some communities of Archery Societies弓箭社or Loyal and Upright
Societies忠義社.^14 While Song elites were rejecting martial arts practice
as antithetical to their group identity, local communities, particularly those
in the path of steppe raiders or those afflicted by banditry, banded together
to train in martial arts for self-protection. This was a practical necessity
given the limited ability of the central government to provide local security.
Archery Societies and Loyal and Upright Societies appear to have arisen
in many cases without the participation of the literati elite. The equipment
of some of the participants was quite simple:“one bow, thirty arrows, one
sword.”^15 They practiced on the third, sixth, and ninth days of the tradi-
tional Chinese ten-day week, though presumably there was considerable
variety of practice across the empire. As one observer pointed out con-
cerning these northern Chinese archers:“[They] are no different than the
barbarians.”^16 Northern Chinese, at least in martial arts practice, and
probably in other cultural aspects as well, were quite similar to the steppe
people farther north. Indeed, there was considerable intermarriage in the
area, as there had been for centuries. Archery practice also had a strong
cultural origin in north China.
In order to practice archery, an archer or group of archers needed an
open space. When the Song government was promoting archery practice,
particularly around the capital, it constructed those practicefields. This
was unnecessary in rural north China, of course, where there was plenty of
flat, open space. Urban archery societies did not always have the direct
support of the government for these activities and often met on temple
grounds. After the fall of north China, Song archery societies were con-
fined to the less open areas of southern China and to its more crowded
cities. Of course, even in rural areas, most of the cleared ground would be
occupied with crops. Apart from military practicefields, temples provided
the only consistently available open space for martial arts training.
Wang Anshi’sbaojiasystem attempted to formalize and expand upon
the preexisting Archery and Loyal and Upright Societies and the milita-
rized northern society, in order to create a large pool of cheap military
manpower. Thebaojia’s other functions, as an internal security and tax
system, were equally important–and ultimately more effective. Under the
system, families were grouped together into units that were mutually
responsible for each other and had to contribute a certain number of
men for martial arts training. In effect, vast swathes of Song society
would be militarized under the control of the government. The need to
train these units in martial arts provided the impetus for much greater
control of the population, a control more similar to that of the military. For
128 The Five Dynasties, Ten Kingdoms, and Song Dynasty