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Old 11-30-2006, 07:48 AM   #295
Cady Goldfield
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 1,035
United_States
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Re: Aikido: The learning of natural movement

Mike,
I don't recall saying that this was "common" in Chinese martial arts or that it is "common" today, only that they were the likely source for the Japanese at one point. I'm talking a thousand or more years ago. Japan was heavily influenced by powerful China for millennia, and there was cultural exchange on all levels, from music and art to medicine and fighting skills. The fighting skills and medicine may go back even further than other aspects of culture, with individual contact rather than mass public encounters.

Not much remains of anything, today. Given the Maoist revolution and WWII, I'm surprised we have anything at all now.

The skills are scattered in small pockets. I liken their perpetuation to the tiny factions of religions or ethnicities, most of whose members have largely assimilated into larger cultures. The traditions are carried on and survive through that miniscule handful.

Last edited by Cady Goldfield : 11-30-2006 at 07:50 AM.
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