Martial Arts
by: Jedi KidohdinThe “Star Wars” Jedi Knight Skills were taken from eastern martial arts. Here is a summary. I believe that Lucas mixed the martial arts skills from Japan and China:
“Yadomejutsu” is the Japanese martial arts of deflecting arrows with a sword, which was adapted by Lucas by showing Jedi deflecting laser bolts with a lightsaber.
“LingKongJin” is the Chinese martial arts of using projected Chi to knock down your opponent, which was adapted by Lucas by showing Jedi knocking down warrior droids by using the Force.
“Giang Hu” and “Shen Gong” teaches the concentrated chi weightless leaps that the ancient Chinese ‘Wuxia Pian’ knights reportedly used. The knights were not entirely airborne and had to push off of buildings and the ground to give thrust to their weightless, gliding leap. This was adapted by Lucas by showing Jedi using Force to achieve the weightless leap while in combat.
Lucas also gave them psychic skills like ESP, Telepathy, Telekinesis, Clairvoyance, etc. Mix all of these martial and psychic skills together and you have a powerful combination that we know as ‘Jedi’. Jedi using ‘the Force’ was equivalent to oriental warriors using Chi, Ki, or Qi. To the Jedi the Force was like Chi, but Chi with other Higher Power attributes.
This article is copyright to JediSanctuary.org