economic, social, or political. Some of them were simply violent men with-
out formal martial arts training, inclined to use force for gain. Others had
spent time in the military and had formally learned not only martial arts
skills but also the organizational, tactical, and possibly even strategic skills
of established military units. This combination of men of violence, from the
mere criminal to the military officer, had always existed in Chinese society,
but in the Song we begin tofind direct evidence for their activities.
Yue Fei ( 1103 – 42 ), to use a prominent example, reportedly had a
martial arts teacher as a young man. Although we are not explicitly told
this for other generals or martialfigures, the same must have been true. The
Song military was a professional force, with the occasional addition of
some militia forces in emergencies. Officers, for their part, mostly came
from families of officers, though a few did rise from the ranks. The sons of
officers and generals grew up in the military and learned their martial
arts there. It is likely, though we have no evidence of this, that many of
the common soldiers were men who followed their fathers into the
ranks. Later fictional accounts of the Song, like The Water Margin
(Shuihuzhuan), include characters like Panther Head Lin Chong, a martial
arts instructor for the Song army. While the account isfiction, there were
numerous actual instructors in the army.^1
On the criminal side, it seems as if the Chinese countryside was always
well populated with bandits. These were not Robin Hood–like men, though
they were portrayed as such infiction, but usually predatory criminals
robbing passersby or shaking down ordinary farmers and merchants.
Most were not well trained in the martial arts, though some, particularly
former soldiers, would have been. As long as their activities were strictly
local and did not rise to the level of a major disturbance of order, the
government might leave them alone. If they spread their influence or became
a major problem, then the army would be forced to destroy them. Yet at the
same time, these bandits formed a possible pool of recruits for the army. One
of the government’s reactions to more organized bandits was to offer them
amnesty and recruitment into the army. Their violent behavior demonstra-
ted their qualifications for military service. Some bandits, notably the
Shandong bandit Li Quan, discussed in the following chapter, took advant-
age of chaotic times and rose to the level of a regional warlord.
Theflip side of the power of bandits was the need for protection from
bandits. In addition to the local self-defense forces already discussed,
merchants needed armed guards to protect the transport and storage of
their goods. While bulk goods like grains were unlikely to be robbed by
ordinary bandits unless they were hungry, light, high-value goods, like tea,
116 The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms and the Song Dynasty