Bubishi

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The Bubishi (武備志, Chinese Wubei zhi, roughly “records of military preparation”) is a hand-copied collection of Chinese texts on the martial arts, passed on among karate teachers on Okinawa. It is considered one of the most important written sources for the history of karate and of Gōjū-Ryū in particular. There is no single standard version: the surviving copies differ in length, order and content.

Name and origin

The name Wubei zhi is also borne by an extensive Chinese military encyclopaedia by Mao Yuanyi from 1621. The Okinawan Bubishi, however, has hardly anything in common with it in content; the shared name remains unexplained. According to current research, the texts of the Okinawan Bubishi come from Fujian province in southern China and are linked to White Crane (Bái Hè Quán, 白鶴拳) and Monk Fist boxing (Luóhàn Quán, 羅漢拳). Some sections tell the legend of a woman named Fang Qiniang, said to have developed the crane style after watching a crane. When and through whom the text reached Okinawa is not documented; a transmission in the 19th century via the trade links between Fuzhou and the Kingdom of Ryūkyū is assumed.

Contents

Most versions comprise about 32 articles of varying length. Recurring themes include:

  • History and legends of the crane and Monk Fist styles, as well as rules of conduct for practitioners.
  • The Kempō Hakku (拳法八句), the eight precepts of the fist, see Kempō Hakku.
  • 48 self-defence drawings: pairs of figures showing attacks and responses, including grappling, locking, throwing and striking techniques. The captions are often vivid and terse.
  • Vital points (kyūsho, 急所): striking points on the body, their location and their assignment to times of day and seasons according to Chinese thought.
  • Herbal medicine and healing: remedies for treating injuries such as can occur in training or combat.
  • Strategy and principles of breathing, posture and movement.

Significance for Gōjū-Ryū and karate

According to tradition, Higaonna Kanryō (東恩納寛量, 1853–1915), who had trained in Fuzhou, owned a copy, which passed to his student Miyagi Chōjun (宮城長順, 1888–1953). Miyagi took the name of his style from the third line of the Kempō Hakku: Hō wa gōjū wo donto su (法剛柔呑吐, “the way of inhaling and exhaling is hardness and softness”). On the development of the style, see History of Gōjū-Ryū. The Tenchi kata of the Meibukan also takes its name from a line of the Bubishi (see Meibukan philosophy). Copies also circulated in other lineages, for example with Mabuni Kenwa (摩文仁賢和, 1889–1952), founder of Shitō-Ryū.

Publications

For a long time the Bubishi was copied only within a small circle. In 1934 Mabuni Kenwa was the first to publish excerpts in a book. Patrick McCarthy presented a complete English translation with commentary in 1995 (Bubishi: The Bible of Karate, Tuttle), later revised as Bubishi: The Classic Manual of Combat. Further editions include those by Tetsuhiro Hokama. McCarthy’s research on the Bubishi forms one basis of his approach to kata analysis, see Koryū Uchinadi and HAPV.

Connection to training

  • The Kempō Hakku describes principles practised in Gōjū-Ryū in Sanchin and Tenshō: hard and soft, breathing, adaptation.
  • The 48 drawings show combat as an interplay of grappling, locking, throwing and striking – a sign that kata techniques contain more than strike and block.
  • The notes on vital points and healing are historical testimonies; they are no substitute for medical training.

Sources

  • Patrick McCarthy: Bubishi. The Bible of Karate. Tuttle Publishing, Tokio 1995, ISBN 0-8048-2015-5.
  • Patrick McCarthy: Bubishi. The Classic Manual of Combat. Tuttle Publishing, überarbeitete Ausgabe.
  • Seikichi Toguchi: Okinawan Goju-Ryu. Black Belt Communications, Burbank 1976, S. 14, ISBN 978-0-89750-018-0.
  • Morio Higaonna: The History of Karate. Okinawan Goju Ryu. Dragon Books, Isleworth 2001, S. 67–68, ISBN 0-946062-36-6.

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