century, defeating orfighting to a standstill a mutiny, a rebellion, and the
Japanese army in Korea. These three campaigns, the Wanli emperor’sThree
Great Campaigns, forced the Ming army tofight in its far northwest against a
rebellion of Mongol troops, then in Korea against the Japanese invasion of
Korea, andfinally in the far southwest against a“Miao”rebellion. Guns,
particularly cannon, were critical in all of thesefights, but the modes of
warfare all differed. The Mongol mutiny required cavalry and then siege
warfare, Korea required southern Chinese infantry trained tofight Japanese
and supported with cannon, and the Miaowas a strict infantry and cannon
slog to root out rebels in mountainous jungle. Many of the generals and some
of the troops took part in more than one campaign.
The success of Wanli’s campaigns obscured the limitations of the Ming
military. Although it had tens of thousands of effective troops, capable of
fighting under vastly different conditions with a variety of weapons, it did
not havehundredsof thousands of effective troops, nor did it have enough
competent generals. The underlying weakness in the Ming military was
caused by political failures within the government itself. Large pools of
violent men were not recruited into the military, leaving them to become
bandits and then rebels. At the same time, the court failed to develop an
effective military policy to deal with the rising power of the Manchus in the
steppe. Unable to control growing rebellions, a demonstration of an excess
of men skilled in the martial arts, the Ming was unprepared for the new
steppe threat.
Shaolin Temple
The Shaolin Temple near Luoyang is currently one of the best-known
brand names in martial arts. Martial arts movies have created and elabo-
rated upon the erroneous notion that the Chinese martial arts originated
there or that Shaolin monks possess secret techniques that give them
superhuman powers. Even some scholars in the West have confused the
practice of martial arts at Buddhist temples with a direct association
between Buddhism and the martial arts. This has led to further confusion
as some have looked for an Indian root to Chinese martial arts, assuming
that the martial arts arrived along with Buddhism. It has also tied the
contemplation and self-cultivation of Buddhism to the martial arts. The
close association of Chan (Zen) Buddhism, which began at Shaolin, with
the samurai class in Japan reinforces this false connection. The prevalent
modern notion, inside and outside China, that Chinese martial arts are
170 The Ming Dynasty