Vntourist – Travel Culture

Since the early days of Vietnam’s history, the Vietnamese have alaways had to fight against invasions, especially from the armies of various Chinese dynasties. The broze weapons exhibited in the national Museum of History help give a insight into the weapon the Vietnamese used during the first millennium B.C. these include daggers, axes, swords, and spears. All are weapons employed in hand-to-hand fighting. Handling these weapons requireed courage, endurance, dexterity, and skill, which in turn made necessary to develop forms of fighting that could facilitate their effectiveness.

Subsequent historical circumstances facilitated further development of material arts among soldiers and generals as well as among common people. In 938, Ngo Quyen achieved victory over the Southern Han invaders o the Bach Dang River. Vietnam regained its independence after over a thousand years under Chinese domination. A series of patriotic struggles against foreign invaders followed: against the Song (981 and 1077), the Mongols (1258, 1285 and 1288), The Ming ( from 1418 to 1428), and the Qing (1789).

Buddhism was the official nationanl religion during the Lý and Trần Dynasties (eleventhto fourteenth centeries). In addition to religious study, Buddhist were often adept at martial arts because the monks had strict methods of  seft-control and personal improvement and trained themseft in the mysterist of spirit, reason, energy, and strength. During the Ly Dynasty, monks organized temple ang pagado festival, which icluded activities imbued with the martial spirit, such as wresting and martial arts tourmatments (bare-handed or with weapons).

The training for tournament allowed commen people to improve their physical strength and sharpen their senses and their reaction. During 1293, Chinese Special Envoy Chen Fu visited Vietnam. He observed that the Vietnamese went barefoot without fear of thorns. They could run and leap rapidly, climb moutains like the wind, and row boat quickly. The men shaved their heads. They could dive under water for several khắc (an ancient unit of time) and swim as fast as they could run on land.

From the fifteen to the nineteenth centeries, martial arst existed at two main levels: the popular level ( at fetivals) and the royal level ( specialist martial arts training and examinations).

Common people organanized popular martial art activities both to provide entertainment and to perfect their martial spirit, discipline, effeciency, and self-defence skill. Popular martail arts performent took place throughout the country, primarily at training centres (lò võ) and at annual traditional festivals.

Each lò võ or specific characteristics. One the most of famous for its marterial spirit was the Liễu Đôi Wresting Festival in Nam Định province. The martial arts and wrestling events there attract people from Liễu Đôi and from the region. The villageers of  Liễu Đôi still sing a song that dates back to this festival:

Ngàn năm võ thuật đua tài

Vạn năm sông rộng, núi dài tổ tiên

( People have competed in martial arts for thousand of years

They can protect their country for tens of thousand of years)

Vilage festivals were the martial arts examination of the masses. Villagers besttowed the tilte of “ Fisrt Laureate” (Trang vật) on talented local wrestlers in much the same way as the royal court gave title to scholars.

Many of these men later became leaders of  peasant insurrections. Examples include  Nguyễn Hữu Cầu and Nguyễn Cừ, who fought against the Lê -Trịnh Court ih the late eighteenth century, an Lía, who fought against the Nguyễn Lords. The most famous of the martial artists were undoudtedly the Tây Sơn brothers (Nguyễn Nhạc, Nguyễn Huệ, and Nguyễn Lữ). They and their gifted commanders, all of whom were martial artists, led a peasant up prising in the later eighteen century; They overthrew the harsh domination of the Trịnh and Nguyễn lords, ending the centery-long division of the country. Those heroes rtained in Lò võ with famous masters, many of whom are defified as village tutelary spirits.

During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, martial artists who had declined titles in defiance of the Nguyen Dynastic lad many of the anti-French insurrections. During his period, the martial arts rose in popurlarity.During this period, the martial arts rose in popurlarity. Master secretly transferred their skills to students even when the anti-French movement was less active.  They preserved their techniques and in proverbs. These books and proverbs gradually became a martial arts training curriculum for the masses and co-existed with the court’s martial arts canon.

The royal martial arts system also trained soldiers to fight invaders and protect the court. The cotent was divided into three parts: martial arts for the army, martial arts for study, and martial arts for examinations.

At the the end of the nineteenth century, the tradition strategies, tactics, and combat techniques of Vietnamese’s military science began to show certain weaknesses when posed against Western military technology. Canons could destroy strong fortifications, and pistols and rifles could overwhelm swords and spears. The new “hot weapon” (hỏa khí) were superior to the old “cold weapon” (bạch khí). Suddenly, martail arts no longer played a decisive military role; its practice continued but on a much smaller scale.

Under French domination, the court army ceased to train in martial arts. Western sports and gymnastics dominated at schools. However, the Vietnamese remained pround of the martial arts masters, who preserved the traditions and developed martail arts common people. Practitioners from different regions networked with each other and set up numerous new lò võ and new martial arts schools. Centres of martial arts gradually emerged: Thăng Long- Hà Nội in the north; Thanh Hóa , Nghệ An and Bình Định  Provinces I the centre; and S and Mekong River Delta Provinces in the south.

Since the late nineteenth century, boxing and schools of martial arts have also entered Việt Nam from other Asian coutries. These include judo, aikido, and karate (Japan); wushu, shaolin, and wudang (China); tae kwon do (Korea); and pencat silat (Malaysia). Vietnamese have accepted these schools, which have transformed, enriched, and enlivened indigenous martial arts.

Vienamese martial arts have also assimilated elements of traditional Asian medecine, Confuciasism and other Asian philosophies, as well as systems of ethics, military arts, and aesthetics. The practice of martial arts expresses the concept of perfect whole embodied in yin and yang and also the notion or five basic elements that make up the universe. It also reflects the dialictical relations between the physical body, spirit, mind, energy, and strength, between and dynamic and the static, and between thw firm and the flexible. Traditional martial arts are not only sports but also part of the nation’ culture, ambracing a heritage accumulated across many generations.