[Japanese martial arts anecdotes] This is Japan's ups and downs!

"Come back! Do you remember how the play was played?"
"Remember, eat the paper! (Tear a small corner) I ate it! I ate it!"
"I want to steal chickens! This time I want you to eat paper, next time I want you to eat all the frames!"

Pull the timeline forward a little to 1991, the year Stephen Chow's "New Jingwumen 1991" was released. There is a section in the play that pays homage to the original "Jingwumen" where the Japanese came to kick the pavilion. Zhang Jianian, who played the traitor, pointed to the tall Japanese and said to Zhou Xingchi, "This is Japan's ups and downs, win glory for the Chinese, go! "There is a picture when I think of it.

Regarding the founding of Qidouliu, a Ming Dynasty scholar, Chen Yuanyun, is often mentioned. And this Chen Yuanyun is not just a scholar of the public security school who was naturalized in Japan at the end of the Ming Dynasty. It is said that he is also a disciple of the Shaolin Temple. Chen not only introduced Shaolin martial arts to Japan, but the purpose of his trip to Japan was to recruit troops to fight against the Qing Dynasty and restore the Ming Dynasty.

At first glance, it sounds like a rotten and vulgar plot produced by a content farm, but it is not completely groundless. Today, if you search the Internet for keywords such as "Chen Yuanyun Jiu-Jitsu", you will see more or less similar information. In Japan's Edo period "Yawa Shishi", it is recorded under the entry "Fist": "The so-called jiu-jitsu in this world is called boxing in Wubei Zhi.... It began to spread in Japan because of a man named Chen Yuanyun in modern times. Chen Yuanyun came to China to live and lived in Kunshoji Temple in Edo. At the same time, there were three ronin living in the temple, including Fukuno Shichirozaemon, Isomu Jirozaemon, Miura and Jiemon. One day, Chen and the three They talked about "the art of capturing and grabbing in the Ming Dynasty, although I don't know this art, but I see it often." The three of them heard about the operation and went back to study it separately, and they all succeeded in the end." [1]

Among the three, Fukuno-ryu jutsu of Fukuno Shichiroemon was later renamed Kai-ryu jiu-jitsu. Since the techniques of judo at Kodokan are mostly based on the reverse flow and the real Yang flow of the gods, in the impression of many people, Chen Yuanyun has become the ancestor of today's Japanese jiu-jitsu and judo.

However, in the anecdote, it is clearly written that Chen Yuanyun did not know how to capture, so why did Chen teach martial arts later, or even Chen once studied in Shaolin [2] . In addition, Chen Yuanyun's eastward journey to Japan was about in the early Edo period (1620s), and Japanese jiu-jitsu can be traced back to the Heian and Warring States period. Ancient martial arts such as Takeuchi-style, Sekiguchi-style, and Shinto-style all have the inheritance of Jiujitsu. How did Chen Yuanyun move forward and become the ancestor of Japanese jiu-jitsu?

This starts with the history of Japanese martial arts development.

After the end of the Warring States Period, many samurai ronin lost their livelihoods and had to find a way to survive by martial arts, and new genres have sprung up all over Japan. The martial arts genre has also started to specialize from the original "Summoning Art of War", and is subdivided into "Sword Art", "Spear Art", "Jujitsu" and so on. The scholar Nishiyama Matsunosuke has this description: "At that time, in addition to the ronin, the samurai scattered to various places (that is, each domain) also began to create their own schools, named them arbitrarily, and named them imported from overseas or directly transmitted by gods and Buddhas. It is during this period that Chen Yuanyun naturalized himself in Japan.

In fact, in the era when Chen Yuanyun taught the "Daming Capture Technique", the author has seen three theories [4] . During the Taisho period, the scholar Shimokawa Chao compared the date when the relevant documents were written [5] , the comments of the people of the time on Chen, and the rumored experience of the three samurai who were taught Jiu-jitsu to speculate that Chen was the ancestor of Jiu-jitsu. It came from the literati of Chinese culture (Han culture). Although Chen Yuanyun may know boxing, but this kind of boxing is different from the inherent Japanese jiu-jitsu. Chen's influence on martial arts should be more in the exchange of foreign boxing styles and ideas.

As far as propaganda is concerned, "I am teaching the capture technique from the Ming Dynasty" is always louder than "I am teaching what I learned in a certain school", not to mention that Chen Yuanyun was a well-known Confucian scholar at that time. It is not uncommon for ancient Japanese martial arts to say something similar to the pretense of predecessors. For example, although the well-known straight-hearted shadow-ryu only appeared in the Edo period, the ancestors of Liuzu can be traced back to the Warring States Period [6] . In addition, according to Fujita Saiko's statement, there was actually a jiu-jitsu school called "Chen Yuanyunliu" during the Edo period, but the time recorded in its biography does not quite match Komatsu's research. [7]

Regarding the origin of the back-flow, it is written on the website of the Japan Kobudo Association today: "The back-flow is from the Fukuda flow of Fukuno Shichiroemon Masakatsu.... The back-flow is named after Ibaraki Sesai, who is also under the Fukuno gate, and Terada. (Terrada Kanemon Masashige) called the stream a straight stream of judo... Generally speaking, there are sayings that the reverse stream started from Fukuno to the third generation Terada.” [8]

Such a wonderful saying naturally has a story, Fukuno Shichiro and Ibaraki Sensai are both disciples of Yanagyu Xinyinyu. In the "moon no copy" of the new Yinyu, there are records of Fukuno's good move and heart-to-flow and Ibaraki's understanding of the chaotic reversal (or the chaotic reversal), and there is a catalogue awarded to the two on the record. Fukuno's protégé Terada, after he learned judo, combined his family martial arts and called himself "Dashi-style Judo".

With the passing of the times, the descendants may continue to use the names of Liang Yixin Dangliu and Zhixin Judo, while others have begun to take the name of Backflow Jujitsu, and each traces the line of Taoism forward. The longer the period of peace in the Edo period, the smaller and smaller the samurai living space, and the people always have to survive.

From this point of view, the origins, legends and mysterious experiences of ancient martial arts can often be regarded as convenient methods for teaching and inheritance. It is relatively meaningless to examine the authenticity of these statements too seriously. The purpose of the inheritance of the speech has been achieved: the ancestors may have been bluffing in the past, but the techniques taught now are not bluffing. Of course, it can also be seen what many schools want to do when conducting such research [9] .

It's too serious to talk about, let's go back and watch the movie. There are many scenes in "New Jingwumen 1991" that pay tribute to Bruce Lee's "Jingwumen", such as the bridge section where the plaque is presented in front of the pavilion. I don't know if it was intentional or unintentional, but every Japanese person's hakama in "Jingwumen" is worn backwards. In the movie, the Hongkou Gym hangs as a signboard of "Up and Down". Whether it's the backflow or Chen Yuanyun is just a statement, it's good for the moment. As for whether there is a real connotation or history behind it, it's probably not the speaker's concern [10] .

This article was also published in the author's square column

Notes:

[1] Quoted from "The Beginning of Distinguishing the Great Harmony by Guangyi's Popular Sayings" Pp782-783

[2] Although the fact that Chen Yuanyun once studied in Shaolin has been widely circulated on the Internet, few articles can provide relevant proof. More rigorous academic research focuses on Chen Yuanyun's achievements in sinology and cultural exchanges. When talking about Shaolin martial arts, he often directly quotes Xiaomatsu Yuantao's "Research on Chen Yuanyun". In the book, Mr. Komatsu described that Chen went down the mountain after a year and a half of practicing martial arts in Shaolin. Komatsu's self-report was learned from an interview with Kei Sho Nakajima, a Japanese who practiced martial arts at Shaolin Temple during the Meiji era. However, the Meiji era and the early Edo period were separated by a long time. How Nakajima visited these historical anecdotes is still a lot of people thinking about the credibility, and Komatsu did not explain in detail in the book. Komatsu is quite confident that Chen Yuanyun once practiced martial arts in Shaolin, and the relevant arguments of Jiujitsu teaching in his book are based on this. However, Komatsu also mentioned in the postscript at the end of the book that although Chen was proficient in boxing, he later moved to the Owari domain (now Nagoya) without leaving any influence on the local martial arts. Komatsu finally confessed, even if Chen Yuanyun is really not a boxer, it will not detract from his contribution to the cultural exchange of Jiu-Jitsu/Judo. In short, the author has not seen enough convincing evidence to prove that Chen Yuanyun once practiced martial arts in Shaolin. Refer to "Chen Yuanyun's Research" pp36-39; p355.

[3] See P274 of Matsunosuke Nishiyama's "Research on Jiayuan", which is translated by the author in Chinese. In addition, for the origins of various martial arts schools, please refer to "Wuyi Liuzulu".

[4] The three theories are "Kuanyong period", "Zhengbao period" and "Wanzhi period". Since Chen Yuanyun is a naturalized person, the relevant records are relatively scattered, and there are disputes about the date and time of his eastward journey to Japan. Based on the rigorous comparison of historical data, the "Kuanyong Period" proposed in "Chen Yuanyun's Research" is more credible in terms of chronology. What is interesting, however, is that in the early days of Japan there was a jiu-jitsu school named after Chen Yuanyun: "Chen Yuanyun Liu". According to the biography of this style, the time when Chen Yuanyun traveled to Japan was in the "Wanzhi Period", which was later than the time when the boxing method was taught by Komatsu. forty years.

[5] Komatsu Yuantao compared the ancient documents such as "The Catalogue of the Old Curtain Citing Jishu" and believed that Chen Yuanyun's stay in Guochang Temple was from the second year of Kuanyong to the fourth year of Kuanyong, and he taught boxing in the third year of Kuanyong. The time recorded in the document differs by about twenty years from the Shimogawa period known by the Shimokawa clan. Although Shimokawa did not verify the exact date, he did not deny Chen's influence on Jiu-Jitsu, but emphasized that the saying "Teaching the Dharma in Guochang Temple" should actually be an exchange rather than a teaching of boxing. He also proposed the biography of Chu Xinliu Jiujitsu to prove that Chen Yuanyun's influence on Jiu Jitsu should be mainly in terms of striking techniques such as "playing the body" and "killing alive", that is, the input of different types of boxing.

[6] In the early days of Naokin Kage, the "Sugimoto Bizenshou" in the Kashima area during the Warring States Period was regarded as the ancestor. However, after actually visiting Kashima in modern times, it was discovered that there was no record of this person in the Warring States Period. Although there is still controversy, the current general statement is a typo in the inheritance of the genre, and "Matsumoto" is written as "Sugimoto". From this, it can be seen that in fact, this kind of ancestral statement is not very accurate, and the main function is to strengthen the authority of the genre. You can refer to 軽 Mike Zun "Zhixinying Liu に お け る Liu Zu's name before を め ぐ る debate に つ い て"

[7] Quoted from Komatsu Yuantao's "Research on Chen Yuanyun's" p94, please refer to Note 4 for the time of the biography. The author cites this to emphasize that the propaganda significance of this kind of title tracing is greater than the real significance.

[8] Excerpted from the website of the "Japan Kobudo Association", starting from the Jiu-Jitsu page. Retrieved on 2022/05/08.

Available at: http://www.nihonkobudokyoukai.org/martialarts/009/

[9] As far as the textual research of martial arts genres is concerned, the most recent example I have seen should be Kashima Shinryu of Kunai Yoshiya. The history of Kunai's "inspection" of his own school in the Showa period can be traced all the way back to the Warring States period. However, the relevant content is relatively large, and the author intends to open a separate article to discuss it.

[10] The claim that Chen Yuanyun is the ancestor of Jiu-Jitsu/Judo may not be fully accepted in Japan in the early days, but a more formal discussion as a topic seems to have only occurred after the Meiji period. For example, Shimokawa's writings are mentioned in the text. In addition, Uchida Ryohei's "Judo", and Hizaki Tadaki's "Guankou-style Jujitsu: The Ultimate Mind" have raised objections, and in modern times, similar disputes have continued in the martial arts world. The fact that Chen is not the ancestor of jiu-jitsu in terms of time should be beyond dispute, but his contribution to Japanese martial arts and whether he knows martial arts himself are still controversial in the Japanese martial arts circle. In addition, in the Chinese literature, as noted in Note 2, academic papers mostly accept Komatsu Yuantao's statement in terms of their arguments due to the limitation of their themes. A Chinese google search for "Chen Yuanyun" will bring up many articles on content farms. The sensational headlines can be described as spectacles, which are hereby selected as follows: "Japanese Judo originated from Shaolin, and the originator is a Chinese peerless master", "Ming A genius with both civil and military skills in the late Qing Dynasty and was regarded as the father of Jiu-Jitsu", "The most powerful martial art in the world was invented by a Ming Dynasty", etc. If readers are not afraid of hurting their eyes, they can carefully experience the mystery of the war (wrong) .