Talk:Martial arts timeline

The article is primarily Asian-centric, leaving out many important developments in Western boxing, wrestling, and fencing. Not only are these three of the most popular martial arts in the world, but many of their developments were critical to the growth of martial arts- as the rules that they have established (along with a number of techniques and training methods) have heavily influenced martial arts from Full Contact Karate and Jeet Kune Do to the Mixed Martial Arts evident in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. - Comment made by user 76.233.87.51

Agree / please add western martial arts milestonesFarcaster 03:30, 15 September 2007 (UTC)

I created this article on 9/10/07. Please expand it with key milestones from the various martial arts.Farcaster 03:39, 11 September 2007 (UTC)

Taoism

Is it really necessary to mention the founding of Taoism? While there's no doubt that Taoism had an influence on Chinese martial arts, I don't think its founding is quite relevant here. Buddhism influenced fighting systems in at least three of Asia's sub-regions, yet I don't feel Buddhism's founding belongs on a martial arts timeline. Similarly, it's not necessary to include every historical event involving the Shaolin Temple unless the event had some bearing on the martial arts. Morinae (talk) 17:12, 21 March 2014 (UTC)

You are doing great and are completely right. I think a lot of this is historical with respect to both the article and the inclusion of Taoism. I also think that if you include one you need to include the others since in all cases religion influenced the language if not the philosophy of the martial arts. Trim away.Peter Rehse (talk) 17:23, 21 March 2014 (UTC)

A few other lines I wasn't sure about.

"6th century BCE – Sun Tzu writes The Art of War..."

If this sentence stays, we should at least mention how the book would influence martial artists in China and abroad.

"CE 477 – The first abbot of Shaolin Monastery was Buddhabadra, an Indian Dhyana master who came to China in AD 464 to translate Buddhist texts to Chinese. The Shaolin Temple is built at the western base of the Chinese Songshan mountain range, at the orders of Emperor Xiaowen. Successive Chinese emperors authorize fighting monks to train in the temple."

I actually combined two separate entries to make this seem more relevant. The part about fighting monks is really all that we need here.

"1908 – Amateur boxing becomes an Olympic Sport." and "1964 – Judo becomes an official Olympic sport."

I do agree these should be included, but I only bring it up to get an opinion if we should also include that savate was included in the Olympic Games once, and if perhaps other sporting events like the Southeast Asia Games are notable enough to warrant a mention.

"1973 – The Bruce Lee film Enter the Dragon brings Chinese martial arts to the United States domestic audience. He dies that same year."

I could be wrong but this opens a lot of possibilities for the influence of pop culture. For example, how about Ong Bak making muay boran famous? Morinae (talk) 14:03, 22 March 2014 (UTC)

OK in my opinion only

Boxing and Judo and their inclusion into the olympics is hugely important because they stayed.

Sun Tzu writes The Art of War has no influence on martial arts in general although it is a trendy book for war fighting - keep or delete

CE 477 I agree with what is done

1973 I would leave it - that movie caused a huge explosion in popularity of East Asian martial arts in general - far more than making an individual art famous.

The timeline will never be perfect - everyone has an opinion on what is important or not.Peter Rehse (talk) 14:20, 22 March 2014 (UTC)

Indian myths

Can we remove Indian mythical origins of martial arts from the page and keep it history only? There are mentions of Indian references to martial arts in ancient times yet the oldest Indian writings only date to 250 BC.

There are also plenty of references to Chinese martial arts predating the entry of Shaolin and Bodhidharma bringing martial arts to the temple, yet this is the earliest entry of martial arts for China. Seems someone is trying to make it seem as though China did not even have martial arts before the advent of Buddhism, which is very erroneous. And the story of Bodhidharma teaching exercises at Shaolin is not regarded as historical by scholars. JohnRas95 (talk) 18:08, 23 April 2020 (UTC)