Abstract:
Compared to the Western pursuit of conventional winning of “win with speed” and “win with strength” under the ideology of “self-strengthening”, Chinese martial arts, under the influence of its unique traditional philosophical wisdom and extraordinary techniques, has repeatedly achieved unconventional winnings such as “moving later but reaching first” “beating hardness with softness” and “suppressing long weapons with shorter ones”. Obviously, ideologically speaking, there is a huge difference between the two. This article adopts methods of documentary reference, diachronic analysis, and comparative analysis to deeply analyze and summarize the winning ideology and core techniques of Chinese Wushu, which emphasizes the importance of “winning by weakening the enemy”. The following conclusions are drawn: 1) “Winning by striking the weaknesses of the enemy” is the underlying logic of ancient combat strategies. The essence of “weakness” of the opponent in combat refers to the unbalance and instability caused by the deviation of the body’s center of gravity, resulting in the loss of its originally reasonable and stable posture structure and strength distribution, and hence the inability to perform good movements in attack and defense. Therefore, “striking the weakness” is to attack when the enemy is in the “low energy” physical state when his/her body is unbalanced and unstable. 2) The primary prerequisite for achieving “attacking the weakness” is to use certain methods to make the opponent appear in a “weak” state. Therefore, Wushu has developed a set of winning strategies which aims at achieving “weakening the opponent” under its unique yin-yang philosophy - “winning by striking the enemy’s weaknesses”. 3) To “induce the opponent to show weakness” is the key to “weakening and defeating the enemy” in Taiji. After comparing and analyzing the techniques related to “inducing the opponent to show weakness” with “weakening and defeating the enemy” in different historical periods, it is found that they are logically consistent. Therefore, it can be concluded that the techniques to “induce the opponent to show weakness” are not unique to Tai Chi, but have always been core techniques under the idea of “winning by weakening the enemy” in Wushu. However, it is relatively more systematic and scientific in theory compared to the earlier versions of “inducing the opponent to show weaknesses” techniques.