Return to overview of all MARS conference panels
On 15 July, I’ll be taking part in a panel discussion as part of the 6th Martial Arts Studies Conference 2020. The theme of the conference this year is Martial Arts, Religion and Spirituality. It was supposed to be held at the University of Marseilles, but due to COVID-19 it’s now being convened online instead.
The conference is made up of nine panels, and I’m part of Panel 4 which focuses on ethics and morals in the martial arts. The discussant for Panel 4 is is Professor David Palmer from the University of Hong Kong.
There are five presenters in Panel 4, from all different countries, and each of us has uploaded a presentation to the conference YouTube page. We now have a week or so to watch each other’s presentations in preparation for the panel discussion.
The nine panels will take place live on TEAMS over Wednesday 15 and Thursday 16 July 2020. Panel 4 is on the Wednesday at 10am Paris time (9am UK time). If you’d like to dial in, please contact marsconf2020 [at] gmail.com for a free link.
During the discussion, everyone will be able to take part in the debates and post questions and comments live on the TEAMS chat-box.
In this blog post, I’m going to quickly summarise each of the five presentations, to give you a flavour of what we’re likely to cover . . .
1. Is North American Hockey a form of martial art?
Martin Meyer (University of Vechta)
North American hockey is known to be a very tough sport, where fights and brawls sometimes break out mid-game. But Martin explains that these fights are actually governed by a very strict and detailed ethical “code of conduct”. He outlines some key elements of this code, and argues that it very closely resembles the moral codes for fighting that we normally associate with the classical martial arts.
Like the “Bushido” code, this hockey code of conduct is sometimes glorified and elevated. Equally, there are players and commentators who deny its actual existence – another resemblance to the code of bushido.
Is hockey therefore some type of martial art? Watch Martin’s presentation to find out!
2. Martial Arts, Religion and Ressentiment
Kai Morgan (Me!)
(You can also read the script here – pls message me if you can’t access it)
Martial arts styles and groups have many parallels with religions or religious denominations. This talk focuses specifically on one such area; animosity and mistrust between groups and styles. It asks whether Nietzsche’s concept of ressentiment can explain rivalry and dislike between martial arts styles and clubs.
It then suggests some ways to move beyond this rivalry and achieve successful knowledge sharing across styles. Are we really all following different paths up the same mountain – or is there a better way to understand our respective journeys and relationships to other groups . . . ?
NB: I had planned to use the Friendly Bunch of Martial Artists event in March and the Kaizen event in April as case studies for this paper, but they were obviously cancelled due to COVID. However, they’re both amazing examples of events that actively seek to remove barriers, and enable friendly and respectful, yet challenging knowledge-sharing and discussions across styles, and definitely worth checking out.
3. How does Karate help Buddhist Karate Practitioners in their self-development?
Petra Karlová (Palacký University in Olomouc)
Petra proposes that the Buddhist (especially Zen) roots of some traditional martial arts may have been diluted or lost in some modern forms of these arts. She carried out research with 134 Sri Lankan Buddhist karate practitioners and seven Buddhist karate instructors in Sri Lanka, and asked them how important Karate was to them as Buddhists.
Petra found that 80% of respondents felt Karate was useful for becoming a good Buddhist. For example, many of them said that through karate, they developed patience, discipline, humility, kindness, good behaviour, honesty, and avoiding violence. Her talk outlines what the karateka told her, in more depth . . .
4. What makes a “just war” – and how do people answer this question?
Maciej Talaga (University of Warsaw)
War has generally been seen through the ages as evil but unavoidable. Many people have therefore asked the question: what are the “right” reason(s) for waging war? Different individuals have given very different answers, and it’s often assumed that their answers have been shaped by the society they lived in, and its values, beliefs and myths.
But is it possible that a primary influence on these answers has in fact been individuals’ own personal experience of violence? Maciej examines the Nuremberg Codex – a 14-15th century German martial arts treatise, to explore this question . . .
5. Can “Mohism” reconcile the paradox of violence vs. non-violence in the martial arts?
Sanko Lewis (Sahmyook University)
Are the traditional East Asian martial arts physical methods of violence – or peaceful activities of self-cultivation, grounded in traditions such as Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism? Sanko argues that they are actually both at once – but many practitioners simply ignore the violent aspect, as it’s too complicated and/or uncomfortable to assimilate.
Sanko then asks whether the East Asian philosophy of Mohism can answer this paradox, and enable us to reconcile both faces of the martial arts, as it teaches both active peace promotion, and a duty to physically protect the weak and innocent from harm by means of defensive war . . .
Panel discussant – David Palmer
David A Palmer is a Professor jointly appointed by the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences and the Department of Sociology at the University of Hong Kong, which he joined in 2008.
David is also as a panellist in Panel 2. His talk explores how the ritual traditions of communal religion in Southern China are often characterised by a dual structure of “civil” (文 – wen) and “martial” (武 – wu) components.
Specifically, he talks about the Yingde region of Guangdong province, where two distinct religious systems operate simultaneously — one known as the Civil Altar 文壇 which claims a Buddhist lineage and is conducted for the salvation of the dead; the other known as the Martial Altar 武壇 which claims a Lüshan Daoist lineage and is conducted for the exorcistic protection and well-being of the living.
Key information about the conference:
This is the sixth annual Martial Arts Studies Conference. - The 2020 conference comprises nine panels, which are summarised here.
- More detailed information about each panel is also available on the MARS website: https://mars2020.hypotheses.org
- All the presentations for all nine panels have been uploaded to YouTube, on the MARS Conference channel.
- The panel convenors are listed here. To attend any of the panels, please contact the relevant convenor to ask for a TEAMS link. There is no charge for entry but you do need to register in advance.
- Panels 1-5 are taking place on Wednesday 15 July; panels 6-9 are taking place on Thursday 16 July. The times are currently being agreed, to fit with the panellists’ various time zones. I’ll update this page when the full schedule has been released on 7 July.
Thank you!
Huge thanks to Steve Winter of MediaMoto, who produced my video for this conference!
Ando Mierzwa
Wonderful work, Kai!
Kai Morgan
Thanks Sensei Ando – hope you are well! 🙂
Kai Morgan
Interesting commentary from Paul Arnold via Facebook re. Presentation 2 – “Martial Arts, Religion and Ressentiment” – copied here by permission:
I think the problem with the mountain analogy is that it doesn’t explain that as martial artists we are not all climbing the same mountain, where as in religion there is (presumably) one mountain, that of spiritual enlightenment. The sports martial artists isn’t trying to get up the Self Development mountain, so Aikido has no use to him, The problem is he will say Aikido has no use, not “no use to me”. The Self development martial artist isn’t trying to get up the sports mountain, and the Self Protection person isn’t trying to get up either the self development or sports mountain, so MMA and Aikido and no use to him.
And what do we call a “real fight”? Running away works for self protection but it will get you disqualified from sports fighting for failing to engage with your opponent. Pre-emptive striking similarly works for self protection , but it doesn’t work in sports becasue you wil get disqualified, and you are never going to fight for the title with a record of no wins, no defeats, and 18 disqualifications for punching the guy before the bell 🙂
By the same token, a triangle choke works in a real fight in the dojo or the ring, but it is not recommend for Self Protection as it makes you vulnerable to third parties. Running in to finish a downed opponent and hitting him until the ref pulls you off works in the ring, but in the street it will get you a criminal conviction for unreasonable force.
The dictionary defines a fight as using physical force to defeat another person, but in self protection we are not trying to “defeat” anyone, we are just trying to create the opportunity to escape and avoid injury. I would argue the term “real fight” is so subjective/ambiguous as to be almost meaningless.
Klaus-G. Beck-Ewerhardy
I have been mostly lucky in meeting mostly teachers and practionners who like to share and learn about other things – Heero Miketta in Manchester being an example near you ;). I know the other kind of course too, and I also have trained in schools like this a bit, but these are a lot like echo chambers in social media. They only get affirmation by people who do exactly them same they do – and this would be too limiting for me. So many ‘wisdoms’ (like: you can’t defend with sias against a katana) are quickly shown as limited as soon as you put them to the test in another system.
In this, the movie ‘Fearless’ which starts with all possible gongfu-schools fighting each other (sometimes to the death) before they meet European fighters and learn, that certain things do not work between the shown systems, is a very good example for the described ‘religous martial sects.’ The solution is of course to study what the other fighters are doing and then look at how to adapt your system to deal with it. In the movie the founding of an organization for gongfu-fighter/-teachers to share and compare is seen as the ideal solution. Organzations like Shoshin or Missing Link are two examples of doing something similar by bringing people from very different systems together. And in HEMA you find a lot of people who come from different martial arts backgrounds to study the medieval and modern treatises to develop training-curricula and to find lines of evolution from one century to the next. There cross-pollination from the arts people learned before cannot be avoided – and in my opinion is very enriching for everyone participating.
Like we find morally deficient praticioners in religions the same is of course true for martial arts. As I wrote before – mostly I have been very happy concerning the people I have met so far (all in all about 45 years now).
To real fights: And I have been lucky to having have to ‘really’ fight (i.e. the other person actually wanted to harm me quite a lot or kill me) only two or three times in my life, of which I ended one (an opening door raised the number of opponents from three to eight) by demonstrating how good my running-training has been (the TRH-school of self-defense: 1. Talk. When talking doesnot work 2. Run. When running doesnot work 3. Hit (and if you have run before, your opponent might be already quite winded, when he or she gets you).
Kai Morgan
Dear Klaus, thank you so much for these interesting “hints” and signposts to follow up and take the ideas further – I really appreciate them! As I say in the main article above, I do know of a couple of groups who work really hard to promote constructive dialogue across styles, and the ones you mention sound very interesting to learn more about. I also love your “echo chamber” metaphor in this context and may well use it some time if you don’t mind 😉 take care and speak soon – Kai x
Klaus-G. Beck-Ewerhardy
You’re welcome to any idea I share.
Jamie Korsen
Interesting topic and panel.
I’m particularly interested your interpretation of Nietzsche’s philosophies, which include a wide swath of topics. In particular, views regarding mass/herd practices and perspective which are timely components of daily societal actions in the US.
Additionally, I’m looking forward to how the aforementioned’s is connection to religion, marshal arts and Nietzsche’s position of “good and evil.”
Your position is an impressive and insightful undertaking. Perhaps the aspects of various marshal arts disciplines, training and philosophy can serve as an important introspective lesson beyond the vertical nature of the conference, thereby, providing a personal assessment (non-practitioners) of thinking which is needed to improve contemporary society.
Hencefourth, regardless of specific marshal arts discipline, ties to religious beliefs (yes they are important to understand), origins, current hubs of geographical concentration, there is a significant take away for all.
Kai, be well.
V/R,
-Jamie
Kai Morgan
Thanks Jamie. In doing this, I was surprised to discover how short 20 minutes actually is for a presentation, so I hardly get to scratch the surface of Nietzsche on ressentiment, let alone look at any of his other ideas in a martial arts context, although that is definitely a potential future topic. Yes, I believe that martial arts studies is a rich field of enquiry, which has the potential for huge positive impact on society as a whole, despite its apparently niche character. Many thanks as always for your support and insightful commentary. Best wishes Kai x
Robert Pater
Thank you, Kai
Should be interesting. I did email David Palmer to request a link to this
Best wishes,
Robert Pater
Kai Morgan
Thanks Robert, would be amazing to see you there! 🙂