Halberds and spears marked the rise of mass warfare and the departure
of aristocratic dominance of the battlefield. War became the activity of
commoners and the knightly class, rather than an arena for proving
aristocratic identity. At least in the Warring States period, the halberd
and spear were the individual weapons of soldiersfighting en masse, not
the individualistic weapons of an outstanding warrior. We have no men-
tion of anyonefighting an individual contest with a halberd or spear, in
sharp contrast to battle descriptions of aristocrats shooting at each other
with arrows. The halberd itself soon disappeared from the battlefield,
leaving only the spear, and, in the future, a fewfleeting literary references
to it (seeChapter 4 ).
Unarmed Combat
Many modern martial artists are primarily concerned with unarmed com-
bat, though this was of much less significance, judging by the extant
sources, than armed combat during the Warring States period. Some
form of unarmed combat likely developed well before the Warring States
period, but it is only in writings from the time that we have positive
evidence for it. There are three aspects of unarmed combat to consider:
weight lifting, wrestling, and striking. Thefirst of these may seem out of
place to the modern eye, but sheer physical strength was directly related to
martial prowess during the Warring States period. Wrestling was also
quite important and shared ritual practice with archery and charioteering.
Unarmed striking, by contrast, does not appear to have been very impor-
tant. All of this should alert us to the predominant use of martial arts at
that time as a means of violence. Weapons were the easiest way to improve
the effects of violent actions.
Sheer physical strength was understood in the Warring States period
to be a marker of martial prowess.^16 This association would continue for
most of the rest of Chinese history, changing perhaps only with the
advent of bodybuilding and the sport of weight lifting in the twentieth
century. While the majority of the Chinese population was involved in
hard physical labor in their daily life, men of truly extraordinary strength
were still noteworthy. In a time ofhuman-powered weapons, a stronger
fighter could inflict more damage and even shoot arrows farther. Stronger
fighters could also bear up better under the weight of armor and had an
advantage in wrestling and unarmed combat. Physical strength went
beyond the simply martial, however, indicating a general vitality and
overall power. No less a person than Confucius was reputed in a number
Unarmed Combat 45