Bruce Lee, the Hong Kong movie star and martial artist, coined the slogan “Be Water” in an interview during the late 1960s. This iconic tagline is more than a statement of Lee’s kung fu philosophy; it has been borrowed as a tactic of various political and resistance movements.
“Be formless, shapeless like water.” For those familiar with ancient Chinese philosophy, it is clear that Lee has simply lifted the water metaphor from Lao Tse’s classic text “Tao Te Ching.”
If one of the tenets of Taoism can be turned into applications in modern martial arts, we may further ask: what is the contemporary significance of Taoism?
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