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Stanislav L. Bereznyuk
Books on Martial Arts and Related Aspects of Chinese Culture
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*Amos, Daniel. 1984. Marginality and the Heros Art: Martial artists in
Hong Kong and Guangzhou. PhD Dissertation, University of California at Los
Angeles.
(A treasure trove of information about the martial-arts scene that
existed in Hong Kong and Canton in the early 80s. Ever wonder exactly how
the PRCs state-run martial arts program actually functions? Ever wonder
what kinds of people were practicing martial arts outside of this
institutional apparatus? Want to read about street-level matches and
people that practice spirit possession as a martial art? You can also see
his piece on a Southern Praying Mantis School in the Journal of Asian
Martial Arts v. 6 n. 4 (1997). By the way, you can order this (and all
other dissertations) from UMI (University Microfilms International?) over
the internet).
*Billingsly, Phil. 1981. "Bandits, Bosses, and Bare Sticks: Beneath the
surface of local control in early republican China," in Modern China (7)
3: 235 - 288.
(Gives an idea of what kinds of jobs martial artists did in the
rough old days.)
*Cohen, Paul A. 1997. History in Three Keys: Boxers as event, experience,
and myth. New York: Columbia University Press.
(The Chinese understanding of their martial arts traditions was
greatly effected by the repercussions of the Boxer Uprising of 1900. This
book gives a good picture of the events, and includes a discussion of the
intellectual response to it. It has some translation of the debate over
martial arts that took place in the 1920s between Lu Xun and Chen Duxiu,
and has a fragment of Liang Qichaos early essay on "Chinas Bushido." See
Andrew Morris book (below) for more extensive discussion of these topics.)
*Gallin, Bernard & Rita Gallin. 1977. "Sociopolitical Power and Sworn
Brother Groups in Chinese Society," in Raymond Fogelson & Richard Adams
(eds.). The Anthropology of Power: Ethnographic studies from Asian,
Oceana, and the New World. New York: Academia Press.
(A short paper on the uses of "brotherhood" in 1970s Taiwan)
*Halbrook, Stephen. ND. "Oriental Philosophy, Martial Arts and Class
Struggle," in Social Praxis (2) 1-2: 135-143.
("While the ruling elites monopolized the military technology
along with the means of production, the exploited classes were forced to
devise highly technical though technologically underdeveloped methods of
self-defense involving the use of bare hands and feet or primitive
agricultural implements" (p.135). A good exposition of the Marxist
understanding of martial arts.)
*Hsu, Wen-hsing. 1980. "Frontier Social Organization and Social Disorder
in Ching Taiwan," in Ronald Knapp (ed). Chinas Island Frontier: Studies in
the historical geography of Taiwan. Honolulu: The University Press of
Hawaii.
(Self-explanatory title).
*Jordan, David K. 1985. "Sworn Brothers: A study in Chinese ritual
kinship," in The Chinese Family and its Ritual Behavior. Hsieh Jih-Chang &
Chuang Ying-Chang (eds.). Taipei: Institute of Ethnology, Academia Sinica.
(More about brotherhood).
*Kuhn, Phillip. 1970. Rebellion and Its Enemies in Late Imperial China:
Militarization and social structure, 1796 - 1864. Cambridge: Harvard
University Press.
(The classic text on the complex social institutions through which
violence was produced and organized in Qing China.)
*Lamley, Harry. 1977. "Hsieh-tou, The Pathology of Violence in
Southeastern China," in Ching-shi Wen-Ti (3) 7: 1-39.
(Paper on the practice of large-scale collective inter-clan "armed
feuding" (Hsieh-tou).)
*Liu, James. 1967. The Chinese Knight-Errant. Chicago: University of
Chicago Press.
(The origins of the martial artist as a figure in the stories and
plays of Chinese popular culture are in the character of the xia, or
"knight errant." This book traces the entire history of this figure from
the Shijing to modern martial arts fiction.)
*Lewis, Mark. 1990. Sanctioned Violence in Early China. Albany: SUNY
Press.
(A fascinating discussion of the ways that violence was understood
and used in pre-imperial Chinese culture (Shang Dynasty through Spring and
Autumn Period).)
*Meskill, Johanna. 1979. A Chinese Pioneer Family: The Lins of Wu-feng
Taiwan 1729 - 1895. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
(The history of a great lineage which rose to power and prestige
through the use of a private army.)
*Morris, Andrew. 1998. Cultivating the National Body: A History of
Physical Culture in Republican China. PhD Dissertation, University of
California at San Diego.
(This massive (700+ pages) dissertation contains the best
historical treatment of Chinese martial arts during the Republican period
that I have ever seen. The nitty gritty about the beginnings of Jing Wu
and the Central Guoshu Institute (and much much more), with names and
dates all referenced to a massive bibliography of primary sources.)
*Needham, Joseph, et al. 1994. Science and Civilization in China Vol. 5,
Pt. 6.. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 1 - 100 ( "Military
technology; missiles and sieges").
(A discussion of the ways that military technologies have been used and
discussed throughout Chinese history. This essay contains an extended
bibliographic survey of Chinese military treatises, which includes
substantial discussion of the philosophical contents of each book.)
*Ruhlmann, Robert. 1960. "Traditional Heroes in Chinese Popular Fiction,"
in Arthur Wright (ed). The Confucian Persuasion. Stanford: Stanford
University Press.
(Essay on the representations of heroic behavior in Chinese
popular fiction.)
*Sutton, Nigel. 1993. "Gongfu, Guoshu and Wushu: State Appropriation of
the Martial Arts in Modern China" in Journal of Asian Martial Arts, (2) 3:
102 - 114.
(A discussion of the ways that the state has treated martial arts
as a "means of force," including some interesting material gained from
first-hand interviews).
*Theebom, Marc & Paul DeKnop. 1997. "An Analysis of the Development of
Wushu," in International Review for the Sociology of Sport. (32) 3:
267-282.
(A recent survey article for the non-specialist press.)
*Wile, Douglas. 1996. The Lost Tai Chi Classics of the late Ching Dynasty.
Albany: SUNY Press.
(One of the best English-language martial arts books ever.
Clear-headed, meticulously researched historical discussion setting off a
masterful translation of classical materials, and includes the original
text. Loads of information and a great bibliography.)