Chinese Martial Arts. From Antiquity to the Twenty-First Century

(Dana P.) #1

it as an ancient discipline. Here we are faced with a fundamental problem
in proving or disproving the existence of specific physical or mental prac-
tices based on written descriptions that use different terminology. This
problem is further exacerbated by language that is sometimes deliberately
vague and describes esoteric or even secret teachings. Modern practitioners
of qigong may imagine that they recognize the root of a contemporary
technique in an ancient description, but it is impossible to prove that these
techniques are the same.
Wang Guangxi asserts that while the term qigong came into use at the
end of the Qing dynasty ( 1644 – 1911 ), it had been practiced for thousands
of years under the name“xingqi”行氣or“daoyin”導引. He is only able
to make sense of this by defining qigong on the one hand as the secret
teachings of internal practices possessed by all martial arts, and on the
other as meditation. It is the latter definition that allows him to connect the
termsxingqianddaoyintoqigong, and to directly tieqigongto the most
ancient textual and epigraphic records. Wang presents no evidence for this
tie, however, or even a strict definition of whatxingqiordaoyinwere,
beyond asserting that there were three distinct versions of this practice:
Confucian, Daoist, and Buddhist.^10 It seems the only connectionqigong
has to any earlier practices is the mention of“qi”氣, breath, life force,
soul-stuff, or some other vague philosophical discussion ofqi.
In the absence of any clear, modern definition of qigong, there is no way
to connect contemporary practice to earlier practice. We are thus left
without either a linguistic or a functional means to discuss qigong before
the twentieth century. Nor is it certain that qigong should be included in a
study of martial arts. If it is simply some kind of moving meditation or a
directed practice of breathing, then physical and mental exercises of this
kind were probably included in many martial arts. Yet it is also probably
true that many other arts–calligraphy, for example–might have these
exercises. At the same time, it would clearly be inaccurate to subsume the
martial arts, whose main function is not breathing or meditation, under the
category ofqigong. Given all of these linguistic, functional, and historio-
graphical problems, this book will not discuss qigong before the chapter on
the twentieth century.


Conclusion


The chapters that follow trace Chinese martial arts in a conventional
chronological narrative, from about1200 bceto the present, thus empha-
sizing the historically embedded and changing place of martial arts in


Conclusion 11
Free download pdf