78 Systemizing Martial Practice
That day, at the thatched cottage, crisp autumn sky,
Thin frost, light breeze, on the tranquil withered willow.
Suddenly his hair on end, a foot strike,
Rock cliffs splinter, causing pebbles to fly.
Speeding like the divine woman’s magic shuttle,
He coils like the Deva dancers flapping their kingfisher sleeves.
Horrendous and sand spitting, a ghost mocks men,
Bearded and teeth grinding, a Xuan Monster catches beasts.
Embodied we ask: Is he formless?
As he turns heels over head, revealing his elbows....
His marvels not yet exhausted, the performance is over,
His breathing imperceptible, guarding his primordial qi.
The monk’s transformations are unfathomable,
Back on his meditation mat, like a wooden statue.^86
Tang’s poem is replete with Buddhist allusions, from the Deva dancers who
flap their kingfisher sleeves to the Buddha who is an expert magician. More-
over, it creates a link between military training and religious discipline, associ-
ating the monk’s martial performance with meditation. The Emei warrior’s
“unfathomable transformations” lead him from the smashing of rock cliffs to
the quiet sitting “like a wooden statue.” Tang implies therefore that the monk’s
fighting techniques were intimately related to his religious practice. In this re-
spect the poem evinces a perception of martial training as a form of Buddhist
self-cultivation.
That martial practice could be related to a spiritual quest is hinted by
other poems as well. In his “Song of the Sha Fist” (“Shaquan Ge”), Zhang
Yongquan (1619–ca. 1700) extolled the bare-handed techniques of the Jiangsu
martial artist Li Lantian. Borrowing from Tang’s verse of the Emei monk,
Zhang was more explicit in associating Buddhism and fighting. He tells us that
Li “discoursed upon hand combat as if discussing Chan.” Indeed his martial
art is squarely equated with Buddhist meditation (samâdhi; sanmei):
The old man of Mt. Yu^87 Li Lantian,
At seventy, dwindling tangles of white hair.
In a faltering step he becomes a nobleman’s retainer,^88
Discoursing upon hand combat, as if discussing Chan.
At the Artemisia-Wilds Hall he displays his dexterity,
Crags about to splinter, sand about to fly.
Soaring, he is like a falcon reaching the heavens,
Crouching, he resembles a Xuan Monster catching beasts.