Chinese, and something usually practiced outside of the formal military.
There were no large standing formations of Chinese troops serving the
Yuan government, but rather more ad hoc units recruited as needed.
Thus, at least during the Yuan dynasty, boxing was more of a civilian
than military art.
Men were not the only skilled wrestlers, nor were these skills confined to
the lower classes, at least among the Mongols. Marco Polo recounts the
story of a princess named Aiyaruk:
This damsel was so strong that in all the kingdom there was no squire or gallant
who could vanquish her....
illustrations 16 and 17.Detail from Yan Geng,The Demon Queller
Zhong Kui Giving his Sister Away in Marriage, thirteenth-century source: Purchase,
the Dillon Fund Gift and Rogers Fund, 1990 © Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Wrestling and Boxing 151