180 Fist Fighting and Self-Cultivation
would be lost, and it is clear that by the eighteenth century the Internal School
no longer existed.^131 Nevertheless, the fascination of the Zhang Sanfeng myth
was such that other martial styles have assumed his school’s mantle. By the sec-
ond half of the nineteenth century, Taiji Quan had been traced to the Daoist
saint, only to be followed by other martial styles such as Xingyi Quan and
Bagua Zhang.^132 The mythological structure that was created in the seven-
teenth century still captivates the imagination of martial artists, even though
the term “Internal School” designates new fighting methods.
Conclusion
The foundations of the modern Chinese martial arts were laid during the late
Ming and the early Qing by the integration of Ming bare-handed fighting tech-
niques with an ancient gymnastic tradition that had largely evolved in a Daoist
context. In varying degrees all of the bare-handed styles familiar today incor-
porate aspects of daoyin calisthenics, combining limb movement with breath-
ing and the internal circulation of the vital energy qi. The absorption of daoyin
gymnastics transformed not only the training routines but also the very pur-
pose of the martial arts. Bare-handed styles such as Shaolin Quan, Taiji Quan,
Xingyi Quan, and Bagua Zhang are not intended for combat only. Rather, they
combine movement and mental concentration for fighting, healing, and reli-
gious self-cultivation. The very term “martial” is in this sense misleading. Chi-
nese hand combat is a self-conscious system of mental and physical
self-cultivation that has diverse applications of which fighting is but one.
It is likely that aspects of daoyin gymnastics were absorbed into armed or
unarmed fighting prior to the sixteenth century. Future research may well
reveal that breathing and qi-circulation methods figured in ancient hand
combat, as they almost certainly did in medieval fencing. However, at present
our evidence of the integration dates from the late Ming. The Sinews Trans-
formation Classic of 1624 is currently the earliest available manual that self-
consciously combines military, therapeutic, and religious goals in one
training program. Compiled by the self-styled “Purple Coagulation Man of
the Way,” the treatise exemplifies the impact of Daoism on bare-handed
fighting. Its goal is an internal bodily transformation that will make one in-
vulnerable to injury, that will eliminate all illness, and that will ultimately
lead to immortality. Daoyin gymnastics served as a vehicle for the Daoist in-
fluence on the late imperial martial arts. Whether it was practiced by the
laity, by Daoist adepts, or by Buddhist monks, hand combat drew heavily on
Daoist physiological and meditative techniques. Training routines such as
the “Twelve-Section Brocade”—which were integrated into the Shaolin mo-
nastic regimen—can be traced back to canonical Daoist scriptures.
Investing the martial arts with therapeutic and religious significance, the
creators of bare-handed techniques relied upon wide-ranging sources, from