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

(Dana P.) #1

communists were ideologically opposed to every aspect of traditional
Chinese culture, not just the martial arts, though there was also a tension
between the Chinese customs and values that even the most hardened
ideologue had grown up with and the demands of communist piety. Like
many of the reformers of the Republican period, the communist leadership
focused their efforts on modernizing China, understanding“modernize”
to mean getting rid of anything traditional. The goal was to build an
industrialized state on a par with any in the West, but organized socially
and politically along communist lines. This entailed a considerable amount
of“Westernization,”something that did not unduly trouble the CCP
leadership. With Russian help, they would build a new China.
Although the CCP availed itself of the assistance of some martial arts
teachers and secret societies practicing martial arts in its struggle to con-
quer China, many aspects of CCP control were antithetical to the martial
arts as they had previously existed in Chinese society. Indeed, the very
utility of the martial arts infighting for control of China argued for the
suppression of those skills once China had been conquered. The new
government was extremely concerned, particularly in its early years, with
preventing internal rebellion. It was one thing to conquer China and still
another to control it. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was stretched
quite thin and would soon be involved in the Korean War. The government
itself struggled with shortages of trained, reliable officials to staff its own
organs of supervision and administration. Even without guns, trained
fighters could resist the government at the local level.
The communist government was also vehemently opposed to religion
and worked hard to suppress all religious practice in China. There was no
room in communism for religion; the new ideology called for reliance upon
science and scientific practice. At a minimum, temples and religious insti-
tutions were stripped of their lands and thus their wealth. Religious prac-
tice was illegal and could be severely punished. Scorn for religion was
taught in school and encouraged with propaganda. Places like Shaolin,
which had already suffered near total destruction in 1928 , now lost all
their wealth, patronage, and sources of new monks. Many monks were
forced out of religious life and back into society to become productive
citizens. The few who remained lived in very circumscribed and poor
circumstances. Whatever martial arts training had remained at Buddhist
and Daoist temples after the fall of the Qing Dynasty collapsed as the CCP
extended its authority throughout China.
The communist government also controlled theater andfiction, using
these and other artistic media in its propaganda efforts. Initially, the


226 Post-Imperial China

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