Journal of East Asian Cultures

Vol. 11 No. 2019/1 (2020)
Articles

The description and analysis of the fencing theory of the Ming era based on the fencing treatises of the Jixiao Xinshu

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  • Áron Somogyi
Áron Somogyi
ELTE
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.38144/TKT.2019.1.2

Published 2020-03-30

Keywords

  • Qi Jiguang,
  • Jixiao Xinshu,
  • fencing theory,
  • Ming era

How to Cite

Somogyi, Áron. (2020). The description and analysis of the fencing theory of the Ming era based on the fencing treatises of the Jixiao Xinshu. Journal of East Asian Cultures, 11(2019/1), 29–49. https://doi.org/10.38144/TKT.2019.1.2

Copyright (c) 2020 the author(s)

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Abstract

The famous 16th century military handbook, Jixiao Xinshu 紀效新書 contains the earliest known surviving treatises on fencing theory in the history of Chinese martial arts. The author, General Qi Jiguang 戚繼光, collected those teachings of fencing theory in the 10th and 12th chapters of the book, considering them necessary in the context of the military application of martial arts. The present paper introduces the difficulties of interpreting the concepts of fencing theory described in Jixiao Xinshu, with a special focus on the problems caused by inconsistent editing, then suggests an interpretational framework that makes it possible give a structured description and analysis of the concepts of fencing theory in Jixiao Xinshu. Finally, placing the sources in the mentioned framework, the paper examines Ming era military fencing theories in detail. 

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References

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