132 Fist Fighting and Self-Cultivation
A green lion’s open-mouthed lunge;
A carp’s snapped-back flip.
Sprinkling flowers over the head;
Tying a rope around the waist;
A fan moving with the wind;
The rain driving down the flowers.
The monster-spirit then uses the “Guanyin Palm,”
And pilgrim counters with the “Arhat Feet.”
The “Long-Range Fist,” stretching, is more slack, of course.
How could it compare with the “Close-Range Fist’s” sharp jabs?
The two of them fought for many rounds—
None was the stronger, for they are evenly matched.^53Possibly the clearest indication that bare-handed techniques became an
integral element of late Ming culture is provided by encyclopedias for daily
use. The sixteenth century witnessed the emergence of a new genre of house-
hold manuals, which were intended not only for the male bureaucratic elite,
but also for other segments of society that had received a modicum of educa-
tion: women, merchants, artisans, and the like. Sometimes referred to as
Complete Books of Myriad Treasures (Wanbao quanshu), they covered every aspect
of knowledge necessary for maintaining a household, from practical advice
on making a living to education, ritual, and entertainment. Generously illus-
trated and often published in simplified or shorthand characters, the ency-
clopedias featured entries on such diverse topics as farming, livestock
breeding, trade, arithmetic, divination, nutrition, health, calligraphy, music,
jokes, and even romance.^54
Household encyclopedias also devoted space to hand combat, which was
considered useful for health and self-defense. The 1599 and 1607 editions of
the All-Purpose Correct Way (Wanyong zhengzong), for example, lists one by one
the famous bare-handed techniques of the day such as “[Zhao] Taizu’s Long-
Range Fist,” “Wen Family Moving Fist,” “Sand-Washing-Waves Fist” (Langli-
taosha quan), and “Spear-Seizing Fist” (Qingqiang quan). For their readers’
benefit, the editors selected choice positions from these varying styles, expli-
cating each with a rhyming formula and an illustration.^55 Evidently, such
manuals as All-Purpose Correct Way mirror the growing popularity of bare-
handed fighting, even as they contributed to its dissemination.
Ming period unarmed techniques, which are recorded in sixteenth-
century literature, served as the foundation for new bare-handed styles that
emerged in the ensuing century. Some of the most important martial systems
with which we are familiar today—Taiji Quan (Supreme Ultimate Fist), Xingyi
Quan (Form-and-Intent Fist), and, of course, Shaolin Quan—originated in
the seventeenth-century Ming-Qing transition period. For our purpose, it is
significant that much of this development took place within range of the
Shaolin Monastery.