Hi John,
That is an interesting question you have introduced. I would have to say that if we were trying to recreate an asian martial art from a hypothetical 500 year old instruction book that we could not fully reconstruct the fighting art represented by the book. I do feel that we would be able to come extremely close, maybe even be exact, in the recreation of the techniqes, but the rub lies elsewhere, not in the forms.
The real problem is the cultural and socialogical barriers that time has created. No matter how much we study history books, and the writings of the times we cannot truly understand a 500 year old culture as our own. A fighting art represents, not only a way of using oneself for martial activities, but the way it is taught and integrated into society is frequently driven by the social and cultural implications involved at the time period and regional location where the instruction is being recieved or given.
As an example, just look at how the public's view of fencing schools changed over time in England. At one time there were fence schools in great abundance and a thriving business, but in 1180 AD were legistlativly banned from London. Later iin 1285 Kind Edward I also took up legislation to further prohibit them in London which described the problem as "Foreasmuch as fools who delight in mischief, do learn to fence with buckler, and thereby are the more encouraged to commit their follies, . . . " This type of legislation, probably due to social problems enjoined by crimes of violence, were enough to send the schools underground. So while in probable favor publicly at one time, they then fell into public disfavor over time. The stigma of which appears to have stayed with them even after Henry VIII allowed them to once again openly practice their trade. (Source for this information comes from Terry Brown's "English Martial Arts" -- always give credit where credit is due. <img src="/forum/images/icons/wink.gif" alt="" /> )
Time does not only change culture and social opinions, but it changes language as well. Just look what fifty years have done to the english language in the United States. 500 years has a much greater impact - especially due to the lack of a true dictionary existing from or during that time period. So a lot of what we read or study may be only conjecture based upon our own cultural biases traveling through our own social filters. This is the great struggle that anthropologists face on a daily basis.
Conversly we have similar problems with the study of the manuscripts that we have from Europe. I think that some of the cultural problems are not as extreme for a person of european descent trying to travel back through the mists of time as it would be for that same european personage to do so for an asian culture. But time still creates many barriers. I feel that we can reintroduce a powerful representation of what is contained in these books that is martially sound and whole in and of itself, but we will never recreate an exact duplicate due to the ravages of time and the changes thereby created. The only way for us to do that would be for the world as we know to suddenly become exactly as the time period and location where the manual we are studing came from and for us to perfectly fit into the molds of that time.
However, an extremly close reproduction that fits my time and my cultural norms will be wonderful to me, and I will be extremely grateful for the hard work taken to extract this information back from the ravages of time. After all, all we can do is the best that we can and that is everything. <img src="/forum/images/icons/smile.gif" alt="" />
just some thoughts.
Brian Hunt.
