The Martial Arts of Ancient Greece

by Kostas Dervenis

  The small town they built was called Liqian in their honor. In the year 9 CE the Emperor Wang Mang changed its name temporarily to Jie-Lu, meaning “prisoners captured during the siege of a city,” one additional indication that this is a reference to the town of the 145 prisoners. Unfortunately, there is no concrete archaeological evidence to prove Dubs’s theory other than the aforementioned indications, although in the probable location of the ancient town, a wall was found from that time period, as well as a basin of Roman design, a water pot, and a Chinese helmet with the inscription “one of those who surrendered.”

  Any archaeologist, of course, would expect more concrete evidence,6 but that is unlikely to come to light, since no captured army would be allowed to keep their own weapons (which became war trophies) and no politician would allow them cultural artifacts (or even their own native clothes), which they could use in order to escape. We know that Liqian existed up to 746 CE, when it was conquered and destroyed by the Tibetans. Various studies of the DNA of today’s natives of the area, who have red hair and light colored eyes, show that they have a considerable percentage of European genes (which may also be due to the fact that this area was on the Silk Road).

  Regardless of whether the above example carries any weight or not, we can be sure of two things:

  a) It is clear that the Romans knew well what was going on in China in those days (and vice versa), since in the first century BCE there was already a Chinese name for Rome and in 166 CE the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus officially sent an ambassador to China (although the Chinese themselves reached only as far west as Babylon).

  b) Taking into consideration this long-lasting contact, it is certain that the Chinese had the opportunity to examine and evaluate the military methods as well as the martial arts and skills of the Romans. They surely knew that the Romans had conquered the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe and that they had had confrontations with their common enemy, the Parthians. It is interesting that the short sword of the first century BCE of western China, the duan jian, had approximately the same size as the Roman gladius,7 which supports the suggestion that the Chinese may have been interested in evaluating Roman close-quarter combat techniques.

  These findings make it clear that the Hellenistic kingdoms in India were not the only sources of cultural exchange between East and West during this time period (although the Hellenistic kingdoms were a major factor in the creation of the Silk Road). How easily we forget that the Huns—who were a tribe (the Xiongnu) in northwest China in the second century BCE—reached the suburbs of Rome in the fourth century CE!

  6. And so we come to the fifth century CE, in the midst of formidable changes, wars, and cultural interactions, and to the case of Bodhidharma. From the first century CE on, the spread of the varying sects and dogmas of Buddhism had been taking place in China. This dissemination was not easy; it took great effort and there were a lot of counter-reactions (since the interests of local religions were threatened). However, in 472 CE there are written testimonies from Buddhist monks in China, referring to the method of dhyana, which was later to become known as Ch’an (Zen). The Shaolin temple was built in 495 CE in the Sung Mountains in Hunan Province (the name of the temple means “young forest” and refers to the forest in northern India where the Buddha chose to die). It is certain that the creation of this temple contributed to some political scheme of that time. For example, in 535 CE, Mahayana Buddhism was established as the official state religion in the kingdom of the Sylla Dynasty in Korea, a clear political move, since seven years earlier an aristocrat had been executed because he was a Buddhist! In 535 though, the Korean aristocracy decided to push the women-shamans of the indigenous religion out of the royal court by using State conversion to Buddhism as their official excuse. It is highly probable that events in China followed the same course.

  In 530 CE, then, Buddhism was well established in China, in spite of the reactions of the local Taoist priests. And so we come to the case of Bodhidharma. To begin with, was there a historic Bodhidharma? His name means “He who brings the Wisdom-Method.” Most researchers in the West maintain today that Bodhidharma was not a real person, and that this name was a creation of popular legend, given to various Buddhist missionaries who had crossed the borders of China. The same type of skeptics, however, maintain that Homer was not a real person either, and that his epic sagas are simply a collective synthesis of older works of lesser poets.

  Nonsense.

  Life has proven that genius is a privilege of the few, and that mediocrity always pursues it, in a relentless effort to either absorb it or destroy it. In spite of numerous efforts of competitors, in the end there was only one Mozart, one Picasso, one Einstein. History has shown us that in critical situations, major events and their outcomes depend on the efforts and decisions of only one person. Hannibal was one such person, and so was Bodhidharma. The same type of people who doubt Bodhidharma’s historic existence today were for centuries dubious about the existence of Troy, until a German merchant beat them at their own game. Besides, as we have already confirmed, the spread of Buddhism throughout Asia took place in times of intense political conflict, warfare, and intercultural pressure. A strong personality is required under such circumstances; a person having to confront such adversities needs the heart of a warrior, not the meekness of a monk. The political controversy surrounding Buddhism’s spread in China must have been quite dangerous, given that the country had been in a state of civil war for centuries. The myth reports that Bodhidharma met with Emperor Wu Di of the Liang dynasty in the town of Nanching. China had been divided into various small states and this meeting most certainly had a political character and expediency. The two men did not reach an agreement and, displeased, Bodhidharma left Nanching to go to the Shaolin temple.

  Bodhidharma had blue eyes and was very likely a Persian rather than a pureblooded Indian. He was a prince of a small tribe in Kancipura, south India. We propose that this royal family had descended from Persians who fled the persecution of followers of Manichaeism after the execution of Mani in 274 CE.8 Bodhidharma lived at a time when war was prevalent, as the Huns had invaded India and were looting and pillaging to the north. As a prince, he would have been a member of the warrior caste and would naturally have started learning the martial arts at a very young age, much like the Buddha himself. We believe that he became a follower of Buddhism specifically because he was trained in the amalgam of vajramushti and pammachon we referred to earlier. He studied Buddhism under a teacher who had nothing to do with the martial arts or with the Ch’an dogma. This teacher’s name was Prajnatara, and he belonged to the Sarvastivada dogma, one of the first Mahayana schools.

  The conditions outlined above support our contention that the Ch’an school, and its combination with the martial arts, were clearly Bodhidharma’s innovation, based on the Manichean past of his family and his own training in vajramushti. When he went to the Shaolin temple in China and reached the height of his powers, he established a system of sudden enlightenment based on his own background in ksatriya-derived yogic breathing and on the dhyana meditation he studied as a Mahayana Buddhist exercise. The legend tells us that he taught the monks two practices: one meant to strengthen the organism and the physical body (yi gin ching) and one to transform sexual energy into spiritual power (shi sui ching). He taught the Buddhist asceticism of the Lankavatara Sutra. Clearly, what he wanted to pass on to the monks was the concept of warrior virtue and how it could be combined with Buddhism.

  The Chinese historian Chang-ning (919–1001, of the Sung Dynasty) reports clearly and positively on Bodhidharma, commenting on his role in the extinction of the garrulous literature then prevalent in Chinese Buddhism. “Address the human Mind, see your own true Nature and become Buddhas, do not focus on words, phrases, or symbols”—this is how Chang-ning records Bodhidharma’s words. This teaching, combined with the knightly virtue prevalent in Bodhidharma’s legend, indicates the heart and methods of a warrior, not the dogmatic zeal of
a priest. This must have been who Bodhidharma was, in the end: a warrior-prince of virtue.

  Bodhidharma’s practices influenced and transformed the previously existing martial arts of China, creating the famous arts of Shaolin kung fu in the process, with all their many offshoots and derivations.

  We apologize to the reader for our long-windedness, but it is essential that each link in the chain of logic and history we have forged be understood, if we are to follow existing historical documents and archaeological findings. And we must acknowledge that, even though each of the aforementioned chain’s links is independently verifiable (or at the very least may be independently rigorously examined), the entire chain itself is, admittedly, nothing more than a suggestion.

  It is pleasant to speculate, however, that it might indeed be historical truth.

  Footnotes

  PREFACE

  1 This characteristic of the term pankration was first published internationally by the authors (in Greek) in 2002. The use of the term pammachon in reference to Greek martial arts was established earlier by Kostas Dervenis in 2000. This intellectual property right has been abused by other authors since then, without permission, authorization, or reference.

  2 Neither of the authors are professional instructors of the martial arts or combat sports; instead, they are motivated by an amateur’s love of these activities.

  3 These photos may not be used without the expressed consent of the authors.

  Chapter 1. The Birth of Pammachon

  1 Time-Life Books, The Enterprise of War (Amsterdam: Time-Life Books, 1991).

  2 This is now the official position of the European Union: Council of Europe. “The Roots of Odysseus” in Gods and Heroes of Bronze Age Europe [a museum exhibition catalog]. Bonn: Hatje/Conte, Ostfildern-Ruit, 1999, 103–5.

  3 Time-Life Books, The Enterprise of War.

  4 In the beginning of 2003, in Turkey, a 5,000-year-old sword was discovered. It is possible that all the aforementioned dates will have to be pushed back by roughly a millennium, or that sword combat began elsewhere than stipulated here.

  5 Incidentally, the first record we have of the word xiphos is the Mycenaean qi-si-pe-e found in the Linear B tablets from Pylos.

  Chapter 2. From Combat to Competition: Pammachon to Pankration

  1 M. B. Poliakoff, Studies in the Terminology of the Greek Combat Sports, 2nd ed. (Meisenheim: Beiträge zur Klassichen Philologie, 1986), 146.

  2 Interestingly enough, the word also means “country” and “government,” which places a disturbing slant on politics.

  3 Poliakoff, Studies in the Terminology of the Greek Combat Sports, 2nd ed.; and Louis Robert, L’epigramme Grecque (Geneva: Entretiens sur l’antiquité classique, 1968).

  4 Ethics, 639E.

  5 Translation by Gregorz Zabinski and Bartlomiej Walczak, from their Codex Waller-stein. The reference to “wrestling” is mine, as I believe the author is trying to distinguish combat from combat sports. Zabinski, Grzegorz, Walczak, and Bartlomiej, Codex Wallerstein: A Medieval Fighting Book from the Fifteenth Century on the Longsword, Falchion, Dagger, and Wrestling (Boulder, Colorado: Paladin Press, 2001).

  6 Michael Poliakoff, Combat Sports in the Ancient World (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987).

  7 As mentioned by Plutarch in Alexandros 4. It is probable that the great general was concerned with bridging the gap between combat sports, the martial arts, and military strategy, as we will see farther on.

  Chapter 3. Analysis of the Techniques of Pankration

  1 The term stomp refers to the type of strike (by the arm or leg) in which, at the time of impact with the target, the athlete’s joint is bent (the elbow if it is a punch or the knee if it is a kick) and the strike is focused and executed in such as manner as to go through the target rather than impact the surface of the target, like an ax blade striking a piece of wood.

  2 In various kicks, cocking means folding the leg before it is launched for the kick. Cocking allows stronger and higher kicks, and in circular or hooking kicks it increases the speed of the strike. Occasionally, kicks are executed without cocking the leg so that the striker’s intentions are not “telegraphed” in advance to his opponent.

  3 The first concrete historical testimonies about vajramushti originate in the fifteenth century CE, but the supporters of the theory that it has an Indian origin place its first appearance in 1000 BCE, an assertion that is backed up by its similarity to the 2000 BCE Egyptian stick fights.

  4 In a ground fight, an athlete’s arm can be exposed longer than in a standing fight. Also, on the ground, an athlete can trap his opponent’s arm using the natural obstacle of the ground, which restricts his mobility.

  5 In this book, we have deliberately used the term hold down rather than pin, due to the connotations in modern wrestling in which a pin equals victory. There is no such case of victory due to a pin in submission wrestling; rather, it is a stable position from which further maneuvers to insure victory can be initiated.

  6 This might not be the case in actual combat, where the half-guard is often a more suitable position for controlling an opponent who has taken us to the ground, without exposing our genitals. That having been said, the half-guard requires a higher degree of skill to use.

  7 A “bridge” in wrestling is a maneuver during which we arch our back while on the ground in order to “throw” the opponent over us.

  8 In contemporary wrestling or judo, this position would be considered a pin and lead to victory, but in submission wrestling its value is merely that of a stable position.

  9 It is also a very useful position in close-quarter combat.

  10 A finishing move causes termination of the contest or injury as the opponent chooses.

  11 For this reason, leg locks are forbidden in many combat sports such as contemporary wrestling and modern judo. They are utilized extensively in Russian sambo.

  12 In submission wrestling the “jackknife” is a defensive move that an athlete makes when his opponent has executed a rear body hold on him. He lowers his pelvis a little lower than his opponent’s pelvis by opening his legs. This move prevents his opponent from lifting him off the ground.

  Chapter 4. The Inner Path

  1 Joseph Campbell, The Way of the Animal Powers: Mythologies of the Great Hunt (New York: Harper and Row, 1988).

  2 Even more intriguing in the context of the martial arts is the connection between the word elikas (helix) with its contemporary meaning of elissomai (maneuver), that is, “I move spirally, I avoid, I absorb, I divert.”

  3 John Archibald Wheeler, with Kenneth Ford, Geons, Black Holes and Quantum Foam: A Life in Physics (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1998).

  4 Astrophysicist Robert Kirshner, Clowes Professor of Science at Harvard University, believes that the existence of dark matter, spread around the universe, can explain the observed distortions of space-time and the acceleration of the galaxies in the universe. He speaks of a “so far unknown form of dark matter” and of an “acceleration of the galaxies due to a repulsion by masses of dark matter”—one more manifestation of the bipolar nature of the universe.

  5 A singularity is that entity in physics that represents a mass so large it is beyond the constructs of space-time. In popular terms, this is called a black hole.

  6 Plato, Philibos, 16c.

  7 Homer, The Iliad, 3.95.

  8 Homer, The Iliad, F.405–410.

  9 For those who practice the martial arts, metis is the ju in the word jujutsu.

  10 We believe that the relation between Metis and Medusa is the same as the relation between the peaceful and the wrathful depictions of Buddha in Tantric Buddhism today. For example, in Japanese Buddhism the Bodhisattva Fudo-Myoo (Acalanatha), a terrifying figure, is considered as the wrathful form of the central universal Buddha Vairocana; Buddhas take up a wrathful aspect in order to terrify the powers of evil.

  11 We remind the reader that the discovery of spiral microtubules in our cells started with the simple question,
“How are mental signals (hunger, attack, defense, escape) transferred in single cell organisms that lack a nervous system?”

  12 Or is there something even more peculiar going on that is still beyond our powers to perceive?

  13 The author still continues to practice, but under a less severe discipline.

  Appendix: Ancient Greek Pammachon and the Roots of Zen

  1 S. K. Uyenishi, The Text-Book of Ju-Jutsu as Practiced in Japan (London: Health and Strength, 1905).

  2 John Boardman, Persia and the West (London: Thames and Hudson, 2000), 220.

  3 Charles Allen, The Search for Shangri-La (London: Abacus, 2000).

  4 I mention vajramushti rather than kalari payat because the later seems far more tied to Hinduism than to Buddhism, and is hence less relevant to the historic progression we are proposing here.

  5 With bow and arrow, as they were defeated by the Parthians earlier.

  6 And counter-indications to the theory do exist.

  7 Which does not mean, for God’s sake, that they took it from the Romans! We refer to this particular sword only because the fact that it is the same size and shape naturally indicates comparable fighting tactics.

  8 Manichaeists were expelled from Persia by the supporters of the official state religion (Zoroastrianism at this time) and the legend of Bodhidharma explicitly states that he had blue eyes, something that would be impossible if he was of Dravidian stock. Of course, this brings up the question as to what type of Aryan/Dravidian racial mix held sway in southern India during the sixth century CE, but it is probably safe to say that there were not many blue-eyed Indians in southern India during this time.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  Berettas, Marios H. India Ton Hellenon [India of the Greeks]. Athens: Georgiades Press, 1996.

  Alter, Joseph S. The Wrestler’s Body: Identity and Ideology in North India. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992.