could not stand up to a modern European-style force armed with modern
firearms. Archery was now an archaic skill, whether from horseback or on
foot, and hand-to-hand combat was unlikely. Asfirearms improved over
the nineteenth century, close combat became less and less important on the
battlefield. This was not to say that traditional martial arts were not still
useful absent a modern European-style force, but the Qing state had to
radically reform its army. Even a vigorous and well-led government would
have had difficulty unraveling the previous system of martial arts from society
and culture quickly, effectively, and with a minimum of disruption. The Qing
government in the nineteenth century was neither vigorous nor well led.
The Qing court’s failure of leadership was evident in its inept handling
of the Opium War. It continued to be unable to institute needed reforms in
the face of the conservative interests of many groups. In a certain sense the
relationship between who did which martial arts in Qing society marked
out the respective areas of power at the local, regional, and imperial level.
The challenge of European weaponry and military practice was not simply
to copy it but also tofit it into Qing society. European science and technol-
ogy as a whole challenged the Qing economy as well as the intellectual basis
of the Qing worldview. One of the responses to this European challenge was
to portray European technology and science as an external and peripheral
knowledge or practice, in contrast to the internal and fundamental Chinese
culture. This scheme would allow the retention of Chinese values while the
society adopted Western objects and practice.
It was obvious to many concerned people in Qing China, however, that
partial modernization or adoption of Western science and technology did
not work very well. Western interest in Chinese markets and goods was
too intense to allow any gradual or compromise approach sufficient time
to work. Western ideas and technology put immense stress on an already
sclerotic Qing government, leading to rebellions and growing anti-Manchu
and anti-Western sentiment. The Taiping Rebellion ( 1850 – 64 ) was vaguely
Christian in its ideology and succeeded for a time in seizing control of large
sections of southern China. It was eventually defeated by Chinese forces
newly raised in the provinces by Chinese officials outside of the regular
channels. The success of these regional Chinese forces was critical to the
survival of the Qing regime, but also threatened its foundations. Effective
military power was no longer controlled directly by the central government,
led by Manchus, or based upon forces of Manchu soldiers.
Thefinal major martial arts event of the Qing before its fall in 1911 ,
was the Boxer Uprising ( 1898 – 1901 ).^2 The Boxers began as a movement in
Shandong, spurred on by increasingly difficult economic conditions, to be
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