A Path to Mastery

“Wude – Part 1″

Many people who don’t practice martial arts, think that martial arts is all about fighting. They couldn’t be more wrong.
Martial arts were used for self-defense (fighting) mostly in times when the firearms didn’t existed, and we had to rely on our fighting skills to survive. But other than fighting, ultimately, they strived for physical, mental and spiritual development. Martial arts are schools of life, that teach us how to surpass ourselves, how to be better persons and how to unite with nature.

All martial arts, regarding style, time of existence, or country of origin, have a code of honor, a conduct that guides the practioner to the deepest aspects of the art. In Chinese martial arts, this code is called Wude (武德). Wude is a term which consists of two words: “Wu” and “De”:

• Wu (武) can be translated as “martial” or “military”.

• De (德) basically means “virtue” in the sense of “personal character”, “inner strength”, or “integrity”, but was used differently by Confucianists to mean “morality”.

So, Wude (武德) can be translated as “Martial Morality”. This Martial Morality was one of the most important (if not the most important) aspects that ancient masters used to evaluate a student. In the past, martial morality, was essential for the development of martial arts. If a student didn’t have a high morality, the masters wouldn’t teach them the highier secrets of the style, because it was risky to do that. If a master teaches something so powerful that can be used to kill someone, he must be sure that the person who learns it, won’t use it to hurt innocent people.

There’s an ancient saying that says: “A student searches for a good teacher for three years, and the teacher tests the student for three years”. This saying is very important. Any student who is wise and really wants to learn deeply the arts, should find a teacher who leads him to the right path, and gives him good moral principles and correct techniques. A bad teacher will not permit the right development of the student and eventually will give him bad habbits that will compromise his learning even if he leaves that teacher.
The teacher should also test the student to see if he his trustworthy. No one wants to teach someone one is planning to kill us in the sleep with our own technique. The teacher should understand the real intentions of the student, so he doesn’t waste his time teaching someone who won’t reach the end of the training. The morality of a student was so important, because being martial arts an art of war, sometimes the difference between life and death relied on the partners who fought by our side. If a student or a partner was on the enemy’s side, maybe he could cause the death of all the school.

Nowdays, we no longer use the martial arts to fight in a war, so, some aspects that made martial morality so important in the past, are no longer vital in terms of physical security. Now you can ask, “So, why should we teach martial morality? Why it is important for martial arts training?”.
Martial Morality is divided in two branches: The Morality of Deed (Xing De, 行德 or De Xing, 德行) and the Morality of the Mind (Pin De, 品德). This two aspects of martial morality still define the difference between a good martial artist and a poor martial artist. The morality of the mind is a group of qualities or virtues that make a person endure enough to be able to attain the goals he/she established, but also to change if he/she “really” realizes that the goal is not a goal anymore. It gives strength to start all over again. The principles are:

1. Will (Yi Zhi, 意志)
2. Endurance (Ren Nai, 忍耐)
3. Perseverance (Yi Li, 毅力)
4. Patience (Heng Xin, 恆心)
5. Courage (Yong Gan, 勇敢)

The morality of deed is probably the most important of both branches. Basically, it’s a group of qualities or virtues that concern human relantionships. These are the values that define the person as a person with high morality. It’s what tells if someone has many friends and is respected by others. If a student doesn’t have this qualities, then he’s not worthy of the time of the teacher and to learn the art. These are the values that every martial artist should strive to attain. The principles are:

1. Humility (Qiang Xu, 謙虛)
2. Respect (Zun Jing, 尊敬)
3. Righteousness (Zheng Yi, 正義)
4. Trust (Xin Yong, 信用)
5. Loyalty (Zhong Cheng, 忠誠)

Both moralities are mutually dependent. Humility for example, will strengthen your Will to continue to work to get better. A strong Will, feeds Endurance, Perseverance and Patience. Trust and Loyalty will help to build your Courage to face all obstacles. Righteousness is only possible if you have all the other virtues present.
From this, we can see that even now the martial morality is a pillar of Chinese martial arts, and why is so important for the teachers to continue to strive to acquire this principles and to pass down to their students. Probably, this is the highest aspect of Chinese martial arts, and many people don’t even realize that. Without this it’s no longer martial arts… it’s just a fighting sport. It’s just about training some techniques to some level, so that you can go to a championship to win medals. This ain’t the spirit of martial arts. That way there’s no development, only a shallow vision of what wust to be a way to attain the Tao, to connect with nature.

Published by: Ricardo Tonet

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