128 Fist Fighting and Self-Cultivation
by their own training routine of fixed positions (shi). Late Ming military
encyclopedias—the very same compilations that lauded the Shaolin staff—
enumerate over a dozen quan styles, including “[Song] Emperor Zhao Taizu’s
Long-Range Fist,” “Cotton Zhang’s Close-Range Fist,” “Acolyte Worshiping
Guanyin Miraculous Fist” (Tongzi bai guanyin shen quan), “Zhang Fei Miracu-
lous Fist” (Zhang Fei shen quan), “Sun Family Armored Fist” (Sunjia pigua
quan), “Ruler’s Fist” (Bawang quan), “Six-Step Fist” (Liubu quan), “Decoy Fist”
(E quan), and “Monkey Fist” (Hou quan).^40 By the early sixteenth century, at
least some fighting schools already had handwritten, if not published, manu-
als. In his Treatise on Military Affairs, Tang Shunzhi (1507–1560) quotes from a
handbook of the “Wen Family Fist.”^41
The most comprehensive account of Ming period unarmed fighting is
Qi Jiguang’s (1528–1588) Essentials of the Hand Combat Classic (Quan jing
jieyao), included in his New Treatise of Military Efficiency (Jixiao xinshu). Qi was
among the most successful and innovative generals of sixteenth-century
China. He played a major role in the suppression of piracy along China’s
southeastern coasts and in the pacification of its northern borders. In his
Fig. 27. Shaolin monks demonstrating their fist techniques to the Manchu official Lin
Qing; woodblock illustration dated 1849.