What Exactly Does The Word "Martial" Mean In "Martial Arts"?

Question

What Exactly Does The Word "Martial" Mean In "Martial Arts"?

Answer 1

Martial means "War like" or "Combat like."

Answer 2

It meant war. Wu Gei - war arts.

Answer 3

The word "martial" means pertaining to war. This is a western concept.

If you are referring to the Asian Ideogram "Wu", it has nothing to do with war.

The Chinese character that is misinterpreted as "war", pronounced "wu" in Chinese and "bu" in Okinawan and Japanese means - Stop Fight! It is made up of two characters, one that illustrates 'digging your heals into the ground abruptly' and the other which illustrates 'violence'.

War and Stop Fight - look at the two terms and decide for yourself.

War is fighting.

Stop Fight is ________ (fill in the blank)

Many like to come here talking nonsense about the "god of war" but again, it is a western concept being applied to an Asian idea.

So Wushu and Bujutsu, which are the same Chinese characters pronounced in Chinese and Okinawan/Japanese, do not mean Martial Art or Martial Skill... it means - Stop Fight Skill.

To be sure, find the Chinese characters for Wushu, and go to a Chinese person and ask him/her to tell you the root characters of the first Ideogram.

Or, you can go to www.zhongwen.com. It is not an easy site to navigate but it has a translation search.

Answer 4

Martial means in the strict definition typical or suitable for combat. Webster  defines Martial Art as any of several Asian arts of self defense or combat usually practiced for sport.

Answer 5

martial relating to yang,fighting,war,and military. and the "art" relates to the yin,complexitiy,beauty,science and technique of the system

Answer 6

relating to war...

Answer 7

"Martial" in general means "military".  For example, if a president declares martial law on his country, the country is under military rule.  "Court Martial" is military court, etc.

My extension, the term "martial arts" is "military arts" or...Fighting.

Answer 8

It comes from Mars- the ancient god of war. So anything "martial" is pertaining to Mars, or war/fighting.