Pirates Again

Pirates played a major role in creating modern China.  They, and the mercenaries who fought them, are a likely source of martial arts as we know them today.  While there are many other sources of martial arts, I do wish more scholars would focus on the important stuff, like pirates.  Here is a brief but informative article about Chinese Pirates in PFD format.  While pirates in the west were peaking with around 5,500 pirates, the Chinese were sporting 70,000.