The martial arts had hitherto been characterized as a particular kind of
skill. Men and women learned the martial arts in order tofight or perform.
Some weapon skills, particularly archery for Confucius, were explicitly
acknowledged to have the ability to show inner cultivation through the
correct demonstration of martial arts etiquette. From the Confucian per-
spective, the outward expression of the correct rites was directly tied to and
affected the inner state of mind of the practitioner. It did not, however, lead
to martial prowess. There was an aspect of self-cultivation in this practice,
without a separation of internal and external physical development.
Inner strength in the martial arts was a challenging notion because its most
basic proof was an external demonstration of power. Wang Zhengnan’s
power was internally developed and generated but manifested externally.
What, in fact, had Zhang Sanfeng reverse engineered from the martial arts
he learned at Shaolin (leaving apart the completely mythical/fictitious story
itself)? The root or internal aspect of any practice was its true essence. That
essence was manifested externally in an obscured or apparently diminished
form. A master of something truly understood a particular practice or skill at
a level deeper than ordinary people could perceive. This sort of knowledge
was a frequent point of discussion in the Daoist philosophical tradition.
A true archer, recalling the anecdote from theLiezi, could shoot without
regard for his physical circumstances, even standing on the edge of a cliff.
A Daoist ruler could establish harmony and prosperity in a state without
seeming to do anything. The mistake was to focus on the effects of true
understanding rather than trying to achieve the fundamental essence of
something. A musician might develop a high level of skill with an instrument
without truly understanding music, the instrument he was playing, or even
the act of playing that instrument. Yet the route to deeper understanding
was to work very hard at playing that instrument or perfecting any other
skill. The physical or external practice was a path to the essence of some-
thing. It was critical that the practitioner understand that the goal of practice
was deeper understanding, not just greater external skill.
There was, therefore, a reasonable consonance between Huang’s attribu-
tion of internal martial arts to a Daoist tradition. Intellectually, a focus on the
internal, mysterious, and profound was superior to the external, vulgar,
and superficial, even though it was hard, if not impossible, to distinguish
the two in combat. Only those who knew were aware of these things. This
also opened up the possibility that someone who did not obviously manifest
martial power through his or her physique or strength could nonetheless
be a true master. Most military exams, performances of martial arts, or
evenfictional representations of great heroes used demonstrations of sheer
196 The Qing Dynasty