Many people learn Martial Arts for many different reasons. I started because I wanted to be able to beat the crap out of anybody and didn't want anybody to be able to beat the crap out of me. As I've grown older ,and perhaps a little wiser, the former no longer has the appeal it once had but I am still firmly wedded to the latter.
Many people say that Martial Arts isn't about fighting. If this is the case what is it about ? If a person claims to be a Martial Artist and does not know how to fight he will be considered a dancer, acrobat or actor and not a Martial Artist at all.
For me the clue is in the name :
martial ( P ) Pronunciation Key (m„rshl) adj.
The primary requirement of a warrior is discipline. Military organisations enforce discipline rigorously, a Martial Artist must enforce his own discipline. If the training is easy and does not require much effort or pain then the self-discipline required to practise is not of a high level.
In pre-industrial China , the majority of the best martial artists were uneducated peasants who trained to become very efficient at killing people in order to attain jobs as soldiers, body guards or to become deadlier bandits. It was the educated classes who romanticized the philosophical and spiritual aspects of martial arts. The intellectuals chose to ascribe spiritual benefits and philosophical qualities to the martial arts to lend some intellectual legitimacy to the practice of efficiently maiming ,killing or disabling an enemy. This suited martial arts instructors extremely well , as they were generally treated as social outcasts. Teaching well off educated intellectuals had the dual benefit on increasing their social standing and removing the threat of challenges from hard working talented students. They could also charge more for teaching what were essentially callisthenic systems. Such is the abhorence for the brutality of real fighting the intellectual appeal of the perfect warrior who did not need to soil his hands with actual contact in order to defeat his enemies gained currency among the literati.
I have heard that a certain Taijiquan practitioner is claiming that he doesn't fight because his methods are so deadly that he would undoubtedly kill his opponent. Fortunately for him he never has to put his claim to the test. For me the ultimate skill is to be able to defeat an opponent without doing them any harm. This however is a lot harder to achieve.