page_title: Martial arts manual
section_title: Historical Asian martial arts
hierarchical_section_title: Martial arts manual / Historical Asian martial arts
caption_attribution_description: English: Ji Xiao Xin Shu; Chapter (Boxing Canon) 9th and last page of illustrations and accompanying commentary
context_page_description: Martial arts manuals are instructions, with or without illustrations, specifically designed to be learnt from a book. Many books detailing specific techniques of martial arts are often erroneously called manuals but were written as treatises.
  Prose descriptions of martial arts techniques appear late within the history of literature, due to the inherent difficulties of describing a technique rather than just demonstrating it.
  The earliest extant manuscript on armed combat is Royal Armouries Ms. I.33, written in Franconia around 1300.
  Not within the scope of this article are books on military strategy such as Sun Tzu's The Art of War or Publius Flavius Vegetius Renatus' De Re Militari, or military technology, such as De rebus bellicis.
context_section_description: Some texts on unarmed combat survive from Han China (c. 1st century). A list of wrestling techniques is contained in the Malla Purana of 13th century Gujarat, India. The Chinese Jixiao Xinshu dates to the 1560s. The Korean Muyejebo dates to 1598, the Muyedobotongji dates to 1790. The Japanese The Book of Five Rings dates to 1645.
caption: Unarmed fighting from the Jixiao Xinshu (1560s)
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