Ninja: a parallel development in Chinese wuxia universes?

[Ken Cheng]

You mention the term "ninja" and people will think of the Japanese ninja...masked men in black outfits using martial arts and weaponry that emphasize stealth and evasion for purposes of assassination or reconnaisance. Indeed, the Japanese word "ninja" is translated as "invisible person". In Chinese wuxia fiction, however, we also often see masked individuals in black outfits (sometimes, they're our heroes in stealth mode) carrying out assassination or reconnaissance missions. They don't use the Japanese ninja stars or katanas characteristic of Japanese ninja, but otherwise their costumes and modus operandi are more or less the same as their Japanese counterparts. Was there a tradition of Chinese ninja that existed concurrently with the Japanese one?

[Temujin]

Here's an interesting article about the origin of Ninja and the relationship to Chinese culture from The Illuminated Lantern website


Originally published in The Illuminated Lantern Issue 8, April - May, 2001.

Written by Peter Nepstad.

Ninja History

'Ninja?' What is this 'Ninja?'

The short version of the origin of the Ninja, retold many times in books and on film, goes something like this:

The Ninja arts originated in ancient China, then traveled to Japan during the Tang Dynasty. The Japanese developed the Ninja arts to the utmost, creating deadly assassins, who can enter any place undetected and strike when least expected.

Which unfortunately seems to be complete nonsense. So we have to go back, and look into the history books, to see just what they're talking about in the passage above, and not only that to see what a more fact-based history of the Ninja might look like.

And before we do that, we need to define some terms. Just what is a ninja, anyway? The word itself derives from the Japanese Shinobi-no-mono, which is written with two kanji characters that can also be pronounced as nin-sha, if the Chinese pronunciation is used instead. The first character, nin, suggests concealment, while the second, sha, means person. Ninja: a person who hides his presence. In Japanese, the word is applied to a person who does covert, military operations.

We cannot leave the term with such a broad definition, though, else the CIA, the FBI, and the marines could all be considered ninjas. And though I'm sure there are many marines who would like to believe that they are, I'm afraid it just isn't so. When speaking of the Ninja, then, we also imply that they are a secret organization, fraternity, or clan, whose skills and knowledge have been passed down in secrecy from generation to generation. And finally, they have to occasionally wear that cool black outfit.

In sum, to be considered a ninja, as we understand it through popular entertainment and modern ninjutsu masters, a ninja must:

practice the art of concealment
engage in covert military operations
belong to a secret fraternity of ninja
wear black, and lots of it.

As we shall see, the first two points have historic practitioners in Japan, though this is hardly suprising, since these are common acts in warfare around the world and hardly justify a unique ninja mystique, while the last two points have more of a mythic quality and may have very little basis in truth. Nevertheless, a careful study of the history does indeed reveal ninjas of a sort operating in Japan, at the very least during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. But before we arrive there, we must first take a look at claims of an ancient heritage of ninja arts, beginning as far back as ancient China.

The Ninja History that Wasn't

When the claim is made that Ninja arts originated in China, what is really being said is that Sun Tzu's The Art of War was written there around the fifth century BC, and contains a chapter about the importance of espionage. Some of the tactics described in this book, specifically the espionage chapter, were eventually put into use by the ninja. For this reason, ninja skills are often described as Chinese in origin. On the other hand, there was nothing particularly secret about this book, and the strategems were widely known, once the book finally made it over to Japan sometime in the seventh or eighth century AD. The Chinese often referred to it, and many other books which followed it, when planning for warfare and studying tactics. The Japanese, too, came to use the book and many of its teachings, not just the espionage chapter. Samurai battles used tactics laid out in The Art of War. Yet no one claims that the Way of the Samurai originated in China. It's sort of like claiming that Mormonism began in Israel thousands of years ago. While it's true Christianity did, Mormonism did not. A school of thought may have begun in China with Sun Tzu's The Art of War, but the system created in Japan which included some of this information and was known as the Ninja arts must be said to be a unique creation of Japan.

So for those who prefer an ancient Japanese origin for the ninja, there is another myth. This story involves the legendary hero Prince Yamato and is recorded in two of the oldest written texts in Japan, the Kojiki and the Nihon Shoki. Both tell origin myths and early history of the Japanese people, and are a mix of folklore, fact, and legend. Both were written in the early eighth century AD for the imperial household. The story of Prince Yamato is usually pointed to as an illustration of how old the arts of the ninja are, the events allegedly taking place in the first century AD. But not even the firmest believers in the Prince Yamato story can call him a ninja for it, rather he is a 'proto-ninja.' The story which interests ninja historians concerns Prince Yamato's mission to subdue the Komaso. He arrives in the Land of Kumaso, and the story continues as follows (as translated by W.G. Aston):

Now the Kumaso had a leader named Torishi-kaya, also called the Brave of Kahakami, who assembled all his relations in order to give them a banquet. Hereupon Prince Yamato let down his hair, and disguising himself as a young girl, secretly waited until the banquet should be given. Then with a sword girded on him underneath his inner garment, he entered the banqueting muro of the Brave of Kahakami and remained among the women. The Brave of Kahakami, enchanted with the beauty of the young girl, forthwith took her by the hand, and made her sit by him. He also offered her the cup, and made her drink, and thus amused himself with her. By and by the night grew late, and the company fewer. Also the Brave of Kahakami became intoxicated. Hereupon Prince Yamato drew the sword which he had in his inner garments, and stabbed the Brave of Kahakami in the breast.

After which, before dying, the Brave imparted on Prince Yamato the name Yamato-Takeru, or "Yamato the Courageous." But what does this have to do with ninjas, you may ask? Beats me, unless of course ninjas are infamous cross-dressers. Unfortunately, in the historic literature, there are no references of any ninja disguising themselves as a woman, at least that I have been able to verify. It is considered a "ninja-like" tactic, but perhaps the best that can be said of this example is that this is the sort of assassination the ninja would like to have been known for. Sadly, no records indicate they ever were.

Moving forward in history about four hundred years, a ninja-like night raid does show up in the Heike Monogatari, which documents the battles between the Taira and Minamoto clans for command of the nation in 1182. A couple samurai warriors secretly sneak into the enemy's camp. But even though by this time Sun Tzu's The Art of War has been lying around for hundreds of years, apparently they didn't read it, since the first thing they do is shout a challenge to announce their arrival, and are promptly killed for their trouble. Clearly, no one had figured out that whole ninja thing yet.

So, when exactly do ninjas show up in the historical record? Do they ever? They do. And it seems the earliest reference to a band of ninja occurs in the Taiheiki, written around 1360 and referring to an event which took place in 1338. And unfortunately, it's an unmitigated disaster -- the ninjas are discovered before the raid is even carried out and they are slaughtered to a man. Not an auspicious beginning! From that point, references to ninja activity increase in the histories and romances written at the time, with ninja activity finally coming into its own during the age of Sengoku, when all of Japan was plunged into war, a state of affairs which lasted throughout the sixteenth century, with the most ninja activity seemingly occuring around the Iga and Koga provinces. What they did, and how they did it, is what concerns us in the next section.

To the read the whole article go to http://www.illuminatedlantern.com/ci...res/ninja.html