A Perspective on the Chinese Imagination and Martial Arts

The Code of Xia

The Seven

When walking the path, a person or family thinks about the whole. Instead of only details being important, the whole picture matters. Things connected by coincidence are included since all things are sympathetic to one another. Or at least, this is how the Chinese imagination works.

The Unconscious placed me on the path at a young age. I was fifteen when my high school girlfriend's father took me to see my first Japanese Bushido movie. She was employed at a local movie house sometime later, which allowed me free access to films whenever I wished. During this time, I encountered two films that impressed me deeply and set the stage for my plea to future families to "walk the path."

 

The first was Seven Samurai. I didn't know it then, but the story was a Wuxia tale, and the road played a significant part.

The village's defense provides most of the drama, but the psychological complexity involves how the leader collects his companions as he "moves on the road" toward his destination.
The leader's challenge is to find martial artists willing to risk their lives without pay to defend a village ravaged by bandits. But as he selects, talent isn't enough. He searches for the right kind of man, a skilled man who follows the Tao.
 
Takashi Shimura delivers a commanding performance as the group leader, and it was through his role that I first caught a glimpse of what it meant to be a martial artist in the Asian imagination.

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