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SeeThaingBanshay
See ThaingBersilat
See SilatBoxing, Chinese
Chinese boxing is a versatile form of bare-handed fighting, variously com-
bining strikes with the hands, kicks and other leg maneuvers, grappling,
holds, and throws. Piecing together the scattered passages in ancient writ-
ings, one can reasonably conclude that the origins of Chinese boxing go
back as far as the Xia dynasty (twenty-first to sixteenth centuries B.C.),
making it one of the oldest elements of Chinese culture still practiced.
Originally called bo(striking), it was a skill practiced among China’s
early ruling classes, when strength and bravery were characteristics ad-
mired in leaders. There are even references to some of these leaders grap-
pling with wild beasts. There are also descriptions of individuals skilled in
empty-handed techniques against edged weapons. Thus, boxing appears
generally to have been considered a life-and-death combat skill that sup-
plemented weapons, although there are indications that it was treated as a
sport in some circumstances.
However, about 209 B.C., the first emperor of Qin designated
wrestling as the official ceremonial military sport. Then, for the first time,
commentaries in the Han History Bibliographies(ca. A.D. 90) clearly dis-
tinguish between boxing and wrestling. This work lists six chapters (no
longer extant) on boxing, shoubo (hand striking) as it was then called. Box-
ing is described under the subcategory “military skills,” alongside archery,26 Bandô