whose dancing was lavishly praised by Du Fu.^13 She was known through-
out the Tang empire, and performed for the emperor, gaining a following
of female students. Lady Gongsun wore beautiful military garments for
her dances and used two long swords. It is impossible to say how close her
dances were to the patterns practiced by people learning fencing. Given
that most of her audience was aristocrats and elites who would have had
some familiarity with fencing, it seems unlikely that her movements were
too divergent.
Lady Gongsun’s long sword dance should be seen not just as an isolated
but interesting phenomenon. While at the beginning of the Tang dynasty,
Li Shimin’s sister could herself raise military forces and participate in
warfare, a marker of the imperial family’s hybrid cultural background,
by the eighth century a woman’s martial performance could be completely
abstracted fromfighting. An audience of elite men and women in the eighth
century could watch a long sword dance as a purely aesthetic event, itself
a hybrid form that drew upon foreign dance to make it interesting. The
imperial court was becoming more disassociated from military affairs,
leaving war to the professional soldiers, Chinese and steppe, on the border,
and their non-Chinese generals.
In terms of performance, however, while long sword dancing under-
went a radical change in practice, wrestling remained the most popular
martial art in the Sui and Tang dynasties. Wrestling was practiced exten-
sively across China, for military purposes within the army, and for enter-
tainment at festivals and other events. Striking skills were still a separate
category of martial art, though at least one notable wrestler was also
known for his boxing. Wrestling was performed in the imperial palace
and in street performances, attracting spectators from every level of soci-
ety. Regional variations remained in practice and nomenclature, but over-
all, wrestling was ubiquitous.
Monks and Bandits
The first Buddhist monasteries were established in China in thefirst
centuryce. Over the succeeding centuries, this form of religious life
became a familiar and accepted part of Chinese society. Some Daoist
religious professionals later adopted a similar form of religious life.
Buddhism nevertheless always retained a certain taint of foreignness for
some Chinese, even while it enjoyed widespread popularity among both
elites and commoners. The monastic life itself was similarly problematic in
its insistence on separation from the family and abstention from sex.
Monks and Bandits 105