Thread: Wang Shujin
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Old 09-10-2006, 05:24 PM   #14
Mike Sigman
Location: Durango, CO
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 4,123
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Re: Wang Shujin

Quote:
Justin Smith wrote:
"Various Taiwanese Chinese martial artists. These are fairly well-known stories."

is not a source as requested. It is a vague offering with no redeeming scholarship.
I think one of the big differences between us, Justin, is that I don't live in some dream-world where everyone who writes a book and anecdotes is somehow a "source". In my youth I thought that Robert W. Smith's pompous anecdotes and myriad quotations were cool, but as I became more experienced, I found out that many things he published were simply wrong. I hear from pretty good sources that some of his ex-students found out the same things the hard way when, following the paths that Robert trod, they realized he simply didn't know what he wrote about.

Maybe you feel more comfortable with "sources" and the word "scholarship", but I prefer to look at who said what and what their actual credentials and abilities are.

You take the "writings" and "written anecdotes" of some people as "credible sources".... I don't. We all have to decide what is true and what is not true. I go by what works. You appear to go by "what sounds in accord with your personal beliefs and feelings". Quick way to sort it out... come to Durango, Colorado. Or maybe you could just send your keyboard in the style of American CMC that you personally represent?

Regards,

Mike Sigman

Last edited by Mike Sigman : 09-10-2006 at 05:30 PM.