level of society.^4 Even confining our consideration to the use of martial arts
in this economy (and excluding areas like domestic violence, penal violence,
etc.), a vast and complexfield remains. Rebellions, banditry, clan feuds, and
ordinary criminal activity all used the martial arts as the basic skills of
violence. All of these violent activities were endemic, regular parts of Ming
Dynasty society, with extensive variations of practice and expression in the
different regions of China and at different levels of society. It is possible–
perhaps even likely–that a similar level and extent of violence was also
present in earlier dynasties and that we simply lack the documentary evi-
dence to describe it. While this remains a real but unprovable possibility, we
are certain of the prevalence of violence during the Ming Dynasty.
Clan feuding was endemic in southeast China, with ongoing violent
struggles persisting for years on end. Martial artists were hired from the
outside to train and stiffen the ordinary clanfighters. These professional
men of violence had a vested interest in prolonging rather than resolving
any conflict. And while James Tong argued that group violence was
“rampant in peripheral and mountainous regions, during the reigns of
wanton and decrepit emperors, and in periods when government troops
were preoccupied with defending the empire against foreign invasions,”^5
violence by individuals and groups was much more prevalent than that,
and in more than just peripheral regions. David Robinson has argued
convincingly that“violence was fully integrated into Ming life, during
good times and bad.”^6 Violence was not an aberration caused by a failure
in some part of the Ming system but a regular and understood component
of ordinary life.
Where bandits might prey upon travelers in the countryside, or attack
towns and villages, criminal gangs operated within cities. Major cities like
Hangzhou or Suzhou had“Fighters Guilds”(dahang) who could be paid
to beat up or kill people, even doing so in broad daylight. These thugs were
martial artists with some level of skill. Some were reputed to have a clearly
fictional technique–the ability to strike a target’s pressure points, leaving
no mark but causing the victim to die weeks or months later.^7 While the
“death touch”technique is nonsense, the very fact that it could be sug-
gested argues that some of these thugs were serious martial artists with
highly refined techniques.
The Ming government was more concerned with banditry that escalated
to the level of rebellion. While it might tolerate a certain degree of crime in
the cities and countryside, the court responded forcefully to groups directly
and openly defying its authority. There was clearly a continuum of violent
activity that involved men of similar inclinations infighting, whether as
164 The Ming Dynasty