rabidly anti-foreign and anti-Christian. It was initially based upon groups
of martial artists who believed that they could overcome modern weap-
onry through spirit possession and internal cultivation. Although poorly
armed mostly with swords, spears, and some handguns, the Boxers quickly
overwhelmed and massacred defenseless Christian missions and churches.
They killed thousands of missionaries and Chinese converts before con-
verging on Beijing. The Boxers besieged the foreign diplomats and their
families in the foreign legation but failed to capture it. A combined foreign
military force fought its way to Beijing and rescued the people trapped in
the foreign legation afterfifty-five days. Needless to say, neither spirits nor
internal cultivation were any protection against bullets and artillery.
The narrative of martial arts history in the Qing Dynasty begins with
the remnant Ming loyalists who refused to accept the Manchu takeover of
China. These loyalists initiated an anti-Manchu discourse that carried over
into discussions of the martial arts. Anti-foreignism shifted the attitude
toward martial arts writing, changing the tradition of this type of writing
that had begun in the Ming. A certain Chinese chauvinism permeated
discussions of the martial arts in direct response to the return of steppe
domination. That chauvinism returned at the end of the Qing Dynasty and
carried through into the succeeding Republican period. At the same time, the
Manchu and Mongol culture of the bannermen reverted to an earlier interest
in wrestling and steppe martial arts. Even more so than the Ming, the Qing
Dynasty intellectual construction of Chinese martial arts strongly biases
the twenty-first-century understanding of Chinese martial arts. It is therefore
important to keep in mind how the place and value of the martial arts
changed during the Qing Dynasty.
Ming Loyalists
It was not a simple matter for men to hide their loyalty to the fallen Ming
Dynasty. Early in their rule, the Manchus imposed their own particular
hairstyle on the men of the Chinese population–the front of the head
was shaved, and there was a queue in the back–and used it as an outward
demonstration of loyalty to the Qing Dynasty. Confucian notions of loyalty
required that men who had served as officials in one dynasty could not be
officials in another dynasty. Many literati stretched this concept to include
men who had received exam degrees, even if they had not served in govern-
ment. Of course, many officials did work for the new dynasty, but loyalty
to the extinguished Ming Dynasty became something of a fetish for a large
number of literati. The Manchus enforced their hairstyle policy ruthlessly,
Ming Loyalists 191