I'm very well acquainted with the seven deadly sins. I keep a busy schedule trying to fit them in. I'm proud to be a glutton and I don't have time for sloth. I'm greedy and I'm angry and I don't care who I cross.
True confession ? Perhaps, but these lines also appear in the title track of Warren Zevon's excellent new album, Mr. Bad Example.
Over the years, I've read, and sometimes maybe even written, sanctimonious articles in the martial arts press about the behaviour and ethics expected of a martial arts instructor. Often these articles refer to an ideal exemplified by some great master of the past or by some elderly living master. I'd now like to examine this moral maze and attempt to show that grey areas are more common than black or white.
These sanctimonious articles usually place taboos on the instructor in the fields of foul language, violence, untidyness, sex, drinking, drugs and smoking. Instructors are expected to be polite, restrained, tidy, and abstemious. In an effort to make themselves appear more acceptable to the public, instructors often buy into this by wearing blazers and ties and awarding themselves titles such as "Professor" or "Grandmaster".
These articles usually portray instructors as black or white stereotypes; as living saints or the scum of the earth. I haven't met too many instructors who would conveniently fit either of these stereotypes.
It is perhaps sad, but nonetheless it is true that some "bad" or even criminal instructors are excellent martial artists. It is also sad but nonetheless true, that many instructors are fine upstanding citizens, but not very good martial artists. Of course we also have "bad" instructors who are bad martial artists and even "good" instructors who are good martial artists.
In Japanese martial arts, many instructors identify with the samurai ethic of bushido. What is not often acknowledged is the fact that some Japanese instructors who are now revered as paragons of all the known virtues were little more than war criminals when they served with the Japanese Imperial Army in its brutal campaigns throughout South East Asia during World War II. They got away with it because the Allied powers knew little and cared less about what one group of Orientals was doing to another. I'm quite happy to believe that some of these men were and are polite, restrained, tidy and abstemious. They are still war criminals.
The field of Chinese martial arts also has idols with feet of clay. Take Bruce Lee. It is well known in the Chinese martial arts community that he was taking "medicines" to help him deal with his heavy filming schedule. When he died, it was not with his wife at his side, but in the company of his co-star, the glamourous Miss Betty Ting Pei.
When I was serving in the Royal Hong Kong Police Force, I arrested fellow members of the Chinese martial arts community for offences connected with gambling, drugs and prostitution. In the early 1980s, a confidential report was published by the Triad Society Bureau on triad involvement in Chinese martial arts associations which gave Lion Dances and other demonstrations at traditional Chinese festivals. It revealed that just over one third (68 organisations from all over Hong Kong) of the almost two hundred organisations involved had a direct triad affiliation.
The reason for this involvement is that such demonstrations also involve 'requests' for 'donations' from shop keepers and onlookers as well as fights between rival associations. Apart from the prospect of monetary gain, the triad elements in some cases genuinely believe in the religious aspects of some of the festivals or sought prestige as government officials and VIPs often attend such events. There is of course some triad involvement in similar Chinese festivals in Chinatowns in Europe and America.
Of course most Japanese martial artists are not war criminals and most Chinese martial artists are not triad members. The point is that these hard facts are usually swept under the carpet and safer targets are set up for the Don Quixotes of the martial arts press to tilt their lances at.
Many of the old masters of Tai Chi Chuan had lifestyles which would raise a few eyebrows in our so-called permissive society. Yang Cheng -fu was grossly obese and died in his early fifties; at least one member of the Wu family was addicted to opium; many of the masters kept concubines or frequented places of "ill-repute"; many such as Cheng man-ching, were, by their own admission, heavy drinkers; many such as Yang Pan-hou and my own teacher liked in their youth to provoke fights. It's refreshing to know that some things don't change.
The thing is, I don't believe that any of these men were bad or wicked. They didn't rob churches or test the sharpness of their swords on prisoners. Nevertheless, each of them, in his own way, fails the respectability test that many Holy Willies in the martial arts world would like to set for the rest of us.
Christ once stopped a crowd from stoning an adultress, saying "let he who is without sin cast the first stone". In the martial arts world too, there are a lot of would be stone throwers.
Having talked of sinners, maybe it's appropriate to talk of saints and sages. Because of the laws of libel, let's restrict it to dead saints and sages - this also leaves me out.
It has always struck me as strange that some members of the karate world, everytime one of their number does or says anything that isn't quite respectable, they quote the words or deeds of Gichin Funakoshi in their admonitions. Funakoshi was a very nice old Okinawan schoolteacher, but personally I find his words and deeds often boring and usually irrelevant - I'd much rather read about Gary Spiers.
Fellow columnist, Tony Leung, recently debunked many of the elements of the Ta Mo story. I think that many of the stories about famous Tai Chi masters of the past were also nonsense. The problem is that their students had and in some cases have a vested interest in portraying their masters as mystics and sages. Some teachers even portray themselves in this light, setting themselves up as gurus; even worse, there are always plenty of suckers who believe them.
Apart from outright criminals, the people I object to are the pompous, the officious, the cheats, the frauds, the hypocrites, the dictators and anyone who doesn't get their round in. Those are what I would call seven deadly sins.
Let's give Warren Zevon the last word:-
"I'm Mr. Bad Example, intruder in the dirt
I like to have a good time and I don't care who gets hurt
I'm Mr. Bad Example, take a look at me
I'll live to be a hundred and go down in history"