Martial Arts Of The World - Webs

Maratha hero Shivaji agrees to discuss terms with a Bijapur
general named Afzal Khan. The two men met with their bodyguards
inside Shivaji’s tent to discuss terms. Although there is
sectarian debate about who struck first, there is no doubt that
the talks broke down into a brawl in which Shivaji killed the
Khan, and his bodyguards killed the Khan’s bodyguards and
beheaded the Khan.
1661 Johan Paschen publishes Fecht, Ring und Voltigier Buch (Fencing,
Wrestling, and Vaulting Book) at Halle, Germany, which is
one of the first books to describe those activities as being separate
rather than related.
1663 Samuel Pepys describes a match between two prizefighters
named Matthews and Westwicke. The rules required the fighters
to use eight different weapons, and as the fighters’ only
payment was coins that the audience threw into a hat, probably
neither man had much interest in injuring the other so badly
that he could not continue.
About 1664 A central Chinese soldier named Chen Wangting dies. According
to tradition, Chen combined General Qi Jiguang’s military
conditioning exercises with Daoist (Taoist) breathing exercises,
thereby creating the oldest known taijiquan (tai chi ch’uan)
practice forms. But Chen’s martial art was called pao chui, not
taijiquan. Further, pao chui means “strike like a cannon,”
which sounds like something one would name an external art
rather than an internal art. Also, the Chen family records do
not describe the man as the founder of a system. So some skepticism
is perhaps in order.
1664 Morikawa Kozan establishes a Japanese archery style called the
Yamato-ryû. While acknowledging that firearms rendered
archery obsolete for military purposes, Morikawa believed that
bows did a better job of improving the spirit, and so taught
archery as a Buddhist exercise.
1666 Iroquois warriors are described as going into battle wearing
only loincloths, moccasins, and war paint, firearms having rendered
their body armor, shields, and war clubs obsolete.
1666 Hendrik Hamel, a Dutch merchant shipwrecked in Korea for
thirteen years, notes that Buddhist monks hired down-on-theirluck
laborers to protect monasteries and roads. This suggests a
source for subsequent stories about Buddhist monasteries
teaching fighting arts.
1669 The Japanese close the only swordsmithy on Okinawa. During
the 1930s this fact is used to support the theory that karate
was created due to Japanese weapons bans.
About 1670 French fencing masters begin wearing padded waistcoats (plastrons)
with their leather fencing jackets. The plastron was decorated
with a red heart and provided students with a target
against which to practice their lunges and thrusts. The affectation
of elegantly elevated sword hands was adopted soon thereafter,
apparently as a way of keeping thrusts from accidentally
slipping into the face. (Masks were as yet uninvented.)
1671 A Chinese potter named Chen Yuanbin dies in Nagoya, Japan.
Chen always enjoyed wrestling and boxing, and according to
Chronological History of the Martial Arts 811