1768 In the Clerkenwell district of London (perhaps at the London
Spa), two female prizefighters mill for a prize of a dress valued
at half a crown, while another two women fight against two
men for a prize of a guinea apiece. And at Wetherby’s on Little
Russell Street, the 19-year-old rake William Hickey saw “two
she-devils... engaged in a scratching and boxing match, their
faces entirely covered with blood, bosoms bare, and the clothes
nearly torn from them.” These “she-devils” were singers and
prostitutes, and their prefight preparation consisted mostly of
drinking more gin than usual (Quennell 1962, 63–66).
1771 A French fencing master named Olivier, whose Fleet Street
school is a favorite of British lawyers, publishes a bilingual text
called Fencing Familiarised.In it, Olivier encourages civilized
behavior from his students. Shouts and exclamations, for in-
stance, are not to be tolerated, as “they serve only to fatigue
the stomach, and deafen the spectators” (Conroy n.d.). During
the same period in East Asia, shouts and ritual breathing meth-
ods were viewed as almost magical keys to success. For exam-
ple, some nineteenth- and twentieth-century Japanese fencing
masters discounted blows that were not accompanied by a
shout; the exact phrase they used was kiai wo kakeru(to utter
the spirit-shout). Chinese boxers also liked loud war cries and
esoteric breathing methods. The White Lotus rebel Wang Lun,
for instance, taught his civil students to practice breathing, fast-
ing, and meditation, and his military students to practice box-
ing and cudgels.
1773 The Tay Son brothers start a Vietnamese civil war that lasts un-
til 1801. Tay Son military training, known as Vo Tay Son,
taught eighteen bladed weapons, but was best known for its ag-
gressive swordsmanship. Chinese influence is possible, as the
system has been called Vietnamese quanfa (fist law). Another
Vietnamese system of the era was Kim Ke(Golden Cock). As
the name implies, Kim Ke was based on cockfighting, and as a
result featured aggressive high kicks to the head. Here Muay
Thaiinfluence is possible, as the Nguyen family that eventually
occupied the Vietnamese capital of Hue received considerable
military aid from Siam.
1775 Philip Vickers Fithian writes that Easter Monday in Virginia
was a general holiday, and that “Negroes now are all dis-
banded till Wednesday morning & are at Cock Fights through
the County” (Gorn and Goldstein 1993, 18–19). Slave owners
also gave slaves off the six days between Christmas and the
New Year. During this time, the slaves visited friends, played
ball games, wrestled, and danced.
About 1776 According to tradition, a Buddhist nun named Wu Mei (Ng
Mui) creates a Southern Shaolin Boxing style known in Can-
tonese as yongchun (wing chun;Beautiful Springtime). The tra-
dition has never been proven, and twentieth-century stylistic
leaders such as Yip Chun believe that a Cantonese actor named
Ng Cheung created the style during the 1730s.
1780 A Tyrolean clock maker named Bartolomeo Girandoni manu-
factures some twenty-shot air rifles for the Austrians. Even
Chronological History of the Martial Arts 815