Martial Culture and Historical Martial Arts in Europe and Asia: A Multi-perspective View on Sword Culture

This open-access book is the first to provide a comparative framework for the study of martial culture and historical martial arts in Europe and Asia, particularly in Italy and China. It brings together researchers from diverse fields, including historians, archeologists, art historians, scholars of fencing literature, metallurgists, and contemporary master swordsmiths and masters-of-arms. The book offers a multi-perspectival and dynamic view of martial culture across time and space, reflecting the various core aspects of martial studies, including history, culture, philosophy, literature, knowledge transmission, material culture, and technical aspects of historical fencing. It is a valuable resource for scholars, historians, and researchers interested in this subject, as well as for those with interest in Chinese and/or Italian history, the history of international relations in Asia/Far East, anthropologists, martial arts studies, and sword-making and/or historic metallurgy.

Format: Hardback
Length: 381 pages
Publication date: 12 November 2022
Publisher: Springer Verlag, Singapore

This groundbreaking open-access book is a pioneering effort in providing a comprehensive comparative framework for the study of martial culture and historical martial arts across Europe and Asia, with a special focus on Italy and China. Given the multidisciplinary nature of martial studies, this volume brings together a diverse range of contributors, including historians, archaeologists, art historians, scholars of fencing literature, metallurgists, as well as contemporary master swordsmiths and masters-of-arms in historical martial arts. By assembling researchers from these diverse fields, this book offers a multi-perspectival and dynamic view of martial culture across time and space.

The cross-cultural and interdisciplinary significance of this book is truly remarkable. While several contributors are internationally renowned and esteemed authorities in their respective fields, such as Jeffrey Shaw, a world-leading new media artist and scholar since the 1970s, and Ma Mingda, a well-known historian and the contemporary founder of Chinese martial studies, this book brings their research together for the first time within a single volume. Moreover, the book is thoughtfully structured to reflect the various core aspects of martial studies, particularly in relation to the study of historic sword culture. This includes history, culture, philosophy, literature, knowledge transmission, material culture, as well as the technical aspects of historical fencing.

As one of the first titles in martial studies, this book serves as a valuable reference not only for scholars actively engaged in this field but also for historians, scholars with an interest in Chinese and/or Italian history (particularly of the Medieval or early modern periods), the history of international relations, and cultural studies. The insights and perspectives offered by the contributors in this book will undoubtedly contribute to our understanding of martial culture and its historical development across different regions and periods.

Weight: 843g
Dimension: 235 x 155 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9789811920363
Edition number: 1st ed. 2023