Robert W. Smith (writer)

Robert W. Smith (December 27, 1926 - July 1, 2011) was an American martial artist and writer most noted for his prodigious output of books and articles about the Asian martial arts and their masters. Smith's writing was an important factor in the spread of Asian martial arts such as judo, karate, and taijiquan into the postwar United States.

Born on a farm in Iowa, he was sent at the age of three to an orphanage due to his family's economic distress. There he became a voracious reader. In high school, he learned boxing and wrestling. He joined the U.S. Marines at seventeen. While in the Marines Smith completed his high school requirements through a correspondence course. He was honorably discharged in 1946. Smith attended college on the G.I. Bill, eventually earning a M.A. in Far Eastern studies from the University of Washington in 1953. Smith's interest in boxing and pursuit of Asian martial arts (especially judo) continued unabated. After a brief stint with the Red Cross, Smith joined the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency as an Intelligence Officer and moved to Bethesda, Maryland.

From 1959 to 1962 he was posted by the CIA to Taiwan. The Republican Chinese government led by Chiang Kai-Shek had fled to Taiwan (Formosa) after the victory of Mao Zedong and the Communists on the mainland in 1949. Protected by the U.S. Seventh Fleet, Taiwan became the seat of government for the Republic of China - the only Chinese government diplomatically recognized by the U.S. Government until the 1970s. Smith worked as a liaison to the Republican government.

While in Taiwan Smith trained and studied with many masters of Chinese martial arts (e.g., baguaquan, xingyi). Most importantly, he met Professor Cheng Man-ch'ing, the "master of five excellences" - calligraphy, poetry, painting, Chinese medicine, and taijiquan. Legend has it that Smith had to keep knocking on Professor Cheng's door for at least six months before Cheng would accept him as his first non-Chinese student. While waiting to study with Professor Cheng Man-ch'ing (Zheng Manqing), Smith studied with T.T. Liang. Cheng and his students would meet every Sunday in Taiwan for taijiquan and tuishou (pushing hands, which Smith often preferred to translate as "sensing hands"). Cheng moved to the United States in the mid-1960s and lived and taught in New York City for a number of years before returning to Taiwan in the mid-1970s. He and Smith kept in close contact until Cheng's death in 1975.

Smith returned to Bethesda in 1962 and initially taught judo at the local YMCA, but later concentrated on taijiquan, baguaquan, and xingyiquan. Starting in 1962, Smith taught a popular free early Saturday morning taijiquan class at the YMCA. This continued for 26 years. During those years he worked, raised a family, taught, and wrote about martial arts. Smith retired from teaching in 1988 and he and his wife Alice moved to the foothills of the Smoky Mountains.

Over the years Smith befriended many boxers and martial artists and sought many teachers. He was driven by a friendly curiosity that evolved over time into an expertise on Asian martial arts. He was one of the first western writers to introduce Asian martial arts to the West.

[edit] Smith's Writings

Beginning in the 1950s, Smith wrote articles for such martial arts magazines as Budokwai Quarterly Bulletin, [Judo], Strength and Health, Black Belt, and the ''Journal of Asian Martial Arts, and served on the editorial board for Taijiquan Journal. Smith's articles whetted the appetite of the American martial arts community, which paved the way for Asian masters to then develop followings in the US.

Always written with a flair, Smith's numerous books and articles offer martial techniques, history, anecdotes, opinions, humor and quotes from his wide-ranging personal training, research and reading. Smith collaborated with his teacher Cheng Man-ch'ing on one of the earliest English taijiquan books (T'ai Chi, Tuttle, 1967), and with Benjamin Lo on a translation of Chen Weiming's 1929 book T'ai chi ch'uan ta wen--Questions and Answers on T'ai Chi Ch'uan (North Atlantic, 1985). His memoir, "Martial Musings" (1999,) was written much as he taught taijiquan, i.e., with a thousand anecdotal stories and a sharp sense of humor. He wrote, co-wrote, edited, co-edited and co-translated fourteen books on the martial arts and over twenty articles with a particular focus on China. He also wrote three books under the nom de plume of John F. Gilbey. "Gilbey's" first book, Secret Fighting Arts of the World, was a work of fiction parodying various martial arts tall tales, but was widely assumed to be non-fiction when it was first released.

Smith edited the first book in English on Shaolin Temple boxing. In addition, he wrote the first books in English on baguaquan and xingyiquan, as well as the above-mentioned T'ai Chi. Smith thus, is the key figure in introducing Western readers to these three "internal" martial arts of China.

Smith was also a frequent contributor of book reviews and opinion letters to Washington-D.C.-area newspapers.