The Filipino Martial Tradition
by Pedro Reyes
Arnis is a Military Art, not Civilian
Legend asserts that monks and civilians developed kung fu and karate. There are many variations to those legends. In one, monks hardened their hands so that they could chop wood for fire because they could not carry bladed implements. They extended their discovery to develop external kung fu for self-defense. In Okinawa, civilians also hardened their hands and feet, and use agricultural implements to defend themselves against marauding Japanese soldiers. That is the origin of karate, legend says. And Taoist monks developed internal kung fu to integrate mind and body. How about arnis?
Here, there are no records; there are no legends. But we can make educated inferences. The first clue is the name of the art, arnis de mano. Arnis seems to be a corruption of the Spanish word, arnés, which means mail armor. Mail is flexible armor made of overlapping metal rings, loops of chain, or scales, such as those worn by European knights in the Middle Ages. Arnis de mano thus literally means armor with the hands and alludes to the reputed ability of the arnisador to defend himself with his hands as though he had put on an armor of mail.
Another clue to the military character of arnis is that arnisadores train with weapons before they train with bare hands. Why? No soldier goes to war with empty hands. He fights with weapons first, and uses his bare hands only as a last resort. (In contrast kung fu, karate and judo practitioners betray their civilian origins by starting with empty hands.)
Arnis Adapts to Civilian Weapons
But
when the Spaniards occupied the Philippines, they abolished the warrior
class. They forbade the Filipinos from carrying their beloved spears,
kampilans and blowguns. They banned archery. But….Filipinos could still
carry the riding or whipping stick with which to drive their cows,
carabaos and horses. They could walk around town with canes or walking
sticks even if they were not elderly. Farmers could strap a utility
bolo around their waists before stepping out of the house. Any farmer
or townsman could conceal a dagger or a knife around his person. And of
course, a man or woman, always had his hands and feet.
Arnisadores
now concentrated their techniques around those five classes of weapons.
They no longer practiced archery, used the spear or employed the
blowgun, and they eventually forgot their techniques for those weapons.
Of course, the arnisadores would also use other weapons if they were
the only ones available, such as the hand scythe, the pestle or the
carrying pole. But they retained the military character of arnis.
Arnisadores still began their training with weapons and teaching
remained “impersonal.”
Arnis is Tribal, not Familial
What
do I mean by “impersonal”? The unit of ancient Filipino society is the
barangay. A barangay is composed of several families, which were not
always related to one another. The number of dedicated warriors in a
barangay was probably small. So every able-bodied man had to be able to
defend the barangay. Thus arnis masters would teach any able-bodied man
in the barangay regardless of the man’s family.
In contrast, ancient
Chinese and Japanese masters considered their martial arts as family
heirlooms to be used to defend a family or to enhance its prestige. So
they confined – or tried to continue – their instruction to members of
their clan. For example: Formerly only members of the Ch’en family
could learn tai chi chuan until Yang Lu-ch’an broke the monopoly. Only
the Takeda family and their retainers could learn aiki-jutsu. At
present even the Kano family tries to keep control of judo even though
instruction is not confined to the Kano family and is open to anyone.
In
those styles, the titles of student, master, grandmaster, great
grandmaster, and so on reflect those of the family: son, father,
grandfather, great grandfather, etc. The master becomes a second father
who can interfere in the most intimate details of life of the student
to an extent unknown to the arnisador.
Each Arnis Master is Sui Generis
Kung
fu students avidly seek genealogical charts of their styles because
that is how they establish their legitimacy. But classical arnisadores
pay only scant attention to charts like this. For the classical arnis
master stands on his own abilities. He is not a master because he has
received a certificate from a school, or because he has been appointed
successor by a grandmaster. He is sui generis.
Arnisadores prefer
teachers who shine by their own light, like the sun, rather than
planets that shine by the reflected light of their school or teacher.
That is why arnisadores like Jose Caballero, Remy Presas and Edgar
Sulite claim to have created their own styles, rather than to have
inherited them.
When a student first approaches a traditional
master, the master may say, “Yes, I’ll teach you the little that I
know.” He would then demonstrate his abilities and if the student likes
it, he would stay for more instruction. What the classical master will
not say is, “Yes, I will teach you because I’m the 10th degree master
of Rabid Dog Arnis” or “The grandmaster of Howling Devil Arnis
appointed me as his successor.” Such boasts are the product of a later,
crasser, more commercial age.
A Student Becomes a Master
But
in that case, when does an arnis student become a master? Does he
promote himself? Strange as it may seem to a Chinese or to a Japanese
stylist, the answer in traditional arnis is, yes. The traditional
arnisador begins to teach when he feels he is ready to each, not when
his master tells him so. For the traditional master will never give him
a teaching certificate, much less appoint him as his successor, no
matter how able the student is.
That for a simple reason. Once an
arnisador starts to teach, he is open to life-and-death challenges. A
master who gives teaching certificate to his student, or appoints him
as his successor, effectively signs the death warrant for that student.
No master likes that responsibility.
(A minor factor that may inhibit the master would be his loss of prestige should the student fail a challenge.)
Suppose
the student wants to teach but the master thinks he is not yet ready?
The dynamics of Philippine society decides what the master would do. He
is likely to remain silent, although in rare cases he might tell the
student not to teach. He might also express his doubts to a few
intimate friends, but those friends are not likely to pass these on to
the student. Thus the new master would go on teaching blissfully
unaware of the misgivings of his teacher. There are arnisadores who
have become famous masters without taking lessons. Pedro Walis of
Iloilo was one: he claimed to have learned arnis simply by watching
other masters’ practice and teach.
Arnis Tradition is Open
Certificates
of proficiency, appointments of representatives of a style, selection
of successors are contemporary phenomena, products of masters who wish
to commercialize their skills. Many of those masters have studied
Japanese styles and they pattern their ranking after the Japanese; some
even call their instructors, dans. For few contemporary students are
willing to pay tuition, or put up money for a seminar, without a
visible token in return, be it a certificate of attendance, a grade
diploma to be hung on the wall, or even just a membership card.
Contemporary masters can provide those tokens with a free conscience
because life-and-death challenges are illegal and rare now.
Is this
the end of the classical tradition and the start of a new one? Perhaps.
For unlike the Chinese or the Japanese, arnis tradition is open. Arnis
masters are not afraid to change. This is due to the military origin or
arnis. In war, one utilizes even alien techniques if they are effective.
The
first radical change in the nature of arnis occurred when the Spaniards
abolished the warrior class and prohibited the use of their weapons.
The arnis masters reacted by concentrating their techniques on the
weapons now legally available to civilians. These are the riding stick,
the walking cane, the utility bolo and the hand knife.
At the same
time, a branch of arnis that so many aspire to learn but only a handful
can master became Christianized. I refer to esoteric arnis, which deals
with healing and the use of the oracion. The arnisadores now directed
their attention to the Christian pantheon. Curiously, the arnisador
sometimes found himself using the names of the old gods to address the
gods of the Christians without losing the effectiveness of his oracion.
In
many cases, the changes were not too traumatic. For example, the
arnisdores simply moved the great days of initiation into the oraciones
of the Moon Goddess to the days of Lent and to All Souls Day. As for
the celebration of the Earth God – Christmas became one of them,
leaving only the summer initiations without Christian equivalents.
Incidentally, arnisadores prefer to offer themselves to the Goddess. A
traditional practice, for example, is to drill during the nights of the
moon to seek the favor, protection and strength of the Great Mother.
Next,
the Spanish friars introduced the komedya and asked the arnisadores to
choreograph the mock battles. Arnis masters responded by creating anew
style, or branch of arnis, exhibition or theatrical arnis. Present day
masters who coach cinematic actors are heirs to this branch.
The
third change occurred when promoters introduced sports tournaments.
Sport arnis has developed from competition without protection to one
where the competitors protect themselves with armor. The rules for this
new branch of arnis are still evolving, but already arnisadores have
created techniques specially tuned to sports.
The fourth change is
the one we have been discussing: the awards of certificates of
proficiency by commercial gymnasia. This is no longer classical arnis.
Commercial arnis? To some, that sounds derogatory, but need not be.
Competition for students can improve quality, although it could also
propel arnis the wrong way among unscrupulous masters hungry for money.
Some
masters are caught in the transition to this “new tradition”.
Grandmaster Antonio Ilustrisimo believed that certificates were
worthless, so that he did not rank his intimate disciples. Nevertheless
he cynically issued certificates when he needed money; or to silence
disciples who pestered him for them.
And the future? I would like to
see arnis maestros with intelligence and guts enough to integrate
modern gun fighting into arnis. Some arnisadores would like to
re-introduce archery, spear throwing and blowguns, but I consider that
a backward step. People do not fight with bows and arrows, shields and
spears, and blowguns anymore. They fight with guns.
A Different Enlightenment
If you were to challenge me to write in a few words the essence of arnis, what would I say? Arnis is the search for one’s unique self. Who am I?
If you are an arnisador, you begin by imitating your teacher. Then you find that the only way you can master the techniques is to make them your own, adapting them to your own build, temperament and reflexes. Now go back and forth between those two states, the conditioned and the unconditioned consciousness, until you realize that your self has always been and is always free. Then shout in exultant freedom.
The martial artist who is a Buddhist awakens the non-attached heart; the Taoist, the harmonious heart. The arnisador enjoys the free, creative, unconditioned heart.
Copyright © Rapid Journal 1999
