Book 17 Chapter 14

The 108 Recommended Must-Read Books for Students - Yet Read by Almost No One

The rare discourses, meticulously crafted by thirty renowned masters, universally acknowledged for their sharp intellect and unparalleled martial arts prowess, after a full year of intense collaboration. These are certified masterpieces, said to nourish the body and soul if one reads them—and if, after reading, the act of understanding is somehow possible.

Despite nearly fifty years having passed since hundreds of books flooding the martial world were indiscriminately gathered, then rationally discarded, then re-selected for economic reasons, and repeatedly winnowed according to principles of competition to form this essential reading list, according to the testimony of the "Book Maniac" elder, who has served as the chief librarian of the Cheonmu Academy's Scripture Pavilion for the past sixty years, fewer than a dozen people in the entire fifty-year history have managed to thoroughly read all 108 of these books.

"Of course, I acknowledge that the books on this list are not aligned with the current students' level… but seeing children who distance themselves from books and neglect their intellectual growth, still clinging to the notion that martial arts are only learned through physical practice, sometimes makes my judge's brush tremble with rage. I sincerely hope that children afflicted with anorexia bibliographica, a prevalent epidemic in the martial world where reading a book causes vomiting, and bibliosomnia, an incurable disease whose cure has yet to be discovered even after two thousand years since its identification, will be healed swiftly."

- Excerpt from an interview with Elder Seo Gwang, Chief Librarian.

From "The Twelve Secret Manual Heresy on the Pointlessness of Martial Arts"

- Partial Excerpt -

… (omitted) …

… The act of engraving one's martial arts principles in some dark cave, or in the middle of a desolate and remote cliff face, unsuitable even as a tourist attraction, in the hope that their supposedly peerless secret manual will not be buried and lost to posterity, but used for good, is, for these reasons, nothing more than mere self-satisfaction and environmental desecration.

The limitations of language are clear and obvious. Furthermore, humans are profoundly subjective beings. We inevitably read any work with our own biases. Bias is indeed selfish intent and malicious intent.

Due to these inherent limitations in our cognitive framework, information is inevitably filtered at least once, and inevitably, distortions occur in that process. Particularly, diagrams related to movements, as opposed to the essence of internal energy cultivation, are the utterly ignorant act of cramming three-dimensional space into a two-dimensional plane, which not only fails to aid understanding but sometimes even hinders it. For this reason, the naive idea of learning peerless martial arts through secret manuals passed down from the past is nothing more than a futile illusion, akin to the dream of striking it rich overnight.

… (interspersed) …

As the old saying goes, forms are two (2), and a teacher's words are eight (8). Forms are merely the outward appearance; the true subtleties contained within are only possible through a teacher's direct instruction. To cling solely to the form of a movement is to miss the remaining eight parts of its subtlety. Here, 'form' can be used interchangeably with 'secret manual'.

The true secret arts are the profound techniques, learned firsthand through life and death struggles by a teacher, embodying various experiences and accurately reflecting the actual battlefield.

So, what is the purpose of a secret manual?

It is merely a form of preparation against dementia. As humans age, their memory deteriorates, and this process accelerates in those who do not use their minds diligently. Some even forget the martial arts they have learned. The temporal limit for this is typically sixty years, a full cycle.

When the sands of memory begin to scatter in the winds of time, a secret manual (a martial arts book) serves as a useful tool for recollection.

Through the contents organized in a secret manual, one can retrace the faded traces of memory, which have turned into a blank slate, and recall the original form, whether they had forgotten it or not. We must admit that, beyond this, there is nothing else of use in a secret manual.

… (concluded) …