Sinanju (martial art) - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Sinanju is a fictional martial art (the 'Sun Source' of all martial arts) of a cult paperback book series, The Destroyer, by Warren Murphy

Warren Murphy

Warren Murphy is an American author, most famous as the co-creator of The Destroyer series, the basis for the film Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins. He worked as a reporter and editor and after service during the Korean War, he drifted into politics.Murphy also wrote the screenplay for Lethal...

and Richard Sapir

Richard Sapir

Richard Ben Sapir is best known for The Destroyer series of novels that he co-created with Warren Murphy. The first Destroyer was written in 1963, while Sapir worked as a city hall reporter in Jersey City and Murphy served as secretary to the city's mayor...

. The Destroyer series lampoons politicians, politics

Politics

Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...

, other adventure novels, features gory violence on evildoers, martial art adventures and more.

Background

After a faked execution, the protagonist, ex-cop Remo Williams, is recruited by a secret organization, CURE of the U.S.

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

for missions that include saving the world, senators, destroying dangerous cults, criminal organizations, etc., at the same time he receives advanced martial arts training from the master of Sinanju, and all-in-one hired assassin, zen

Zen

Zen is a school of Mahāyāna Buddhism founded by the Buddhist monk Bodhidharma. The word Zen is from the Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word Chán , which in turn is derived from the Sanskrit word dhyāna, which can be approximately translated as "meditation" or "meditative state."Zen...

master, super martial artist, nutritionist, soap opera fan and linguist Chiun. Remo is also believed to be the incarnation of Shiva

Shiva

Shiva is a major Hindu deity, and is the destroyer god or transformer among the Trimurti, the Hindu Trinity of the primary aspects of the divine. God Shiva is a yogi who has notice of everything that happens in the world and is the main aspect of life. Yet one with great power lives a life of a...

"the destroyer" whose mission is to destroy evil.

History of sinanju

Chiun comes from a long line of hired assassins called the House of Sinanju that has pursued its trade since the time of the pharaohs. Early disciples of the art used weapons, but the later practitioners developed virtually superhuman abilities through the training as it became revised following the ascension of Master Wang -- the greatest master of the art up until modern times. The Sinanju training enables one to hold one's breath over an hour, rip steel doors from their hinges, climb walls, dodge bullets (even at point blank range), overturn a moving tank, outrun a car, seem invisible, overcome multiple opponents, etc.

According to Chiun, the other martial arts in the world (Kung Fu, Ninjutsu, etc.) are all seriously diluted imitations of Sinanju. He compares the other arts to rays of sunshine while Sinanju would be the sun itself.
He also refers to an ancient legend from Sinanju's past which predicts that the greatest master in the history of the art will be a dead white Night Tiger (Sinanju acolyte) "made whole by the art." Remo appears to fit the description from Chiun's perspective.

Sinanju teachings

Some of the famous Chiun teachings are

Let your opponent point to you the way to overcome him.
The most dangerous man is he who does not appear dangerous.
A man who cannot apologize is no man at all.
Everything is a weapon in the hands of a man who knows.
One cannot sew a silk purse from a sow's ear.

Shadows of sinanju

There are other groups that practice diluted forms of Sinanju. These include;

The Wa - A line of assassins that were taught by an ancient master of Sinanju how to use knives effectively. They tried to betray the village of Sinanju to its enemies and were forced to flee to Japan, where they operated until the 20th century.
The Wissex - An English house of assassins that were created after a master of Sinanju received a retainer to train an auxiliary assassin from the court of Henry the Eighth
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...

to serve in his absence. This group was trained in poisons and other arts that the House of Sinanju had abandoned following the ascension of Master Wang.
The Sun On Jo - An American Indian tribe founded by a Master of Sinanju named Kojong who journeyed to America centuries earlier. He taught them how to fight, walk silently across sand without disturbing it and other tricks, but imposed a decree on them that they must not take human life -- this was done so the main house would not face future competitors. He also passed on the Sinanju-derived abilities to his eldest son, whose own first-born sons would be called by the name "Sunny Joe". Remo Williams' father Bill Roam is a member of this tribe and a direct descendant of Kojong; confirming what Chiun had long suspected about Remo's Korean heritage.

External links

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