Chapter 10 postscript

The word "Xia" has a long history in China. "Wu" and "Xia" are inseparable. Thousands of years ago, Han Feizi defined "Xia" and wrote: "Confucianism uses literature to disrupt law, and chivalry uses martial arts to violate prohibitions." Force itself is the most direct force. The ruler has the only legal force. Relatively speaking, the definition of an ancient chivalrous man is one who acts by force in private. The legalist Han Fei's words deeply abhor the chivalrous people who are not legal. Although "Hanshu" also appreciates the chivalrous men's "gentleness, kindness, love, poverty and anxiety, modest retreat", but at the same time accuses them of stealing the country's power of life and death, "the crime cannot be punished." .It can be seen that in the ancient society with strict regulations, "chivalry" who belonged to the grassroots and did not obey the legal system were mostly despised by scholars.

When it comes to Chinese martial arts, it is often compared with European chivalry or Japanese Bushido.They certainly have similarities: they all have force and there is a set of strict standards of conduct (the so-called "Warrior's Code").But the fundamental difference lies in their political identities: European knights and Japanese samurai are both ruling classes, belonging to the system and even being the system itself; the biggest characteristic of Chinese knights is that they are outside the system, and often when the system is insufficient or unfair , exerting a check and balance force.

"Historical Records" Sima Qian is a heroic historian and writer. He should be the first person to formally praise the commoner knights in ancient times. Although "Biography of Rangers" mentions that chivalrous men are not on the right track, it also defends their chivalrous deeds, arguing that there are often priorities in the world, and chivalrous men do play a role in maintaining social justice.Sima Qian even used the hero to satirize the false "benevolence and righteousness" of the world's winners and losers. There is a famous sentence in "Biography of Rangers": "He must believe his words, his deeds must be resolute, his promises must be true, he does not love his body, and he goes to the plight of scholars. He is already alive and dead, but he does not show his ability and shames him. Virtue has also become the evaluation standard of "Xia" among the people for thousands of years.

The real "Xiamen" in ancient times were not the kind of solitary knights with a sword that we see so much in martial arts novels today, but mostly because the family had a little money and raised a bunch of diners of various religions and nine-rates to form a power in the rivers and lakes. Heroes who arbitrate or intervene in local affairs, the boundary between gangs and gangs is somewhat blurred.The Japanese gangsters still often call themselves "Ren Xia" today, which is a remnant of Chinese culture. The image of the "Xiaxia" familiar to the public in today's martial arts novels and movies was slowly formed through the evolution of fictional literature and art (including storytelling, opera and novels) in the past dynasties, and it was even influenced by foreign works in modern times.Although martial arts works are fictitious, they have been popular for a long time, but they truly reflect the simple hope of the masses for the power of justice.

If an era needs heroes and knights, it is certainly not a good thing to set things right outside the law; but it is even more sad if there are no heroes in an era that needs heroes.Maintaining the operation of society requires calmness; but it is always passionate people who change a society. Qiao Jingfu November 16, 2010