62 Systemizing Martial Practice
“Today, there is no shortage of Shaolin staff experts. And yet their
methods all differ. How could it be that by choosing a different teacher,
a practitioner ends up being taught a different technique?”
I replied: “The teachings all derive from the same source. However,
with the passage of time people turn their backs on it. Teachers esteem
unusual methods, and prefer strange techniques. Some take the
opening section of this practice sequence (lu) and mix it with the closing
section of that sequence. Others take the closing section of that sequence
and mingle it with the middle section of this sequence. So much so, that
what was originally one sequence is transformed into two. Thus teachers
confuse the world, and lead the practitioners astray, all for the sake of
fame and profit. I am much grieved by this situation, and it is exactly for
this reason that I strive to set things right.”^16Throughout his manual, Cheng Zongyou weaves together the language of
martial perfection and the idiom of spiritual attainment. He refers to the Shao-
lin staff method as the “unsurpassed Buddhist wisdom (Bodhi)” (wushang
puti), and he describes his own mastery of it as “sudden enlightenment” (dun).
He notes that Shaolin monks consider martial training a tool for reaching the
“other shore” of liberation, and he expresses the hope that his own manual
would serve as the “Buddhist raft” that would carry his readers to Nirvâÿa.^17 We
need not necessarily doubt the sincerity of his Buddhist sentiments. Having
spent more than ten years at the Shaolin Monastery, Cheng probably did associ-
ate martial training with religious self-cultivation. In this respect, his Buddhist
vocabulary was more than a mere ornament to the core of his military theory.
Cheng Zongyou hardly distinguished the mastery of his martial art from the
mastery of the mind that led to liberation. The discipline and dedication that
were necessary for the one were equally conducive to the other.
Monks and Generals
Although his was the most detailed exposition of the Shaolin staff, Cheng
Zongyou was not the only expert to discuss it. On the contrary, references to
the Shaolin techniques of staff fighting appear regularly in late Ming mili-
tary encyclopedias, beginning with Tang Shunzhi’s (1507–1560) Tre a ti se o n
Military Affairs (Wu bian), written some seventy years prior to the publication
of Cheng’s manual.^18 Other military compilations that feature the Shaolin
staff include New Treatise on Military Efficiency (Jixiao xinshu) (ca. 1562), by the
renowned general Qi Jiguang (1528–1588); Treatise of Military Preparations, by
the above-mentioned Mao Yuanyi; and Records of Military Tactics (Zhenji), by
the military commander He Liangchen (fl. 1565). The latter composition in-
dicates a spread of the Shaolin martial arts within monastic circles. It notes
that the monastery’s staff method has been transmitted to the monks at