Originally Posted by
Djuan
in all fairness, no one can stain TCMA, and in this thread, anything serious said is not to be taken seriously.
so I have to agree with you on the staining part, and the bozos he's fighting really are ONLY staining themselves.
To answer your questions and attempt to give the thread some justice, "Pure TCMA" , is totally up to preference, meaning I personally can only define what it means to me like most radical, one sided opinions. In a basic scope though, "Pure" would denote, absence of anything imported from outside recorded Chinese fighting tactics during the time of formation for the base styles, like say, kempo (fusion), or karate (Japanese), anything mixed with those wouldn't be 'PURE' TCMA, even tho karate is old and traditional like a lot of TCMA, and Kempo is based on TCMA.
Traditional means, to me, arts that were formed and had evolved to systems prior to the end of the Qing Dynasty, particularly the time of the Xianfeng Emperor. I use this time span, from about the Norrthern Wei Dynasty around 450, to Qing around 1861, Still, thats not fair to a lot of systems with lineage linked to styles ad families which predate the Qing Dynasty, and vanished because of political persecution, and resurfaced in modern times. Also a lot of historians and martial historians will disagree with my time span, stopping whats deemed as traditional more around the early 1700's , I keep counting because a lot of the Southern schools flourished and developed deeper into the Qing dynasty, some going into the 1900'S. Too many to list. Some will also argue that the best fighters stopped existing before the 1800s...smh :confused:
So the 'traditional' title is a bit flexible, using intelligent discernment however. I will say, a lot of the 'Elder' styles that were formed in feudal times, were battlefield tested. You have the hand vs weapons skills which is spectacular, for instance fist vs. spear, even staff vs sword. stuff like this is timeless and priceless. and then rendered useless to a degree when Europeans made the gun the war standard.
so lets not forget HOW "western" boxing/mma made room for itself; by going to face the worlds greatest warriors with gun power, diminishing the morale over the course of hundreds of years of invasion and oppression, by the gun, and building a capitalist world that honors the 'gladiator' venue, pushing martial arts into 'combat sports' and the "best" fighters are meat heads for hire.
moving again to thinking critically about TCMA you are dealing with advanced combat systems with a growth spanning thousands of years of warfare and peace. for example; the "bodyguard era(s)", the northern "pirate era", the southern "pirate era", and the boxer rebellion era, all have written accounts of TCMA being deadly and acutely effective, so to shun them off as useless is ignorant. Also these eras forged the styles into what they are today, by demand. Where as MMA was built for sport, and to be regulated, TCMA, was forged in the fire.
The problem with TCMA and modern MAist is patience. Kung Fu just takes too long to master to them, much less compete for big money. There a major generation gaps in the distribution of TCMA, and yoou have entire lineages being wiped out by the gun or forced into 'ritual training' or performance arts. TCMA is a real thing, and we can prove its worth easily, so I wont hold you.
now to be serious about where all the fighters are is hard lol, I'm really tempted to just say they are hidden in ancient temples spread through out China, and only come out to help the warriors and ninjas travel the Jiang Hu roads. They are banned from fighting publicly for fear they might enter the avatar state. Their Ch'i levels are tooo high etc.....
when I spoke about the fighters, realistically, a lot of them are in SanDa, and some already compete, so I have to be fair in my explanation because that's not what XXD is looking for. he's not looking for Chinas top San Shou or MMA guy, which is what I was sarcastically suggesting; that he goes against the top SanDa fighter with Traditional roots in North or South Shaolin, and get pummeld, ;) or enter a MMA/Kickboxing league to compete in, because beating the old self proclaimed masters is pretty low and cheap, almost as much as those masters claims.
Theres thousands of SanDa fighters in China who are pretty decent, and who started with what can be called TCMA for sure.
Amituofo