140 Fist Fighting and Self-Cultivation
What was the source of the gymnastic exercises Wang studied at the Shao-
lin Temple? Did they originate at the monastery or were they adopted from
elsewhere? To answer this question we must journey two thousand years back
to the origins of the Chinese gymnastic tradition.
Ancient Foundations
Chinese gymnastics has been intimately related to medical practice. As
early as the first centuries BCE, physicians recommended calisthenic exer-
cises called daoyin (guiding and pulling) as a tool for the prevention and
cure of disease. Daoyin gymnastics combined limb movements with breath-
ing techniques. The exercises were considered beneficial for “nourishing
life” (yangsheng), and they were practiced in conjunction with other methods
—dietary, pharmacological, hygienic, and sexual—that were intended to
protect and increase vitality. A brief Zhuangzi passage dating from ca. 200
BCE illustrates the tradition’s goal of longevity:
To pant, to puff, to hail, to sip, to spit out the old breath and draw in the
new, practicing bear-hangings and bird-stretchings, longevity his only
concern—such is the life favored by the scholar who practices gymnas-
tics (daoyin), the man who nourishes his body, who hopes to live to be as
old as Pengzu, for more than eight hundred years.^6What is merely paraphrased in the Zhuangzi is elaborated upon in recently dis-
covered manuscripts. Archaeological excavations in tombs dating from the
mid-second century BCE have unearthed two manuals of calisthenics: the Pull-
ing Book (Yinshu) and the handsomely drawn Illustrations of Guiding and Pulling
(Daoyin tu), showing that as early as the Western Han (206 BCE–8 CE), thera-
peutic gymnastics had been highly developed. The two handbooks outline
dozens of daoyin stretching and bending exercises, which were recommended
for men and women alike. Most exercises were practiced from a standing pos-
ture, but some were conducted sitting. The majority were bare-handed, but
others made use of a pole and possibly a ball. One feature daoyin gymnastics
shared with late imperial hand combat was the naming of individual training
routines after the animals they purportedly imitated. In addition to the bear
that is mentioned in the Zhuangzi, the Illustrations of Guiding and Pulling de-
scribes crane, monkey, gibbon, merlin, dragon, and possibly turtle postures.^7
The Western Han manuals assign specific exercises for the cure and pre-
vention of given illnesses. They allude to the treatment of such pathological
conditions as “deafness,” “feverishness,” “upper-side accumulation,” “inter-
nal hotness,” and “knee pain.”^8 The Pulling Book recommends the following
cure for stiff shoulders: “If the pain is located in the upper part [of the shoul-
der] one should rotate it carefully 300 times. Should it be found toward the
back, then one should pull the shoulder to the front 300 times.”^9 A similar as-
sociation of specific calisthenics with particular health disorders lasted into