History and Pseudohistory in Asian Martial Arts
Legendary Masters of the Martial Arts: Unraveling Fact from Fiction. By Augustus John RoeBook review of
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Legendary Masters of the Martial Arts: Unraveling Fact from Fiction. By Augustus John Roe. Wolfeboro, NH: YMAA Publication Center. 2023. ISBN 978-1594399626. 202 pp. Paperback, $19.95
People tell stories of the past for many reasons, and accurate documentation of past events is only one of these reasons. Few would deny that what many people report to be history is far from what really happened. And in the realm of East Asian martial arts, where tales of legendary masters who performed amazing feats of heroism, demonstrated amazing capabilities and power, fought oppressors and liberated nations and peoples near single handedly, and who gave their students, and their students’ students, traditions and techniques and ways of practicing and living one’s life that gave them meaning, purpose, and empowered them in many ways, it should be no surprise that some of the histories of these legendary masters are, at best, of questionable accuracy.
In this easy to read book, Augustus John Roe, martial artist, author, and professional editor, digs into some of the stories behind twelve legendary martial arts masters, analyzes them, and discusses the truth and fiction behind each. But aside from doing his best to determine the likely historical truth and falsehood behind the stories, he also compares them to similar legends, finding parallels and similarities, and discusses possible motivations for questionable or disproven stories and discusses why and how the distortions or false reports might have arisen and why people repeated them and the meaning and motivations behind the distortions and retellings.
The stories and his analysis of them are all laid out logically and sensibly and follow a pattern. First, he introduces the historical character, then the popular legend, then the historical facts of the legend as best as he can determine, next the functions and purpose of the legend, then the references used and carefully cited in the section. These tend to be short and superficial, and at times frustrating in their lack of depth. On the other hand, having attempted to work with similar sources to answer similar questions, often there just isn’t a lot of detail available, and I greatly respect what he’s done. To make things worse, often these historical figures have also entered popular culture becoming features in comics, novels, films, and television shows in their home countries where their historical exploits have often been distorted and “supplemented” with entirely imaginary adventures. An analogy could easily be made to someone like Billy the Kid, Robin Hood, or King Arthur, real historical personages whose film careers have completely distorted their real-life role and experiences in the eyes of the public.
The twelve figures covered include some very well known, such as Bodhidharma, the legendary being who brought Buddhism to much of Asia and is credited with having a role in the foundation of the Shaolin temple, Miyamoto Musashi, famous samurai and author of The Book of Five Rings, a classic martial arts and swordsmanship book that I have read multiple times in multiple translations, and Bruce Lee, pop-culture icon, martial artist, and film star. With Lee rather than focus on his entire life, the author has chosen to focus primarily on one controversial and often fictionalized incident in his life, a challenge fight allegedly fought with a San Francisco Chinatown Kung Fu instructor over Lee’s decision to teach Chinese martial arts to non-Chinese.
Others are well known in certain circles such as Choi Hong-Hi (founder of Tang Soo Do, a style of Tae Kwon Do), Morihei Ueshiba (founder of Aikido), 1 and Masutatsu (Mas) Oyama (founder of Kyokushin Karate and author of classic martial arts books). With these figures, the author spends time focusing on reports of amazing, arguably supernatural, or superhuman feats performed by these people. For instance, Morihei Ueshiba is often credited with using his chi and mystical awareness to survive gunfire and an execution attempt by Chinese soldiers while in Manchuria in the 1930s while Mas Oyama allegedly engaged enraged bulls in hand to hand combat and snapped off their horns with grabs and twists or focused karate chops. Roe analyzes the reports of these events, the historical context for them and the way they were retold over the years, offering more rational explanations for what might have happened. He offers a plausible explanation for how the founder of Aikido could have survived the events and come to describe them the way he did years later. With Mas Oyama, Roe examines these matches with bulls carefully, citing the lack of complete video evidence of this actually happening and reports from Oyama’s own students that often he allegedly sawed a cut in the bull’s horns ahead of time, making the horns easier to break. 2
Most of the others are lesser known. Some were entirely new to me. For instance in the cases of the Vietnamese lady martial artist and leader of a patriot rebellion, Bui Thi Xuan, and the Thai kick boxer, Nai Khanom Tom, both of whom lived well in the 18th century and whose lives are not well documented but are now very important in their home countries (there are actual shrines in temples in Vietnam to Bui), the author describes how these martial artists became increasingly important in the national psyche over the decades after their death and how their lives and actions were reinterpreted, recast, and spread even further in the context of 20th Century anti-colonialism and nationalism. He also weighs the likelihood of which martial arts accomplishments and techniques they were credited with might actually have been connected to or originated with them and which probably came later and were falsely attributed to them.
Of particular interest to me was the section on Zhang Sanfeng, credited, seemingly falsely, as the founder of Tai Qi Chuan, and considered an important person in the realm of Chinese internal martial arts. Zhang is often credited, again seemingly falsely, in the development, and Dim Mak, a subject I have researched. 3 Although there’s nothing wrong with Roe’s brief and accomplished assessment of Zhang’s known life and its distortion and mythologization over the centuries, his alleged role in dim mak was not mentioned at all. Interesting. What is definitely known is that while almost nothing about the man is known for certain including the time he lived and for how long, he has somehow been named as the creator of several styles or techniques in Chinese martial arts, and Roe and I simply researched different ones. Nevertheless, we both found no solid evidence of a connection with Zhang.
In conclusion, although this book is at times superficial and cursory, it also quite likely the best book on the subject around. The author did a fine job of trying to dig through facts, myth, legends, pop culture media claims, and lack of facts to provide an interesting and solid assessment of many controversial aspects of Asian Martial Arts history. Speaking as someone trained in historical methodology, it is a difficult task to approach a historical claim, discover there is nothing there, and make the reporting interesting and informative to the reader. I credit Roe with doing so. Readers should also find this book of interest, if they are interested in how distortions enter the historical narrative and why.
Purchase this book at the publisher
I studied Aikido for years, enjoyed it, and feel like I got a lot out of it. Every Aikido session begins with the students sitting in a row on their knees, getting centered and focused, calming themselves, and bowing to a photo of Morihei Ueshiba.
In Benji Feldheim’s very enjoyable book, “The Deadliest Man Alive, Count Dante, the Mob, and the War for American Martial Arts” (2022, The Sager Group LLC), there are reports of howin 1967, Count Dante, AKA John Keenan, a classic over the top martial arts figure known before his grandiose comic book ads selling a booklet that would teach the reader “how to fear no man and perform the kung fu death touch,” publicly advertised that one of his students would perform a similar stunt with a massive bull at a public martial arts tournament and went so far as to drive through the streets of Chicago with the large bull in the back of truck to advertise this promised event. At the last minute however, when the crowd gathered for the tournament, Dante announced that the SPCA had intervened and would not allow them to hold the unarmed man versus bull contest.
My Dim Mak piece, which also discusses the renowned Count Dante, is currently under editorial review at The Skeptical Inquirer magazine. I will keep readers posted on when and where they can read it. I am also scheduled to appear on the Ben Radford’s podcast Squaring the Strange to discuss the same subjects. Again, I will announce updates on where and how readers can find these as the projects develop.