The most reliable conclusion we can reach is that among the literate class,
only in the late Ming Dynasty did serious attention begin to be focused on
martial artists and Daoist medical gymnastics together. Before that,
any such practice was not mentioned, even if it did take place. This is an
unsatisfying conclusion, of course, but it does suggest a more narrow
explanation of the real roots of self-cultivation through the martial arts,
and the linking of medical gymnastics to the martial arts. Perhaps it was the
literati martial artists themselves who originated these practices. They were
the only group who had the leisure, knowledge, opportunity, and interest to
participate in these disparate practices. The literati were also the only group
who could pursue and intellectually integrate these things theoretically.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the value of Chinese martial arts in self-
cultivation became wrapped up with a rising discourse of nationalism.
Chinese martial arts was not a Western sport but a martial exercise with
deep roots in Chinese culture. Some of the urban educated elite sought tofind
an authentically Chinese martial experience in the martial arts, or argued
that it was there. The martial arts were not modern or Western, and these
literati needed tofind a practical value for this artifact of Chinese culture.
Discussions ofqiand the unequivocal health-promoting benefits of the
martial arts stood in sharp contrast to the scientific and modern medical
approach to sport. Whatever its earlier place, self-cultivation through the
martial arts becamefirmly based in a nationalist desire to cultivate a truly
Chinese self.
Shaolin
The Shaolin Temple suffered another episode of destruction at the end of the
Ming Dynasty. A local warlord slaughtered most of the monks and looted
the temple. The temple thus began and ended the Ming Dynasty in the same
way. It recovered much more slowly during the Qing Dynasty and indeed
never fully returned to its grand past under Ming imperial patronage. Temple
fighters fought in the Ming cause to the end of the dynasty, and the favors the
Ming imperial family had lavished on Shaolin left a strong nostalgia for the
fallen dynasty. And where Huang Zongxi would use Shaolin as a stand-in
for foreigners, in opposition to native Daoists, Shaolin was a highly suspect
location for Ming loyalists in the eyes of the Qing government. This was
partly due to the reality of Shaolin history and partly to Qing suspicion based
on the Shaolin myth.
After the temple and itsfighting forces were destroyed, recovery was
hampered by the loss of lands and government mistreatment. Qing
202 The Qing Dynasty