Promoting Peace, Practising War: Mohism’s Resolution of the Paradoxical Ethics of War and Self-Defence in East Asian Martial Arts

My pre-Covid19 plan for this month (July 2020) was to travel to Europe and attend the 6th Martial Arts Studies Conference, focusing this year on Martial Arts, Religion, and Spiritually. The conference was supposed to occur in the scenic French city of Marseilles at Aix-Marseille University on the 15th, 16th, and 17th of July. Of course, nothing went as planned this year. At first it was thought that the conference was to be cancelled, but in the end it turned into a cyber conference, and although I couldn't visit southern France, I was still able to participate in the conference by recording my presentation as a video and participating in a live online panel discussion.

There were nine panels; I participated in Panel 4: Ethics in Modern Martial Fighting Games and Martial Arts.

Below is a summary of my presentation, below that the official abstract for my presentation, and at the bottom the actual presentation available on YouTube.

The panel discussion was also recorded; I will upload it once it becomes available.

Summary by Kai Morgan

Are the traditional East Asian martial arts physical methods of violence – or peaceful activities of self-cultivation, grounded in traditions such as Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism? Sanko argues that they are actually both at once – but many practitioners simply ignore the violent aspect, as it’s too complicated and/or uncomfortable to assimilate.

Sanko then asks whether the East Asian philosophy of Mohism can answer this paradox, and enable us to reconcile both faces of the martial arts, as it teaches both active peace promotion, and a duty to physically protect the weak and innocent from harm by means of defensive war . . .

Abstract

Promoting Peace, Practising War: Mohism’s Resolution of the Paradoxical Ethics of War and Self-Defence in East Asian Martial Arts

by Sanko Lewis, PhD

Many traditional East Asian martial arts seem to counsel against the use of violence, yet actively teach physical methods of violence; in essence “promoting peace, practising war.” In part, the paradox exists because East Asian martial arts derive their morals from the generally pacifist religio-philosophical traditions of East Asia, namely Taoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism. There is therefore an internal conflict between the moral traditions that provided the context in which these martial arts developed and the original combative purpose for which the martial arts developed. Previous attempts at resolving the martial arts paradox of promoting peace while practising techniques of violence simply redefined martial arts as either activities of self-cultivation (cf. “Budo”) or as sport, rather than address the main issue of justified violence. Hence this study searched for ways to reconcile peace promotion with “war” practise. The East Asian philosophy of Mohism provides a framework capable of promoting peace while also justifying violence in a morally congruent manner. Mohism’s teaching of universal love and mutual benefit offers an example of active peace promotion, while accepting the duty to physically protect the weak and innocent from harm by means of defensive war. Likewise, traditional martial arts in the form of civilian defensive arts can also justify their training and conditional use of violence for the purpose of protecting innocent victims from attackers.

Keywords: Mohism, ethics, martial arts, self-defense, violence