Verified origins of martial arts styles.

[Kobayashi]

Tracing the history of any CMA is certainly a formidable task!

Lots of good information on various IMA styles, including their history and lineage charts, can be found on Jarek Szymanski's excellent website: http://www.chinafrominside.com/ma/index.html.

From my understanding, most of the information on the site comes from interviews with various masters that Jarek conducted himself and translations of Chinese texts.

He may be able to point you in the right direction for other history sources as well. I imagine though, your search will be restricted to the limited number of translated sources, unless you are familiar with either mandarin or cantonese.

[Sri Hanuman]

Critical evaluation and cross referencing of said interviews and translations would be crucial in separating fact from fiction. This could be a pain in the ass for anyone who is not fluent in Chinese. Otherwise one would just be rehashing previously stated information, as I often times find myself doing.

[Kobayashi]

Critical evaluation and cross referencing of said interviews and translations would be crucial in separating fact from fiction.

Agreed, but good luck with that. Look at all the work Kang Gewu went through trying to get to the origins of baguazhang. And still there are outstanding questions...

Otherwise one would just be rehashing previously stated information, as I often times find myself doing.

I hear you there, I'm guilty of doing the same thing. This is why I try to avoid CMA history discussions, not to mention all of the mythical origins and legends.

[Sri Hanuman]

I hear you there, I'm guilty of doing the same thing. This is why I try to avoid CMA history discussions, not to mention all of the mythical origins and legends.

Tell me about it. To go along with what you said, there's several thousand reports on the history and origins of the White Lotus sect, their tie-in with Zhang San Feng mythos, including the in-depth reports of Wong Shiu Hon on how the myths of Zhang San Feng spread, and still to this day, you have people swearing that a mythical old Chinese man killed 1000 robbers after taking a nap, and invented a martial art that everybody practices to become one with the universe.