in harmony with the order and totality of the natural world, or in other words, "the way things are".

On the most basic level, in Chinese, "Tao" also means simply Road or Path, as in the way from one place to another or, on a cosmic level, tao refers to that which is manifest in the form, characteristics, nature and or 'spirit' of all things. Hence, the aboriginal or original spiritual system - and the way that these ancient Chinese related themselves to the universe is known as Taoism.

Thus, in Chinese terms tao or dao (or do?) is an experiential term (a thing ones 'does') and in Japanese terms it is "a way of attaining courage through the practice of correct moral doctrine".