the world was by training the bodies of its citizens. This idea may appear
fundamentally ludicrous, but through the medium of the modern
Olympics it persists to the present in China and much of the world.
Physical culture is just that, a culture, and as such it transmits values that
cannot be rationally substantiated. Chinese intellectuals and leaders
absorbed these ideas most forcefully through Japan, another Asian nation
that had already received, absorbed, and transformed itself with Western
physical culture. The Chinese word for physical trainingtiyuactually
entered Chinese through the Japanese formulation of the term.
All these forces of intellectual change stimulated a vigorous response
from at least some urban martial artists. These practitioners and their
merchant patrons saw the Chinese martial arts themselves as a way to
improve the bodies and spirits of Chinese people. Rather than accept the
notion that the martial arts were a part of the problem of backward,
traditional China, a number of martial artists took the opposite tack.
Their argument was that the martial arts were an expression and means
of fostering the disciplined martial body. The problem was that too few
Chinese people were practicing the martial arts. For these practitioners, the
Chinese martial arts were not only fundamentally valuable Chinese phys-
ical culture but also a unique set of disciplines that were a contribution to
world physical culture.
Andrew Morris in his outstanding 2004 book,Marrow of the Nation,
establishes the context of physical culture in Republican period China and
discusses some of the specific struggles over the martial arts.^5 Not surpris-
ingly, the political chaos that immediately followed the fall of the Qing
Dynasty precluded any direct government action concerning the martial
arts. There was certainly no perceived need at the government or national
level for action on the question of the place of the martial arts. It fell to
private individuals such as the famous Chinese martial artist Huo Yuanjia
( 1868 – 1910 ) and some private businessmen to create a national forum for
Chinese martial arts. Huo himself had attempted to prove the superiority
of these arts byfighting and defeating Western and Japanesefighters. He
was clearly a powerful and effectivefighter, and his skills demonstrated
that a Chinese martial artist was at least a match, if not more than a match,
for any foreign martial artist.
In the nationalistic ideology of modern sports, Huo’s individual achieve-
ment had the broader effect of valorizing and legitimizing Chinese martial
arts and Chinese culture. By itself, however, success in the ring could not
spread the practice of martial arts to the Chinese population in general
withoutfinancial backing. A martial arts teacher might make a living in
The Chinese Nation and Republican China 221