though they worked well, these technologically advanced .56
caliber weapons were withdrawn from service in 1801 and
banned outright in 1802. In theory, this was because the
weapons were fragile, but in practice it was more probably be-
cause the roar of a flintlock musket was too thrilling to give up
for mere range and accuracy.
1781 Turkic-speaking Chinese Muslims living in Gansu province
brawl in the streets over matters of Islamic ritual; the men fight
using long poles, short sticks, and whips, while the women
throw garbage. Martial art training took place in mosques, and
combined Sufistic spirit possession and trance dancing with
xingyiquan (hsing i ch’uan;mind and will boxing) and other
martial arts commonly practiced by caravan guards.
1786 The publication of the Treatise of Ancient Armour and
Weaponsby Francis Grose stirs English interest in antique arms
and armor. This said, scholarly investigations only date to 1824
and the publication of the appropriately titled Critical Inquiry
into Ancient Armourby Samuel Rush Meyrick.
1790 The Chinese establish a National Theater in Beijing, with the
purpose, of course, of showcasing the Chinese theatricals com-
monly (but imprecisely) known in English as the Chinese opera.
To make these performances work, schools were established for
children as young as 4 years of age, and because a star could
make a good living, standards for admission were very high.
Physical training for the students included daily practice in
bodybuilding, gymnastics, and sword handling, while concur-
rent academic training involved memorizing long passages from
Chinese classical literature. Thus National Theater–level mar-
tial art students operated at an entirely different level of profi-
ciency than those of the Shandong wushu (martial art) teacher
of 1900 who promised his students that they would be bullet-
proof following just one day of study.
1793 The Saxon educator Johann Guts Muths publishes Gymnastics
for the Young.Three years later, he follows up with another
book called Games.The idea of both books was that every
minute of a schoolboy’s day should be filled with purposeful,
directed activity.
About 1794 A Korean official named Yi Dok-mu compiles a manual of the
martial art techniques used by the Korean army. Known as the
Mu Yei Do Bo Tong Ji(Illustrated Manual of Martial Arts), it
was written in classical Chinese, perhaps to keep it from being
easily understood by merchants and wives.
1799 With the support of the Crown Prince of Denmark, Franz
Nachtigal establishes a Prussian-style gymnasium in Copen-
hagen. Nachtigal, like Guts Muths in Germany, believed that
fun was overrated. Therefore schoolchildren and soldiers
needed to do exercises that made them respond quickly to their
superiors rather than play the games that they enjoyed. Fur-
thermore, they needed to be graded in everything they did, and
their performances needed to show measurable improvement
over time. In other words, physical training was something that
children and soldiers did for the nation, not for fun.816 Chronological History of the Martial Arts
1780
cont.