Well, I finally got around to reading some theory so I'm officially not a :LIB: anymore, and I know Mao's essay on physical education is something I could knock out very quickly. The Crux of the essay goes:

  1. Being mentally and physically excellent are not mutually exclusive

  2. We are doing the younger generation a disservice by not emphasizing the body, something that will aid tremendously in both mental and ethical growth, among other things.

  3. Exercise can be done with just 30 minutes (although for my preferences, I would prefer a gym and I usually go for an hour as a total beginner, but I take 30 minutes per cardio session).

  4. Although most things should be polite, exercise is the one thing that should be "savage and rude".

Mao goes into a good amount in the last paragraph of the essay, stating...

" The superior man's deportment is cultivated and agreeable, but one cannot say this about exercise. Exercise should be savage and rude. To be able to leap on horseback and to shoot at the same time; to go from battle to battle; to shake the mountains by one' s cries, and the colours of the sky by one's roars of anger; to have the strength to uproot mountains like Hsiang Yu and the audacity to pierce the mark like Yu Chi — all this is savage and rude and has nothing to do with delicacy. In order to progress in exercise, one must be savage. If one is savage, one will have great vigour and strong muscles and bones. The method of exercise should be rude; then one can apply oneself seriously and it will be easy to exercise. These two things are especially important for beginners.

There are three things to which we must pay attention in exercise: (1) perseverance, (2) concentration of all our strength, and (3) that it be savage and rude. There are many other things that require attention. Here I have merely indicated the most important ones..... "

What exactly is meant by "savage and rude", and how can I apply this to my fitness goals?

  • AssortedBiscuits [they/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    So I found the original in Chinese and the really strange thing is that it's not written in Mandarin or any other vernacular variety but it's actually written in Literary Chinese, fundamentally the same language used by Confucian literati-scholars. "The superior man" is 君子, which is used by Confucians to mean "person that I approve of" in contrast with 小人 (literally means petty person), which is used to mean "person I disapprove of." It seems like Mao was mostly making a point about how the literati-scholars are pampered dipshits who scoff at exercise at being done by the unwashed peasant masses and how exercise should be as far removed from Confucian values as possible. And since Confucians fancied themselves as keepers of Chinese culture (Confucius described himself as a transmitter of culture and civilization in The Analects), exercise would have to be unrefined and un-Confucian. In other words, it would have to be savage and barbaric.

    how can I apply this to my fitness goals?

    Don't be a nerd. Don't take up archery. Don't throw arrows into a pot as a game.

    • Krem [he/him, they/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      Archery is cool though, just don't become an archery guy or a bowhunting guy, do a little archery now and then if you want but remember to also practice horseback rifle shooting

            • Krem [he/him, they/them]
              ·
              2 years ago

              I describe archery guys in detail in episode 624 of my podcast which rakes in 100k each month on patreon.

              "It's like, you know how... archery guys are like... goes on to describe a specific subtype of guy that may not exist“

              and all the listeners are like "yeah totally"

              • invo_rt [he/him]
                ·
                2 years ago

                insert comparison to video game

                insert comparison to random TikTok rapper

    • Dimmer06 [he/him,comrade/them]
      ·
      2 years ago

      That's what I figured it was. This was a time when a noble gentry would have been playing low energy sports for exercise. The Western equivalent would be like saying exercise should be like soccer or boxing rather than golf.