"To me, the extraordinary aspect of martial arts..."

 

Did Bruce Lee say a quote that starts with "To me, the extraordinary aspect of martial arts"?

Introduction 

Another Bruce Lee "quote" appeared on my radar today. In full it reads (as shown in the image at top):

"To me, the extraordinary aspect of martial arts lies in its simplicity. The easy way is also the right way, and martial arts is nothing at all special; the closer to the true way of martial arts, the less wastage of expression there is."

This didn't sound like Bruce Lee to me, especially talking about "martial arts" as a whole. Bruce Lee was not a fan of most martial arts. As this quote is widely circulated, I decided to check it out.

The Sources

Black Belt Magazine, November 1967

This quote was easy to track down. I first found it in John Little's book The Warrior Within, where something like it appears on page 119. Mr. Little writes:

The entire concept of simplicity, of seeing through the veneer to the common denominator that connects the greater totality, was perfectly expressed by Lee during an earlier interview that appeared in the November 1967 issue of Black Belt magazine:

"The extraordinary part of it lies in its simplicity. Every movement in Jeet Kune Do is being so of itself. There is nothing artificial about it. I always believe that the easy way is the right way. Jeet Kune Do is simply the direct expression of one's feelings with the minimum of movements and energy. The closer to the true way of Gung fu, the less wastage of expression there is."

Using the pointer to Black Belt magazine, I found the original in the November 1967 issue, as shown in the figure below.

Black Belt Magazine, November 1967, page 16

The full quote, as you can read, says the following:

The extraordinary part of it lies in its simplicity. Every movement in Jeet Kune Do is being so of itself. There is nothing artificial about it. I always believe that the easy way is the right way. Jeet Kune Do is simply the direct expression of one's feelings with the minimum of movements and energy. The closer to the true way of gung-fu, the less wastage of expression there is. There is no mystery about my style.

You can see the elements from which the fake quote drew.

I did not decide to trace the origin of this fake quote, although I saw a version of it in a 2012 cybersecurity book!

Conclusion

Here's one way to analyze or reframe the fake quote:

To me, the extraordinary aspect of martial arts part of it [Jeet Kune do] lies in its simplicity. The easy way is also the right way, and martial arts is nothing at all special; the closer to the true way of martial arts, gung-fu, the less wastage of expression there is.

Bruce Lee is not talking about "martial arts" here. He's talking about Jeet Kune Do. He's also at the point in his thinking where he's still tying in back to "the true way of gung-fu," not some hypothetical free expression. 

I recognize that Bruce Lee's words have less impact for martial arts in general when they are correctly attributed to Jeet Kune Do. Even then, they are less "Jeet Kune Do-like" than his later pronouncements. 

That's all ok. It's what history is about!

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