Defending the Nation 59
the essence of movement. Even though staff fighting is called a trivial
art, its explication in this book is the result of a strenuous effort.
If this book serves like-minded friends as a raft leading them to the
other shore [of enlightenment], if they rely upon it to strengthen the
state and pacify its borders, thereby spreading my teachers’ method and
enhancing its glory, yet another of my goals would be accomplished.^10Cheng’s hope that his Shaolin Staff Method would enhance the fame of his
monastic instructors was not frustrated. Shortly after the manual’s publica-
tion, the renowned Mao Yuanyi (1549–ca. 1641) commented, “All fighting
techniques derive from staff methods, and all staff methods derive from Shao-
lin. As for the Shaolin method no description of it is as detailed as... Cheng
Zongyou’s Exposition of the Original Shaolin Staff Method.”^11 Mao was so impressed
with Cheng’s manual that he incorporated it almost in full into his encyclope-
dic Treatise of Military Preparations (Wubei zhi).^12
Cheng’s exhaustive presentation of the Shaolin staff method begins with a
description of the weapon. He provides specifications for the length, weight,
and materials to be used in the preparation of the staff, to which, like most late
Ming military experts, he refers as gun. According to Cheng, the staff can be
made either of wood or of iron. In the former case its recommended length is
8 to 8.5 chi (which in the Ming would mean approximately 8.2 feet to 8.7 feet),
and its weight 2.5 to 3 jin (approx imately 3.2 pounds to 3.9 pounds). The iron
staff is slightly shorter (7.5 chi, or approximately, 7.7 feet), and its suggested
weight between 15 and 16 jin (approx imately 19.5 to 20.8 pounds).^13 Cheng also
discusses the type of timber to be used in the preparation of the wooden staff:
As the regions of the country vary, so do the types of wood. As long as
the wood is solid and dense, as long as it is both hard and pliant,
growing thinner and thinner from the base to the treetop like a mouse’s
tail, it will do nicely. A straight pole that is naturally free of scars and
nodes would be preferable. By contrast, if the staff is produced by
cleaving or sawing, it will easily break along the veins.^14Cheng distinguishes between fifty-three individual staff positions (shi),
each of which he represents by a drawing, accompanied by an explanatory
“rhyming formula” (figure 9). Individual positions are strung together into
practice sequences called lushi (sequence of positions). Intricate diagrams
guide the practitioner in the performance of these sequences, which simulate
the kind of motions that characterize a real battle (figure 10). Finally, several
practice sequences combine into what Cheng calls a “method” (fa). All in all,
he lists five different methods of the Shaolin staff: Little Yakºa Spirit (yecha),
Big Yakºa Spirit, Hidden Hands (Yinshou), Pushing Staff (Pai gun), and Shut-
tling [Staff] (Chuansuo). The Pushing Staff differs from the other four meth-
ods in being a technique of dual rather than solitary practice, and both the