Martial Arts Morals and Ethics

Ken Gullette talks with Jonathan Bluestein and Byron Jacobs about Wu De (武德), pronounced “Woo-Duh” – Martial Morality and Ethics.

All you have to do is go onto martial arts Facebook pages and you will see martial artists flaming each other, criticizing the movements and art of others, in a not-so-subtle effort to make themselves look like experts.

Is this in the spirit of Wu De, or is it a violation of martial arts morals and ethics? Do martial artists throw manners and morality out the window when they are hundreds or thousands of miles from the person they are criticizing as they hide behind a keyboard?

In this edition of the Internal Fighting Arts podcast, Ken explores these issues with Byron, who lives and trains in Beijing, and Jonathan, who lives and teaches in Israel.

Byron trains with Di Guoyong — website is diguoyongwushu.com.

The recent “fight” between MMA fighter Xu Xaodong and Taiji teacher Wei Lei has stirred a lot of controversy in China and around the world during the past week. Ken, Jonathan and Jacob discuss this debacle as well, and its impact on traditional Chinese martial arts and what it means from a Wude perspective.

Be sure to also check out Jonathan Bluestein’s international best-seller, Research of Martial Arts:

For Ken’s podcast, with dozens of episodes containing interviews with fantastic martial arts teachers from around the globe.