Abstract: The protection of martial arts intangible heritage has been carried out for more than 10 years, and the theoretical research and practical work on the protection of martial arts intangible heritage are going deeper. However, there are still some divergences in the theoretical understanding and practice of martial arts intangible heritage protection so far. The controversy is concentrated on three aspects: what should be protected, the focus of protection, and the relationship between inheritance and innovation. This article mainly uses the methods of literature research, interview, logic analysis to study the above issues, aiming to promote the healthy development of the theory and practice of martial arts intangible heritage protection. The study points out that the martial arts that conforms to the intangible heritage characteristics belong to the category of martial arts intangible heritage, and should also be the object of martial arts intangible heritage protection; the content of the productive protection value in the martial arts intangible heritage should be the focus of protection; there is a contradictory relation of dialectical unity between inheritance and innovation in the protection of martial arts intangible heritage.

Key words: martial arts, intangible cultural heritage, protection issue