Hand Combat 115
techniques—through an almost identical lineage of lay practitioners—to the
Shaolin Monastery. In his 1784 preface to Hand Combat Classic, Cao Huandou
explains that the manual he annotated had been authored more than a cen-
tury earlier by one Zhang Kongzhao (style: Hengqiu). He further notes that
Zhang Kongzhao studied his Shaolin method with Zhang Ming’e, who is given
as author of the preface to Xuanji’s Acupuncture Points. The latter manual also
mentions Zhang Kongzhao’s name.^5 Finally, preceding these lay disciples, the
two manuals identify the same Shaolin cleric as the source of their teachings.
This is the monk Xuanji, whose name appears in the title Xuanji’s Acupuncture
Points (figure 22).^6
The Hand Combat Classic’s and Xuanji’s Acupuncture Points’ claims of com-
mon origins are borne out by their teachings. The two manuals expound the
Fig. 22. “The body
method of the
Shaolin monk
Xuanji” in Xuanji’s
Acupuncture Points.