Defending the Nation 67
the Shaolin Monastery but at another Buddhist center, Mount Emei in Sich-
uan. Cheng traveled there to gain the instruction of monk Pu’en (fl. ca. 1600),
whose spear techniques he later recorded in his Emei Spear Method (Emei
qiangfa).^35 He notes that Pu’en received this technique from a divine being, for
which reason, perhaps, the monk was reluctant to part with it. Cheng was
obliged to spend two years gathering firewood before Pu’en was convinced of
his sincerity and revealed to him the mysteries of the spear.^36
Cheng Zhenru voyaged far to be tutored by the best spear master. In this he
resembled other late Ming martial artists—monks and laypersons alike—who
led an itinerant life. “Liu Dechang... was unhappy with his [spear] technique,
which he considered far from perfect. Therefore, he traveled all over the land
until he obtained his goal.” Pu’en “ journeyed all over the land, but could find
no rival”; Shi Dian traveled from village to village in search of students; Cheng
Zongyou spent several years on the road with his Shaolin mentor Guang’an;
and the Shaolin monk Sanqi Yougong (?–1548) is said to have acquired more
than a thousand students in his extensive wanderings through Henan, Hebei,
Shandong, and Jiangsu.^37
Thus, late Ming martial artists were often on the road, or as the Chi-
nese would have it, “on the water.” Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century au-
thors allude to martial artists in the context of the “rivers and lakes”
(jianghu),^38 which term designated all those who earn a transient livelihood:
actors, storytellers, fortune-tellers, and the like. Did martial artists, like
other “rivers and lakes” itinerants, travel for economic reasons? At first
glance it would appear that military experts journeyed for educational
goals, to study, teach, or test their strength against worthy rivals. However,
the cultivation of professional skills is hard to separate from financial con-
siderations. Presumably, teachers were remunerated by students, and com-
petitions could take the form of public performances paid for by spectators.
In this respect, sources on the nineteenth-century martial community could
shed light on its sixteenth-century antecedent. In his Collected Talks on the
Rivers and Lakes (Jianghu congtan), Yun Youke (fl. 1900) describes in vivid de-
tail the vagrant livelihood of martial artists. Some serve as armed escorts
(baobiao), who accompany goods in transit; others journey to towns and vil-
lages, where on the local market day they “sell their art” (maiyi) in public
displays of martial dexterity.^39
Itinerancy creates a link between late Ming martial artists and their late
Qing successors. It also associates both groups with their fictional representa-
tions. For as early as Tang period fiction, the itinerant realm of the “rivers and
lakes” has been the inevitable environment for the heroic deeds of the knight-
errant (xiake). Indeed, in “martial arts fiction” (wuxia xiaoshuo), t he “r iver s a nd
lakes” no longer signify a manner of livelihood, much less a mode of transpor-
tation. Instead, they symbolize a realm of freedom, where the laws of family, so-
ciety, and state no longer apply. Situated beyond everyday life, it is in the “rivers
and lakes” that the dreams of knight-errantry are fulfilled.^40