IS CHINA THE EARLIEST 'PROVEN' CENTER OF MARTIAL ARTS?

SAME AS MARITAL ARTS..........

What do you mean by "proven"? I think we can say that the very earliest civilizations, dating back 10,000 years or more, would have developed indigenous methods of fighting that would have been systemitzed in those communities.

These were likely taught word-of-mouth and by direct instruction, and no records of them would probably exist.

There is the common belief that the Buddhist monk Boddiharma brought martial arts to China from India, but that's just folk-tale. Boddiharma brought Buddhism to China, and also a set of exercises that was likely much more like what we would call Yoga today.

There was certainly a thriving Chinese martial arts sector; these people had been warring with their neighbors and with each other for long before Boddiharma came traipsing over the mountains.

India does have a long and rich marital tradition... Like the Chinese they had warred both among themselves and their neighbors for a very long time.

I would say India but it's just what I've read. Martial arts and Chess are similar in this, that game is so old people have forgotten who invented it, at this stage nobody knows for sure but it's thought to be based on 2 games that came out of India. India seems like the best bet.

this is a dumb question lol

you know everything is hearsay until we uncover more evidence right???

the facts are even if we have documented evidence of the oldest style or whatever there could be older ones that we just havn't found yet...

so just make something up like the rest of the people did and get on with your life already.

the earliest documented evidence is from 7, 000 bc from Sumeria (modern iraq) and since that's the cradle of civilization they were probably the first to organize martial arts on a massive scale.

And since they retarded the hindu civilization about about the same time the roots for big time & highly organized arts were probably sewn there.

or that could be wrong, who knows?

There's a mural in an Egyptian tomb that dates back to 3000 BC or so, a couple of thousand years before recorded martial arts in China. The ancient Greek Olympics had "Pankration", a competition that allowed for a variety of martial arts techniques. Tales of hand-to-hand combat are found in India and ancient Mesopotamia.

In short, no.

Technically war has been part of history since the dawn of man kind... therefore martial arts has been a part of just about every civilization which ever existed. Within resent history Martial Arts from Asia has made a great impact on "self-defense", as opposed to western styles such as boxing, greco wrestling, savate. No one really has a monopoly on the real meaning of martial arts.

No.

That would be India.

The only "facts" you will find are ancient texts, and the oldest found are in India.