Modern Martial Arts - Lack of Confucian Doctrine Essay

Mixed Martial Arts is the fastest growing sport in the world. Mixed Martial Arts (or MMA) is a combat sport that combines every and any fighting technique in a bout. To look closer at this sport as a discourse community, we will break down the sport into 5 different categories. We will take a look at the goals and values of MMA, the typical fighting styles or genres of MMA, the general rules of MMA, tasks and roles of each MMA community, and the targeted audience of MMA.

Confucianism’s major impacts on the bushido code have come from its ethical teachings, primarily those from the Five Relations. Historians suggest that Confucianism was introduced into Japan via merchants who travelled across the East China Sea from neighbouring Korea and China as early as the 4th century AD. If this view is accepted it would make Confucianism one of the earliest foreign religions introduced into Japan thus playing an imperative role in shaping Japanese ideology.

Throughout world history people have enjoyed watching two men compete in hand to hand combat. Professional boxing made its debut here in America around the turn of the 20th century. Unlike boxing, mixed martial arts is a relatively new sport. Both sports are very technical and require their fighters to be in superb condition. Many fighters train all their life to make it big, but few ever get there. Although both sports are immensely popular, one stands alone as the dominant sport. In this paper I 'll prove that the sport of MMA is more technical, more exciting, and much safer than boxing.

The UFC, Ultimate Fighting Championship, belongs to the mixed martial arts industry. It is actually the largest MMA promotion company in the world. Mixed Martial Arts is a full contact combat sport. It allows the use of both striking and grappling techniques. There are numerous types of mixed martial arts including boxing, wrestling, kickboxing, karate, and taekwondo.

The entire Japanese culture is based on honor. Honor extends to the nation, the family, and the individual. The samurai are no exception to a code of honor. The samurai follow the code of bushido. Bushido is closer to the western term of chivalry. Bushido places emphasis on courage, benevolence, justice, politeness, truthfulness, honor, loyalty, and most importantly is self-control. The samurai's primary religion is Zen. The samurai adapted Zen easily due to the philosophy that fits closely to Buddhism. Samurai may act in the extreme when it comes to honor. They will kill anyone who may dishonor them or their lord. Nothing is worse to a samurai than to have corrupt dealings. Some of the warriors believed, "Honor is the power of deciding upon certain course of conduct in accordance with reason, without wavering … to die when it is right to die, to strike when to strike is right." Other warriors believed that "Honor is the bone that gives firmness and stature. As without bones the head cannot rest on top of the spine, nor hands move, nor feet stand, so without honor neither talent nor learning can make of a human frame a

Dunn, James. "The History of Mixed Martial Arts." (2007): n. pag. Web. 1 Nov 2010. http://ezinearticles.com/?The-History-of-Mixed-Martial-Arts-(MMA)&id=651615

Gorn goes to discuss the rules and regulations of boxing, stating; “The two athletes settle on a site for the fight. Strip to their shirts, roll their sleeves up…” (Gorn, pg.37) By adding this information and going to such detail as he does; “At the end of the fight the boxers are bruised, disfigured, and covered with blood, which they spit out, vomit out, or drip from the nose.” allows the reader to get a feel for how violent these fights were but also to allow readers to dive into the fight with their feet first. Gorn goes on to discuss more fights and discusses ‘The Great

“The way of a warrior does not include other ways, but if you know the way, you will see it in everything,” Miyamoto Musashi. Roughly a thousand years ago, two elite groups of warriors arose amongst those in the eastern hemisphere, the samurai and knights. Although on different continents, both factions showed infinite similarities. As demonstrated in history, the similarities between samurais and knights immensely outweigh the differences.

In relation to the observation made by Reid, the concept of “Confucianism” is often observed as one of the major Chinese religions alongside Taoism as well as Buddhism. The religion has been emerged in the Japanese culture during the period of 285 AD. A few of the major principles of this religion such as humanity, morality, trustworthiness along with the consideration of developing an individual have been widely witnessed to provide significant influence within the Japanese culture (Reid 67-90). The principles and beliefs within the facet of “Confucianism” had played an imperative part particularly for Japan which eventually strengthened its political philosophies as well as ethical code of conducts by a considerable level. In relation to the political phenomenon, the notion of “Confucianism” had played an essential role for the Japanese culture in terms of developing morality along with increasing individual potentials of achieving their desired goals and objectives. Moreover, the religion had also been widely observed to create significant loyalty among the Japanese communities through increasing the amount of

fighter is placed in a position, from which he cannot escape. The fighter can tap-out when he cannot escape from a submission or when he can no longer defend himself. Having learned the many ways to win in MMA it is now important to learn the roots of the sport.

Its position of founding martial arts has been discredited yet these ties still remain. Martial Arts is known to be practiced throughout the temple’s history yet crediting Shaolin with the origin of martial arts has been questioned. Legend has it that Bodhidharma developed the martial arts to strength the monks because they became weak and unhealthy after long periods of meditation. This is the base on which Shaolin Kungfu was formed. “Shaolin Kungfu encompasses complete technical and theoretical system, with martial arts and techniques as its major form of expression, and Buddhism belief and Chan wisdom as the cultural connotation.” However, the martial arts practices are not the only thing interesting about Shaolin

MMA is a form of fighting that uses many movements of the body. MMA is also known as Mixed Martial arts. Martial arts originated in Asia and became extremely famous in many parts of the world including America. Many people might think that it is easy to learn martial arts, but there is a lot to consider. There are different kinds of martial arts and they all are different, some may have different fighting moves and may require different fighting skills. An individual can learn multiple forms of combat and combine them to make Mixed Martial Arts. The history of mixed martial arts can be traced back to Greece and there are many types that have evolved, but they all require strict training methods and can provide various careers.

The militarism in the Northern Dynasties contributed to the generally good physical quality of the people, and made the military have sufficient source to recruit from. And the atmosphere reacted to the social culture. That is a big advantange compared to the Southern Dynasties. The latter put too much importance in the metaphysics. Even the emperor of the Southern Dynasty couldn 't ride a horse to run for his life, which led to the failure of their war.

The connections of the mind, body and soul have and always will have the utmost importance in sports. Time over time, it is proven that champions use all three in a combination to defeat their enemy. All champions around the world have some of the same characteristics in common; discipline, respect and self-control. These three characteristics are the very core of martial arts. Through the training and teachings of martial arts, individuals are able to key into their mind, body and soul to honor and protect themselves from opponents, either, on the field of war and/or play. Different types of martial arts focus on the use of body parts with or without any additional weapons. Muay Thai is an example of a martial art that uses just the body as a weapon. It trains the mind to depend on just the body by connecting with the soul through rituals that have been followed since the creation of Muay Thai.

Boxing has many risks to it like getting beaten up and suffering from the effects of physical and mental damage. Boxing takes a toll on the body. The boxer however, despite what negatives and downsides there are , remains in control of the sport because he or she can at anytime stop the game. Knowing the dangers involved anyways, the boxer continues to take part in the sport because of loving the sport. In this way, someone who does not like the sport can critique the player for being selfish. The boxer can argue with this by saying that when good training is part of the boxers’ life, learning good defense helps minimize the dangers. So, in that way that in one extreme sport that is not selfish or at least the levels of selfishness are