Was there ever any Chinese equivalent of Japanese Ninja’s?
I know that every country has always had assassins of some sort, just wasn’t sure if there was particular name for the Chinese ones?
They were called Lin Kuei. I am one. Now I’ve told you I have to kill you.
Damn!
Can’t you just attack my website first??
Thanks for the info though!
In the entire sum of human history, wherever you find a conventional army, employing conventional warfare techniques of their respective era and region; you will have unconventional warfare.
Thieves, assassins, spies, scouts, call them what you will, EVERY culture has had them. The ninja have been overly romanticized in print and film, to the point that the modern perception of the unconventional warriors of feudal Japan is so moronically skewed as to be unrecognizable.
So the answer is yes.
Yush he was fucking with you. There were no Lin Kuei it was made up by a white guy pretending to be asian, probably Ashida Kim again.
haha thanks, yep I figured that out once I went to wikipedia and it started talking about Mortal Kombat…
Just out of interest, what is the chinese (mandarin or cantonese) word for assassin?
Oh and btw, i’m not going to use this information to start my own Yush Lin Kuie Fu just so you know :qleft1:
The mandarin word for assasin is, “ci ke”.
Phonetically, suh-kuh, sort of. that’s about as close as i can get without going into tone usage in sino languages.
Thanks for that Chris!
Leung Ting, ya that guy, wrote a book about these “ninjas” from China. The Book is called “Skills of the Vagabonds”.
It is basiccally a book about how all the Chi tricks are performed to trick people, breaking breaks with a hammer on your head, having chop sticks cut against your chest with a sword, and snapping steel wire around your chest by inhaling. All the stuff we love here at Bullshido, except its that WT Leung Ting guy again…
An intersting point in the book. These vagabounds cultivated a myth that they could fly, or kill with a touch, or had magic chi shields and all that nonesense. Then, they would take advantage of this when they could to help cultivate the myth. Classic con artists, I will give an example.
They carried wire ropes wrapped in their belt sash. If being chased, they might use the wire to make a rope to climb a high wall. Instead of just getting away, they might hide the wire, wait untill the pursuers were close and then tell them, “look I jumped up here so easy”. The pursuers would retell the tale that they, “saw them jump up there themselves”. This then feed the myth that they had super powers.
Ting also mentions that he learned all this stuff from a street market performer, and that these Vagabonds are more like Gypsys then Ninjas, but still filled a coresponding role. This performer who taught Leung these tricks had students that thought they where learning real Chi secrets. They paid alot of money to rub potions all over their bodys and sit and meditate on Chi power, never knowing that it was all a trick. Then the Teacher would slice a chop stick against their chest with an axe or break bricks on them while they lay on a bed of nails or whatever.
They would then think it was their chi sheild and not the masters skills with the slegde hammer that made the trick work…Ha!
:5yinyang:
It’s also worth noting that a “ci ke” is nothing like a “ninja”. The Chinese think that ninjas are just as cool as we think they are. They have separate words for “assasin” vs. “ninja”. The “assasins” (ci ke) in Chinese fantasy are not typically so secretive. They often just walk up to the target in question and chop their heads off. Often they duel. It depends on how far into fantasy land you want to go. I’m pretty sure Jet Li was a “ci ke” in “Hero”. In any case, “ninja” are a very specifically Japanese fiction and “ci ke” are more “conventional” assasins like we think of in the west. Poison. Get close enough with a weapon. No magic powers. No smoke bombs or whatever. A lot of the time, the ficitonal ones are like Rambo or maybe the terminator. They walk in single handedly just taking out guards left and right cleaving a path of blood all the way to their target.
Li’s role in HERO was a CHI KE and yes Chinese Assasins, even in stories, took pride in their work. They didn’t sneak around they often observed their target and then walk up and open state they are going to kill them or make it public, like omar said, by simply looping their heads off.
There’s a really cool one in “The Emperor And The Assasin”. It’s got Gong Li in there too…
Sure, there’s chinese ninja’s- didn’t you guys see “Super Ninja”- all is explained, Run run Shaw style. There’s even a good old fashioned kee-Hauling in it- http://imdb.com/title/tt0084921/
No because in China they wouldn’t be called ninjas…Although it is evident that many asian countries had forces that specialized in assasination, espionage, and sabatage. It’s not like its something new although if you watch movies of ninjas than you probably don’t have as clear a depiction of what a ninja actually is.
My understanding of ninja is that they were Japanese spies who usually only fought in self-defense (if caught), but sometimes attacked, as in assassinations. China probably produced similar jobs (every nation has spies), but those employed would have used far different tactics (IE, no hand claws, Samurai training, etc.). Moreover, they don’t seem to have any particular title or tradition, as is the case with Ninja.
But it is possible that there were such specialized spies, and I just haven’t heard about them yet.
Chinese Ninjas
Ninjutsu came from China just like all Japanese martial arts.
The Wu Dang were a sect of martial fighters that employed strategies and techniques that went to Japan with the colonists and Ninjutsu has roots there.
trollshido in:
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They were an ancient and secret cult called the Tanjian.
Much more primitive, thus more powerful the the Ninja.
Real magic was not above them.
They were walkers in the moonlight.
I was wondering when someone was going to bring up the Tanjian.
You must spread some more reputation around before giving it to Ronin.
Few of us have the balls to bring up the feared and deadly…
- Dies with shuriken in ass *