populace starting in the Song Dynasty but were only infrequently written
about before the Ming Dynasty, but this assumption cannot be proven.^14 It
is also possible that they developed in the Tang Dynasty or even slightly
before that and were simply not written about at all until the Song. Most of
the evidence for different styles before the Ming comes from the world of
fiction; wefind ourselves once again consultingThe Water Marginand its
attendant depictions offighting for our information. The widespread
teaching and practice of martial arts in the Song does argue for diversifi-
cation of swordfighting styles, if only because of natural regional and local
variation. These variations may have been less pronounced before the rise
of popular martial arts performances in the Song.
The same men who collected information on boxing styles also collected
information on swordfighting styles and other martial arts. They recorded
dozens of styles, some with straightforward names such as“Twin Swords
雙刀,”and others with more picturesque ones like“Opening Heaven Sword
開天刀,”or“Great Peace Sword太平刀.”Overall, however, Qi Jiguang was
as unimpressed by the utility of many of these styles of fencing as he was with
the boxing styles. Most had a tendency toward elaboration so they would
look good when demonstrated. They also differed from strictly military
practice because they had developed in response to a different environment.
An individual swordfighter trained to defend himself or tofight one-on-one in
combat. At most, he trained tofight by himself instead of as part of a
formation or larger group of soldiers. An individualfighter would therefore
have to be prepared for a larger variety of situations than a soldier. In addition,
soldiers would have less time to devote to the dedicated study of the martial
arts, particularly of a single weapon, than an individual practitioner.
All the variety and function of Chinese sword practice was a matter of
serious consideration because of thewokouraids. Many of the pirates
were Japanese and were either samurai or practiced Japanese swordsman-
ship. Two-handed Japanese swordsmanship proved to be far superior to
Chinese swordsmanship. Japanese swords were also much higher quality
than the weapons issued to ordinary Chinese soldiers. Chinese swords
were shorter and were wielded with one hand, meaning they had less
reach, less speed, less power, and were more cumbersome. Particularly in
the irregular warfare of pirate raids rather than the formation-to-
formation combat of regular warfare, Japanese swordsmanship was ini-
tially extremely effective. It took some time for the Chinese to recognize,
evaluate, and formulate a response to this new problem.
Some Chinese martial artists like Cheng Zongyou learned Japanese
fencing from a Chinese martial artist named Liu Yunfeng, whose style
178 The Ming Dynasty