Saturday, March 19, 2016

Shownotes for Episode XLI-Holy Podcast Batman!


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Intro Music: Theme from "Enter the Dragon" by Lalo Schifri

Introduction
  Recorded On: 3/19/2016

  iTunes Review Contest
    The Art of War
    The Book of Five Rings
  
Interlude Music: Of Honor by Whispered
  
Interview: Chris Olech
  The Fighter Within
  Matt Hughes
  Pankration
  George St. Pierre (GSP)
  Fedor Emlianeko
  Bas Rutten
  Rich Franklin
  Ong Bak (Trailer)
  Bloodsport (Trailer)
  Kickboxer (Trailer)
  Sam Sheridan
    A Fighter's Heart
    A Fighter's Mind
  Matthew Polly
    Tapped Out
    Shaolin Monk American Shaolin

  Contacts
    Facebook: Everyonehasafight
    Twitter: @ChrisOlech

Interlude Music: Starstruck by Rainbow

This Week in Martial Arts: March 22nd, 1985
  The Last Dragon Premiers (Trailer)

Contact Information
Twitter Account: @martialthoughts
Email: martialthoughts@gmail.com
Atemicast Youtube Channel
www.thinkingmartial.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com/martialthoughts

Outro Music: Voodoo Chile-Jimi Hendrix / Gayageum ver. by Luna

Shownotes Episode XL-One Podcast Fits All


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Intro Music: Theme from "Enter the Dragon" by Lalo Schifri

Introduction
  Recorded On: 3/10/2016
  Hiyaa! Podcast
  The Sceptic's Guide to the Universe
  Whistlekick Martial Arts Radio with Jeremy Lesniack
  Sensei Ando (Fight for A Happy Life)
  
Interlude Music: ???? 
  
Interview: Romulus Hillsborough
  Shotokan Karate of America
  Bakufu - Shogun's Rule
  Bakumatsu - End of the Bakufu
  Admiral Perry
  Yoshikawa Eiji's Musashi
  Ryoma
  Katsu Kaishu
  Shinsengumi
  Kondo Isami
  Hijikata Toshizo
  Ryomo Societies
  The Ryomo Society of America
  Samurai History Tour
  The Last Samurai

  Books
   Amazon Writer's Page
    Samurai Revolution: The Dawn of Modern Japan Seen Through the Shogun's Last Samurai
    Ryoma: Life of a Rennaissance Samurai
    Shinsengumi: The Shogun's Last Samurai Corp
    Samurai Sketches/Samurai Tales

  Contacts
    www.samurai-revolution.com
    https://plus.google.com/+RomulusHillsboroughWriter
    @romuluswriter
Interlude Music: Samurai by The Michael Schenker Group

This Week in Martial ArtsChuck Norris's Birthday
  www.chucknorrisfacts.com/

Contact Information
Twitter Account: @martialthoughts
Email: martialthoughts@gmail.com
Atemicast Youtube Channel
www.thinkingmartial.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com/martialthoughts

Outro Music: Voodoo Chile-Jimi Hendrix / Gayageum ver. by Luna

Sunday, March 6, 2016

5 out of 5 Ninja Stars for "The Chinese Martial Code"

In the interest of full disclosure, I received this book from the publisher for review purposes

Title: The Chinese Martial Code
Written By: A. L. Sadler Annotated Notes and Foreword by Edwin H. Lowe
Publisher: Tuttle
Format: Hardcover with Jacket
Page: 190
Cover Price: $16.95 $11.87(US)

    I'm familiar enough with Sun Tzu's the Art of War, and in fact have owned 6 or 7 copies of different translations with and without annotation.  Everyone who is in martial arts has probably heard of the book, and gotten some pieces of the "fortune cookie" wisdom that is in the book.  That is a disservice to Art of War. This book does a couple of things different.  First off it includes other strategies of War books, and it includes an overall idea of how Art of War fit into the Chinese thought patterns of government then and now.  It also makes some compelling arguments on why these texts are in fact MORE relevant now than in anytime in recent history.

Content

    This book contains the Chinese and English translation of three books of Chinese military thought as well as two lengthy introduction chapters which I'll get to in a minute.  The Art of War by Sun Tzu should be a big enough name that I shouldn't have to talk about that one much.  The other two were new to me.  The Precepts of War by Sima Rangju and Wu Zi On the Art of War were included to develop a more complete idea of the thought patterns going on at this time in Ancient China.  The first introduction chapter was divided into sections. The author argues the relevance of these books in today's post-modern military world.  He makes an excellent point, but I'll let the reader come to their own conclusions.  The second part of the first introduction goes through the three classics and describes the histories and stories of the men who wrote them.  The second introduction chapter dealt with the story of A. L. Sadler, an Australian Professor who probably did the second translation of Art of War into English, and probably the first of the other two classics.

Pros

    To be honest, I've read Art of War in numerous incarnations, so that wasn't as big of a draw to me.  What I found really interesting was the introduction chapters.  I enjoyed the argument of why a world with a post-modern military force would to understand the thoughts on combat of a Chinese general from a couple millennia ago.  They make the argument that today's wars are not being fought over power and territory, as they have been in the Western World for the last thousand years, but are being fought over differences of ideology which is actually closer to the more tribal military that was in place during Sun Tzu's time.  It also explained to me, how War and warcraft is part of the continuum of statecraft.  How war is a tool of the state.  If any of the other versions of Art of War had explicitly said that, I missed it completely.  In that way it was an epiphany of a sort.  I'll definitely look at global conflicts in a new light as part of reading this book.
    I also enjoyed the history of the the original author, A. L. Sadler.  I always figured that since the West has had contact with China for such a long time (been watching Marco Polo on Netflix) that we've had some translation of Art of War around for a long time.  It surprised me that the first translation into English came in the 1900's, with Sadler's being the second and more influential translation coming in 1944 due to the war with the Japanese.
    The translations of the three classics are well done, and because I've never read the second two books I got a lot out of them, but to me, they kinda took a backseat to the arguments and history of the introduction chapters.

Cons

    I really don't have any cons for this book.  There is nothing I would add, subtract, or change.  The book is dense with information.  It's not a before bed read, but again, that's not what it's intended for.

Conclusion

    Although the translations were done over half a century ago, the language is still very appropriate, and doesn't seem to try to add to flowery prose, except what is naturally in the original writings themselves.  I've had versions of Art of War where they try to modernize the meaning of the phrases, and it looses some of its timeless qualities because of that.  As I stated, I learned a lot and had a change in my view of the world.  What more could you ask for in a book?  For that, and the other reasons I listed above, I'm going to give this book (the first that I can think of) a full 5 out of 5 Ninja Stars.  It's not just another translation of Art of War.  Rather that just say "Everyone reads Art of War, so it must be important" it takes the time to explain how and why it is important.  Mr. Lowe obviously has a large amount of respect for both the original authors of the classics, and for the translation done by Mr. Sadler.