9 The Qing Dynasty
The Yuan Dynasty crumbled from internal problems exacerbated by rebel-
lions, but the Manchus, a newly risen steppe polity, destroyed the Ming
Dynasty. The Manchus created a new dynasty, the Qing, which presided
over a period of incredible territorial expansion in the eighteenth century,
followed by a series of stinging military and political defeats at the hands
of the encroaching Western powers in the nineteenth century. The Qing
court and China itself struggled to formulate an adequate response to the
West. This process continued after the dynasty fell in 1911 and a modern
nation-state began to emerge. The Qing Dynasty thus straddles two distinct
periods of martial arts history: the end of the time in which hand-to-hand
combat skills were useful on and off the battlefield, and the beginning of the
time in which modern weaponry cast all of those skills in an antiquarian,
rather than practical, light. It was that shift that laid the basis for much of
our modern understanding of Chinese martial arts.
Guns played an important part in the wars that founded the Ming, and
they played a still greater role during the Qing conquest. From as early as
the Yuan Dynasty, guns might even be included in the list of Eighteen
Martial Arts. European Jesuits at the Ming court were compelled to con-
tribute their knowledge of European gun making to the Ming war effort
against the Qing, but the Manchus caught up quickly by capturing Chinese
artillery experts trained by the Europeans. Both sides in the conflict fought
with all the weaponry of the preceding centuries–swords, spears, bows,
crossbows, handguns, and cannon. Military change was incremental, rather
than revolutionary.
The late Ming Dynasty was also marked by serious rebellions that did
immense damage to local and regional society, particularly in north China.
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