a product of the early Qing, if not the very end of the Ming Dynasty. Most
of the styles can befirmly dated to the eighteenth century, and their claims
of earlier genesis are difficult to sustain. It is therefore unwise to connect
the two major martial arts developments of the Qing Dynasty–the
creation of internal styles of martial arts and the initiation of Western
military methods–by default. Modernity, nationalism, and ethnic identity
had as much to do with conceptions of the martial arts at the very end of
the Qing Dynasty as technology. Indeed, as we shall see in thenext chapter,
the place of martial arts in post-imperial China was far more a question of
politics and ideology thanfighting.
Conclusion 211