The Politics of Eastern and Western Martial Arts, with Jonathan Bluestein

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.com/podcast/the-politics-of-eastern-and-western-martial-arts-with-jonathan-bluestein/  To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy   Jonathan Bluestein is a martial artist and author who contacted Guy with some interesting questions related to his research. Jonathan is looking into the similarities and differences between the traditional Chinese martial arts and traditional European Martial Arts, both in Medieval and Renaissance times as well as in our everyday lives today.   Jonathan’s background is in traditional oriental martial arts in general and he practices and teaches traditional Chinese martial arts from his school in Israel. He is the author of a number of books on the martial arts as well as other topics. He’s also a practitioner of traditional Chinese medicine.   Jonathan is currently in the midst of working on a book called Martial Arts Politics Explained. In this episode we discuss how we might classify different types of martial arts school, and how the structures and hierarchies of different types of schools inform the politics within the school. Jonanthan explains how Chinese martial arts schools work and the culture of family and disciples within them. We discuss how the cultures within Western historical martial arts schools compare.   This is a wide ranging conversation which also covers philosophy, the war in Israel, straight swords versus curved swords, and Chinese medicine.   You may find this list of terminology useful, which was helpfully provided by Jonathan:   Names of Jonathan’s teachers: Master Nitzan Oren Grand-Master Zhou Jingxuan  Master Sapir Tal Master Stephen Jackowicz Master Brian Hall   Martial arts Jonathan has studied and have taught: Xing Yi Quan Pigua Zhang Jook Lum Southern Mantis Bagua Zhang Li Jia Shaolin Quan (Li Family Shaolin)   Weapons mentioned: Dao (Chinese curved sword) Miao Dao (Chinese equivalent of the Nodachi/Odachi)   Historical figures and periods: General Qi Jiguang  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qi_Jiguang Japanese Pirates https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wokou Meiji Restoration https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meiji_Restoration Chinese Cultural terms: Wuguan - 'Martial Hall' - Chinese equivalent term to 'Dojo'.  Kwan - the Cantonese pronunciation of 'Guan', and short for 'Wuguan'.  Gongfu - A high level of skill, acquired through longstanding effort and practice Gongfu Family (Gongfu Jia) - the martial arts family within a given lineage, of teachers and disciples Shifu - a teacher in a traditional relationship of a Master and an apprentice Tudi - a disciple of a Shifu - the Apprentice Bai Shi - the ceremony with which a Tudi is accepted into the Gongfu Family.