152 Fist Fighting and Self-Cultivation
An early Boxer leader, a Buddhist monk named Xincheng, reportedly boasted
in 1899 that “my whole body has Qigong (Qi efficacy); I can resist spears and
guns. When the hard and precious [Buddhist guardians] possess my body, the
foreigners cannot oppose me.”^45 It appears that for monk Xincheng, the term
Qigong implied divine powers similar to those of the guardian deities that pos-
sessed him. If it could only be tapped, the qi could make one invulnerable to
bullets.
If the example of monk Xincheng is indicative of others, then the integra-
tion of martial training and invulnerability rituals might have been facilitated
by the extraordinary powers that were sometimes attributed to the qi. From
this perspective, the religiously impregnated vocabulary of daoyin might have
given some fighting techniques a magic twist.^46 Qing fiction, at any rate, is re-
plete with tales of supernormal fits that were accomplished by the hidden pow-
ers of qi. Consider, for example, the following story of a martial artist who relies
on his qi to levitate:
Lian Fang jun possessed divine strength (shenli). Often, during the
afternoon siesta, he would retire to a secluded room, where he would sit
cross-legged on an iron chair. After approximately half an hour he
would stretch his arms, gradually lifting the chair upwards. The chair
would float a long time high above ground, and Lian’s body would not
stir. This was due to the concentration, and the circulation, of qi (qianqi
neiyun).^47Chinese medical theory had the qi flow in prescribed channels called jingluo
(m e r i d i a n s). T he c h a n nel s w e r e d ot t e d w it h c a v it i e s (xuedao), which were points
sensitive to acupuncture treatment. The concept was adopted by late imperial
martial artists who held that the points responsive to therapy were equally sus-
ceptible to injury. The significance of acupuncture points in Shaolin hand
combat has been noted earlier. The term “cavities” figured in the very title of
the Shaolin handbook Xuanji’s Secret Transmission of Acupuncture Points’ Hand
Combat Formulas. However, the concept was equally important in other bare-
handed styles. It figured prominently in the late Ming method of the Internal
School Fist (Neijia Quan), the foremost exponent of which was Wang Zheng-
nan (1617–1669). The two surviving accounts of the Internal School—Huang
Zongxi’s epitaph for Wang Zhengnan and Huang Baijia’s The Internal School Fist
Method (Neijia quanfa) (1676)—detail some of the cavities it targeted. Accord-
ing to Huang Zongxi, “in striking opponents, Wang Zhengnan made use of
acupuncture points—death points, mute points, and vertigo points—just as il-
lustrated on the bronze models of the channels.”^48
The importance of acupuncture points in empty-handed fighting is one
indication of the integration of medical theory into the late imperial martial
arts. In some empty-handed styles, the martial goal of toning the body for battle
is indistinguishable from the medical objective of preventing illness. The