Liezi was already trembling when he saw his friend walk toward the edge of the
cliff. Now, at the thought of standing with his back to an abyss, he fell on his face
and broke into a cold sweat.
Liezi’s friend then said,“The master archer canfire an arrow under any con-
dition. Whether he sees the clear sky or faces the yawning abyss, he can still shoot
with the same state of mind. He is not affected by conditions of life and death, for
nothing can move the stillness of his mind. Look at yourself now. You are so scared
that you can’t stand up or look straight. How can you even begin to demonstrate
the art of archery?”^15
Liezi’s form on thefield is clearly perfect, but it is his state of mind that is
flawed. Here we have one of thefirst indications of the awareness that the
practice of martial arts, though this passage surely applies to all skills, can
lead to an elevated state of mind where perfection of the skill creates perfect
mental focus. It is noteworthy that this idea appears in China many
centuries before the invention of Chan Buddhism, before Buddhism even
reached China.
Moral and intellectual performance is and will always be more impor-
tant to thinkers than physical performance. Martial artists, or any per-
former of physical skills, must always question the enduring value of their
skills. Particularly for martial artists, where age eventually diminishes the
abilities of anyfighter or performer, physical perfection is temporary. If the
only value produced is the simple correct repetition of a task, then it has
taught the performer nothing. Archery was the means to make these
points, both moral and physical, because it was central to the elites of the
Warring States period. The premier martial art embodied every important
aspect of martial arts in Chinese society at that time–practical, perform-
ative, and spiritual.
Halberds (Ji) and Spears
The dagger-axe had been the main close combat weapon well into the
Zhou dynasty, when it began to be replaced by the sword and the halberd
(ji). Composite versions of the halberd had developed early on by placing a
bronze spearhead with a dagger-axe head on the same pole arm; this was
replaced in the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods by single
piece iron heads that included the two points at right angles to each other.
Even as the halberd proliferated, so too did the spear, at least judging by
the archaeological record. Spears would ultimately take over completely as
the pole arm of Chinese armies for the rest of Chinese history. This raises
the question of whether the dagger-axe part of the pole arm persisted in use
Halberds (Ji) and Spears 43