Wing Chun Fight or Art?

[Niersun]

Originally Posted by Lee Chiang Po

I I have never learned anything in an actual fight.

You tend to learn afterwards when you reflect on it. If you remember anything.

Anyhow, it appears im turning into a theorist. No longer doing forms (art) or fighting (who goes around looking for fights and have no time for competition?)

[hulkout]

People have different takes on what is art and what is just fighting. Frankly, I think the whole thing is ridiculous. Every martial art, no matter how you dress it up, is designed for fighting. Plain and simple. Yes there is sprituality, humility, respect, but that depends more on the person. Someone can learn boxing and from it learn humility, respect, skill, focus, all the things that a more traditional art would give you. Then you can have someone who trains in a traditional art who's nothing but a punk. Whos to say it's not a martial art just because there are no flowery forms or there isn't a figure of General Kwan in the school?

The problem is that people have gotten so far away from the original intent of martial art and each generation gets more and more watered down. If you say that you like to practice full contact fighting, then you're called egotistical or violent. I guess the true essence of martial art is only practicing forms, "dead" drills, and throwing out a few Chinese proverbs. But Heaven forbid, you should never practice actual fighting. That's only for savages. So to sum it up, Wing Chun and in fact every martial art is both an art and for fighting. And if you ever come across a sifu or teacher of any art who tells you otherwise, he's either an idiot or a liar.

[EternalSpring]

Originally Posted by Grumblegeezer

People have odd ideas about what "art" is. Many people seem to think that the "fancier" and or ornate something is, the more "arty" it is. Yea, art can be very ornate and overdone, or it can be very simple, direct and elegant. Consider the following examples.

First, The Baroque painter Tiepolo's Death of Hyacynth Vey ornate, or what we in the martial arts would term "flashy".

http://www.chinaoilpaintinggallery.c...f-Hyacinth.jpg


Now the mid-20th Century modernist/minimalist Piet Mondrian. He has reduced his entire composition to a few black and white lines, focusing on structure, form and space. His painting is to art what Wing Chun is to martial arts.

http://www.arcadja.com/artmagazine/e...uble-lines.jpg

awesome example, well said!