Customer Reviews

Martial Musings: A Portrayal of Martial Arts in the 20th Century

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...Bound to annoy those who want a nice, squeeky-clean image of martial artists as saints and quiet, tea-sipping old men. Smith is highly experienced, he unlike most of those writing today, has really 'been around the block', so to speak. I certainly don't agree with all of his opinions, but that doesn't diminish the value of this book to me. I rather wish more martial artists of experience and repute would dare to publish their honest views, prejudices and all, and stimulate some honest discussion and debate in the martial arts community.

The book itself is a decent hardbound affair printed on quality acid-free paper. The photos are a nice sepia tone, a cool departure from the usual stock fair. Agree with him or not, Smith's works make for interesting reading. Are you really looking to become a well-rounded, educated martial artist? This book is one you can't do without. There really is something for everyone in here.

Robert Smith has written some great work and has done a lot for the martial arts. He is quite knowledgeable about the internal Chinese arts and judo, and has led a very interesting life. For the martial arts enthusiast, his experiences and the training opportunities he's had are quite enviable.

Nevertheless, in this book, he comes across as a cantankerous old man who constantly whines about how much better everything was "back in my day." Thus, boxers like Muhammad Ali aren't fit to lick the boots of old timers like Joe Louis -- and let's not even talk about Mike Tyson, Lennox Lewis or Evander Holyfield; movies today, especially kung fu flicks, have no redeeming social value (yes, that last bit was a BIG SHOCK to me too); and society is crass and shallow and worthless. I half expected him to start telling me how weak, worthless, and evil we all are because we didn't walk 25 miles in bare feet in the snow to go to school every day, and only after plowing a 200-acre farm and saving 40 orphans from starving and how nothing written after Shakespeare died has been worth anything other than toilet paper.

He is also a little too sure that he has seen everything there is that is worth seeing, and bought into the party line given by his teachers, who, while great martial artists, cannot be described as without bias. His northern-style and internal arts teachers told him that the northern Chinese styles and the internal styles are the greatest and the southern Chinese styles and harder more external styles are useless. Thus, it must be true, according to Smith. The fact is, most martial artists think their style is the greatest, and they can't all be right.

Smith also unfairly denigrates a lot of people who have put in a lot of dedication and done much for the martial arts. Bruce Lee's skill as compared to the great martial artists of the 20th century is debatable, but his positive influence cannot be disputed. Likewise for the Gracies, who, whatever you might say about their style, have the guts to repeatedly put it all on the line for everyone to see. Smith also takes a mean-spirited swipe at Jackie Chan's martial arts skills and his movies, despite the fact that Jackie is, from all reports, a really nice guy who has always freely admitted that he doesn't consider himself a martial arts master, and despite the fact that his movies have made millions smile.

So don't take Smith's ramblings in this book as the gospel, but treat it as an interesting set of memoirs and anecdotes from a life well lived.

With the exception of politics, few human pursuits are filled with as much egotism, chicanery, and sheer nonsense as the martial arts. And like politics, few human pursuits are as capable of cultivating the highest levels of the human spirit. Robert W. Smith captures this human drama in this book. Part autobiography and part historiography, Martial Musings will appeal to all who prefer delicacy to raw meat in the martial arts.

Students of the martial arts will immediately recognize Mr. Smith's name. In addition to nine articles appearing in the Journal of Asian Martial Arts, he has published numerous articles and fifteen books devoted to taijiquan, xingyi, bagua, Shaolin Temple boxing, judo, wrestling, and Western boxing, as well as overviews of the fighting arts and those who practice them. His range of scholarship and practice is extraordinary. As much as anyone, he has been responsible for popularizing authentic versions of judo and Chinese martial arts in the United States. Martial Musings provides the capstone to his career. In it he describes the story of his life interspersed with reports of his encounters with high-level martial artists throughout the world. He employs prose that sings on the page, scatting like Ella Fitzgerald when improvising on the martial melody with literary asides and opinions pungent as Szechuan chili peppers. Only Faust enjoyed such a range of talent and opportunities, but to far greater disadvantage.

Born in 1926 on a small Iowa farm, he grew up in an orphanage in Galesburg, Illinois. He enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps, leaving high school after his second year. Upon completion of his military service in 1946 he began to work for a railroad and started to promote wrestling and boxing matches in the Midwest. He went on to receive a high school equivalency certificate, an undergraduate degree from the University of Illinois and a graduate degree in Far Eastern Studies from the University of Washington. His martial arts education began in Chicago. Upon entering the Chicago Judo Club in 1947 and exaggerating the judo prowess he gained in the Marines, he learned quickly how to make friends with the mat. Hik Nagao, a third degree black belt made the introduction, and study with Minoru "Johnny" Osako deepened the friendship. It was while working out in the Chicago Judo Club that Mr. Smith first met Donn Draeger, one of the foremost Western martial artists of the twentieth century. Their partnership led to publication of Asian Fighting Arts, in 1969, and reprinted in 1980 as Comprehensive Asian Fighting Arts, five years before Mr. Draeger's death in Hawaii. Mr. Smith's involvement with Judo lasted thirty years. He was instrumental in popularizing judo in the U. S. through teaching, promotion of tournaments and publishing his "Complete Guide to Judo" in 1958.

In 1953, Mr. Smith gave a speech at the first U.S. Judo Championships. The topic-retaining Jigoro Kano's ethics while improving American judo-foreshadowed a theme that runs throughout Mr. Smith's career. This theme is his unrelenting emphasis on the spirit and integrity of the martial arts. Henry Miller once said that what distinguishes the majority of men from the few is their inability to act according to their beliefs. Despite his positions of authority, both official and unofficial, Smith has never been a member of the martial arts majority. He has always walked alone, listening to the beat of the Dao, and never playing to the house. This book is littered with choices he has made between fame and fortune, on the one hand, and preservation of the traditional spirit of the martial arts on the other hand. Never suffering fools well, Mr. Smith describes his rebuffs of those who sought him out to gain egotistic or economic advantage. He tarnishes the tinseled reputation of screen stars, such as Bruce Lee, revealing them to be small men, standing Wizard of Oz-like behind marketing artifices, who are willing to trade martial integrity for market share. And he saves his highest praise for those, such as Zheng Manqing and Benjamin Pang Jeng Lo, who recognize that their possession of the martial arts is only a loan from their teachers, to be repaid by selfless sharing with others. Mr. Smith peels away the glitz and glitter to reveal the underlying substance and spirit of the martial arts.

After hiring on at the CIA (intelligence, not operations), Mr. Smith enjoyed the good fortune of a posting to Taiwan (1959-1962). Like deflecting a powerful attack with "four ounces," this synchronicity provided a pivot point on which his life turned and changed direction. It was during this assignment that Mr. Smith met, interviewed and filmed scores of top Chinese boxers. It was also during this time that he met Zheng Manqing, who, after the obligatory snubs, accepted Mr. Smith as his student in taijiquan. Like all that encounter a genuine taiji master, Mr. Smith became awed by Prof. Zheng's artistry. Enchanted by the master's skill, Mr. Smith began to devote his efforts to popularizing Zheng Manqing's 37-posture version of the Yang family form in Bethesda, Maryland, after his return to the United States. Although he didn't know it at the time, his days of practicing judo were numbered. As Mr. Smith states in this volume, if the softness of judo is high school, the softness of taijiquan is college. He decided at this point to go to college, ultimately graduating summa cum laude.

It is clear in this volume, that decades of practicing the principles of judo and taiji have shaped Mr. Smith's character. Marlene Deitrich, the famed film actress, once remarked of Ernest Hemingway, "He is gentle, as all real men are gentle; without tenderness, a man is uninteresting." Mr. Smith demonstrates in the pages of this book how years of serious study and practice of the martial arts under the tutelage of an authentic teacher can make a man interesting.

Almost anyone interested in the history and development of the Asian martial arts in Europe and North America during the twentieth century should find this book a peach; the exceptions will be those who dislike writers who state their opinions bluntly. The photo selection is first-rate, the factual content is sound, and the text reads like a series of letters from Bob Smith. (Not Mr. Smith, the martial arts instructor, but Bob, the guy who helps site shelters for bluebirds.) The sections on judo -- easily a third of the book -- burn with the gem-hard flame of "A Complete Guide to Judo" (1958). The chapters describing Mr. Smith's many notable friends -- E.J. Harrison, Donn Draeger, Jon Bluming, Bill Paul, Zheng Manqing, Ben Lo, Rose Li, and others -- sparkle with insight. And if you read between the lines, then you should find a wealth of how-to, including how to spend life breathing free rather than on your knees and truckling.

Major themes include:

* Love (Agape rather than Eros, mind you) is a key to happiness. What blocks most of us from understanding that is ego, which in the martial arts is frequently manifested by the desire to be a master rather than be true to ourselves.

* Internal strength is true strength. Why? Because internal strength is both faster in action and more restful in practice. Relax, breathe, and move from the center; misdirect and avoid rather than confront directly; and seek always for maximum efficiency and mutual welfare. These are keys to success in life as well as the martial arts, says Mr. Smith.

* If you practice your martial arts only in class, for awhile you'll get trophies and become better at your forms but in the end all you'll get is old. But if you pack your love into both fists and carry it with you everywhere you go, then by the time you become as ragged as the velveteen rabbit perhaps you will sometimes catch occasional glimpses of something more. This isn't faith or magic. It just is. One recommendation, though: if you observe significant differences between what you say in church or in class and what you do the rest of the time, then pay special attention to the chapters you probably skipped, namely the ones on books, music, and poetry.

* We all need humor in our lives, if only to keep us from taking ourselves entirely too seriously. Put another way, life is too short to spend infusing everything we do with pseudo-samurai determination. If this includes your practice, then perhaps it is time to take up shag dancing instead.

To summarize, this book represents Mr. Smith's best published writing in years and may be his best book ever. And, while its sometimes controversial statements may offend some readers, that is irrelevant because this book is autobiography rather than dissertation. I cannot recommend it enough.

The title of the long awaited magnus opus by R.W. Smith says it all, the musings of a martial arts practioner and pioneer that span nearly the whole of the 20th century. Smith seems to say "been there, done that" and when he says it, he means it!

Smith draws the reader in with stories of the giants in the world of boxing, early Judo and Chinese martial arts, all in his own inimitable and familiar style. Readers new to Smith's work will be captivated by his tales of the personalities he has met along the way, and those familiar with the man from his earlier work, especially Chinese Boxing, Masters and Methods, will find new tales and more detail on those familiar Chinese boxers he studied with during his several years on Taiwan.

Smith pulls no punches, and tells it as he sees it. You may not agree with everything he says, but you sure will enjoy the telling of it!

Mr. Smith has with his latest book written an honest and clear view of some of the martial arts he has been involved in and several of the personalities he has met over the many years of experience in them. It is a very good read, thoroughly interesting as well as written in a very pleasant writing style, and it has been hard for me to put it down once having started reading it, as I believe many if not every reviewer before me and anyone who has read the book will agree. Having said this, however, it is also important to mention that not every opinion Mr. Smith shares with us in his book can remain free of scrutiny. The no-nonsense way of describing events that have taken place in his martial arts career is to Mr. Smith's credit and clearly shows his strong character, but in some parts I couldn't help but tilt my head a little and wonder why he should have done or said a thing like that. This probably being caused by lack of life-experience on my part, for I am many years junior to Mr. Smith, I won't go into any details here, but leave it up to the readers of the future to decide whether they feel the same upon stumbling on those parts of the book. However these last sentences may have sounded, 'Martial Musings' is most certainly a must read for every martial arts enthousiast. Do you consider yourself one of them? Then why not show some character and order your copy, NOW!

This is a martial art memoir, written by a worldly man of vast experience and a knack for writing about it. Smith has studied a variety of martial arts, but primarily Judo and more recently Wushu. He has met a variety of martial notables. He expresses his strong opinions about them, and whatever else happens to strike his fancy, and from that standpoint, this is a wonderfully personal book with asides and comments about this and that. Parts of the book are more like a pleasant conversation. But, at the martial arts level, he has a very low opinion of some well-known martial artists, for instance, and lets you know why in his educated, experienced, analytical way. He has seen a lot of good martial arts and artists, and any number of charlatans. Although he thinks highly of Wushu, he speaks openly of the charlatans in that art as well. Since he has known or met almost everybody, he offers revealing anecdotes about some of the outstanding individuals who have been genuinely devoted to martial arts in the past century. Overall, this is not a book to study, but to read and enjoy. A travelogue through a very interesting life that witnessed and experienced much of the modern history and development of martial arts.

Robert Smith has a delightfull writing style. He doesnt suffer fools gladly and is more than willing to put down others he sees as inferior or fraudulent. Sadly this is the case as the martial arts in the USA has become a great big joke. Fortunately the current spate of full contact contests (pancrase,ufc,k-1) as well as renewed interest in muay thai, savate and judo are helping to change that. Smiths background is IMPECABLE-a masters degree and CIA analyst who trained in Japan and Taiwain. His contemporaries were Draeger, Bluming and Geesink. Anyone who knows who these folks were knows that he was in mighty good company.

Mr. Smith is a "wordsmith" in the truest sense. You can feel the authors qi, as he writes about the chinese masters that he has inter-acted with over the years. It has been my pleasure recently to meet R. W. Smith and visit with him. This book is a must for the library of any serious person who studies any of the martial arts.
Phillip W. Koeppel

Robert W. Smith has never been one to mince words. Anyone having read "Masters and Methods", in which he describes many of the better martial arts teachers on the Taiwan scene around 1960, would definitely expect more of the same with perhaps updates or enlargements of his previous writings. The reader definitely gets this. He tells stories about martial artists he had the pleasure of training alongside, learning with, or those that he numbered among his friends. In addition, he comments on things like the late Bruce Lee, and later developments in the US along the lines of the NHB contests and their like. I think his vitriolic harshness about these subjects is that he doens't like martial art "superstars" whose primary purpose to him seems to be the acquisition of fighting technique for its own sake and fame as a secondary. This book is called "Martial Musings" precisely because the author intended to make commentary in the nature of opinion, rather than just report history. He does so with forthrightness, humor, and an evident bent toward martial arts for self-cultivation. His laments on how many martial artists have "sold-out" to pop culture are of course the most controversial. For those he treats less than kindly, he pulls no punches! On the other hand, Smith extols those who used their arts to become better people above those who merely wished to prove themselves the best fighter precisely because he believes that in a truly civilized world, that martial arts should primarily be about authentic self defense and self-improvement. He mentions Rose Li, the daughter of a highly skilled but relatively unknown Xing Yi practitioner specifically because she was uninterested in selling out and teaching people without also trying to pass along her martial arts' spiritual essence. I think the people are interesting, the stories sometimes "laugh out loud" amusing as well as informative. There is little here for those looking for techniques. I laud him for promoting martial arts as he learned it, rather than getting caught up in the "professional fighter" worship that many younger people seem to engage in these days. After all, all we see of those fighters is what they do in the ring, and we're left to decide for ourselves who they might be as people beyond their fighting expertise. This book is clearly for those who dream of a martial arts as being perhaps more than a means to become "the baddest dude on the block."