Where did the "humble martial artist" myth came from??

[RenDaHai]

As above, for balance.

Going back to texts 2000 years old people are talking about studying WenWu, Culture and Martial Arts. The two must always go together as Yin and Yang.

Martial artists should be cultured for sure as stated above to avoid losing inhibition to violence. But what is more important and often understated is that those who first value culture should in turn come to value martial strength.

Culture is far greater than any individual or any generation could create alone, so it relies on being inherited. But it is also very delicate. If you are not strong enough to defend your culture then it will merely be usurped. It will not last until the next generation and you will have failed all of your ancestors who maintained it until you. So culture and strength must develop together. To have just Wu (Martial) and no Wen (Culture) one would have the ability to act but no purpose to act for and become a monster. If one had all Wen and no Wu one would have the purpose but not the strength to carry it through. Potency and Act require each other.

Strength and strife ground us in reality, they remind us of our material nature. Imagine a nation where the cultured forgot how to be strong? Where they thought virtue was just being nice to each other and not hurting anyones feelings. Where their politics, ungrounded by reality, would rely on the idea of a utopia of infinite resources like the foolish imaginings of a child. Why if such a thing happened the world would turn upside down, people would value what a person says more than the actual things they have done, criminals would have their rights considered before victims and students would rebel against their teachers. News would be replaced with propaganda, good people would turn against one another and genuine art would be overtaken by perversity. It would become a crime to have a 'problematic' opinion but violence and riot would go unpunished, even be encouraged. Sounds hellish.

Prudence, Temperance, JUSTICE, FORTITUDE