Martial arts is a sport that the Chinese nation has continuously created and gradually formed during its long-term historical evolution.
In primitive society, there were few beasts and the natural environment was very harsh. In the harsh struggle of "natural selection and survival of the fittest", people naturally produced punches, kicks, fingers and palm strikes, Primary offensive and defensive methods such as jumping and rolling. Later, they gradually learned to make and use stone or wooden tools as weapons, and developed some fighting and killing skills with bare hands and using instruments. This was the germ of martial arts.
We can see from the existing archaeological discoveries that in the Paleolithic Age, pointed stone tools, stone balls, stone hand axes, and bone-horned spears had appeared. By the end of the Neolithic Age, A large number of stone axes, stone shovels, stone knives, bone harpoons, arrowheads, and even copper axes and copper axes appeared. Most of these primitive production tools and weapons later became the predecessors of martial arts equipment.
At the end of primitive society, tribal wars occurred frequently, which further promoted the development of martial arts. In tribal wars, bows, arrows, and throwers were used at a distance, and sticks, axes, and swords were used at a close distance. Any production tools that could be used for hunting and fighting became weapons of war. According to historical records, the Sanmiao tribe rebelled many times during the Dayu period, and failed to surrender after repeated conquests. Later, Yu stopped the attack and asked the soldiers to practice holding axes and shields. He invited the people of the Sanmiao tribe to watch this "Thousand Qi Dance" to show their strong force. The Sanmiao tribe surrendered from then on. This is a grand martial arts self-defense exercise in primitive society. The ancient "wuwu" laid the foundation for the formation of later martial arts routines.
Society’s war practice puts forward requirements for people’s military skills. So people continue to summarize the offensive and defensive skills and experience gained from war practice. And passed down from generation to generation.
It is said that during the Yan and Huang Dynasties, there was a Chiyou tribe in the east with a bison as their emblem. They advocated martial arts, were brave and good at fighting, and were especially good at wrestling (falling) with bare hands. They wear horns or sword-like attire on their heads. When fighting with others, in addition to punching and kicking, they are best at grabbing and twisting the opponent, and touching the opponent with their heads to prevent them from approaching. Later generations called it "Chi You Opera". Chi You's horn fighting is a kind of unarmed fighting, which includes various methods such as giving, hitting, throwing, resisting, and taking. It can be used on the battlefield and for daily drills, and has a certain influence on the development of confrontational projects in later generations.
Entering class society, with the development of productive forces and the improvement of weapons, martial arts has also entered a new stage of development.
Due to the development of the bronze industry during the Shang and Zhou dynasties, sophisticated weapons such as spears, spears, halberds, axes, axes, knives, and swords appeared, as well as methods for using these weapons, such as splitting, piercing, stabbing, etc. There are also competitions to compare skills such as chopping and chopping. The martial arts skills at that time were mostly called "hand fighting", "hand grid", "hammer" and so on. According to "Historical Records", King Jie of Xia, King Wu Yi of Yin, and King Zhou were all skilled in capturing ferocious beasts with their bare hands.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the feudal princes were in dispute and the Seven Powers sought hegemony. Wars were very frequent. The fighting skills of martial arts have been valued and developed rapidly in the military and civilians. At this time, the emergence of iron weapons and the rise of infantry and cavalry enriched the content of weapons. Not only were they of excellent quality and various lengths and shapes, the combat effectiveness of martial arts was further highlighted. At the same time, the fitness function of martial arts was also valued. At this time, martial arts competitions have become very common and pay great attention to offensive and defensive skills. Boxing techniques also include attack, defense, counterattack, feint, etc.
At that time, the princes and countries "focused on military warfare" and attached great importance to those with outstanding boxing skills, arm strength, and strong muscles and bones. In order to make Qi strong and prosperous, Guan Zhong, the prime minister of Qi, carried out military reform and ordered officers and soldiers to conduct practical martial arts training. Anyone who did not report the martial arts among the people would be punished as concealing their talents. Every spring and autumn, Qi State holds nationwide "competition examinations" to select heroes with strong martial arts skills to join the army. Because the Qi army in front of them raised their troops like birds, moved their troops like lightning, and launched their troops like wind and rain. No one in front dared to stop them, and no one behind them dared to hurt them. Going out and entering alone was like entering a deserted place. Xun Kuang (also known as Gou Zi) from Zhao State Witnessing the Qi people's admiration for martial arts, after returning to the country, he talked to King Zhao about the reasons for Qi's strength and said: "Qi people are prosperous in martial arts." However, swordsmanship was very prosperous in Wuyue at that time. In ancient times, there was a famous female fencer who came from the country of Yue, and was called "Yue Girl" at that time. Not only does she have outstanding sword skills, but she also has a set of martial arts theories. According to the "Wuyue Spring and Autumn Annals": "The way of fighting with hands is to maintain the spirit inside and show peace and etiquette on the outside. When you see it, you are like a good woman, but when you seize it, you are like a tiger. The shape of the cloth, the weather, and the spirit,... one person is worth a hundred, One hundred people are equal to ten thousand." As early as more than 2,000 years ago, my country had a relatively mature martial arts theory record, which proposed the idea of ??integrating internal and external, and integrating both form and spirit.
We all know the historical event of the "Hongmen Banquet" during the Chu-Han War. There is a famous allusion - Xiang Zhuang's sword dance, intended for Pei Gong. It can be seen that the martial arts at that time had changed from the simplicity of the past. The offensive and defensive movements gradually developed into routines that can be practiced individually.
The Han Dynasty was a period of great development of martial arts. Single, duel or group dance routines such as sword dance, knife dance, and double halberd dance often appeared in court banquets. Unarmed boxing performances and competitions were also highly valued by rulers. Ban Gu, a historian of the Eastern Han Dynasty, recorded in the "Book of Han" that Emperor Ai of the Han Dynasty was a fan of "Bian opera", saying that he was "elegant and not sensual, but he often watched Bian She's martial arts opera". In the Han Dynasty, military personnel were also selected through "testing" (a test of boxing skills). Gan Yanshou, a famous general of the Later Han Dynasty, was selected for the military post of "Qimen" through "examination and abandonment".
In addition to the practical skills of "defending yourself and killing the enemy" and "defending the enemy by attacking and defending", the boxing skills of the Han Dynasty also featured ornamental and fitness-oriented pictographic dances, such as the "Monkey Dance", "Dog Dance", etc. "Double Dance", "Drunk Dance", "Six-Animal Show", "Five-Animal Show", etc. These can be regarded as early elephant-shaped boxing trees. The number of martial arts writings during this period also increased significantly. "Hanshu·Yiwenzhi" alone contains 38 chapters on "Swordsmanship" and 6 chapters on "Shoubo", which are all monographs discussing "the way of attack and defense".
Due to the development and prosperity of the feudal social economy during the Sui and Tang Dynasties, compared with the stagnant state during the Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties, martial arts can be said to have risen again. The Tang Dynasty implemented the "martial arts examination system" and selected talents with outstanding martial arts skills through examinations. This policy also promoted martial arts training activities among private and official people. Shaolin Temple was famous for its martial arts in the early Sui Dynasty. During the Wude period of Tang Dynasty (618-626), Shaolin Temple became even more famous because of its contribution in helping Li Shimin to eradicate the Sui Dynasty's separatist power Wang Shichong. The government allowed it to set up its own camp and train monk soldiers.
The number of monks at one time reached more than 2,000, and martial arts training became increasingly popular. It is said that Zen Master Chou of Shaolin Temple was "skilled in boxing and martial arts" and could "draw a huge weight and collapse a wall". Li Yuanji, the fourth son of Li Yuan, the founding emperor of the Tang Dynasty, was brave and good at fighting, and was a general who led his army to stand alone. Li Shimin, the second son of Li Yuan, "involved the heroes of Shandong" and raised more than 800 "warriors" in the Qin Palace, including the well-known The historical figures in "The Romance of Sui and Tang Dynasties" - Yu Chigong, Cheng Yaojin, and Qin Qiong, they are all generals with outstanding martial arts. Yuchi Gong could seize a gun with his bare hands. When fighting, he would often rush into the enemy's formation single-handedly. Although there were a lot of swords and guns, he could not hurt him in the end. Instead, he would seize the gun and assassinate him. Going in and out of a tight siege was like entering an uninhabited country. One time Li Yuanji wanted to compete with him to "seize the gun with bare hands". Yuan Ji held the gun and jumped on the horse to fight. Yuchi Gong dodged left and right, and soon snatched the gun from Yuan Ji's hand three times. It can be seen that Yuchi Gong's martial arts was already very superb at that time.
At that time, swords had gradually been replaced by knives in the military, but it was still very popular among the people. Not only martial artists practiced it, but also literati were proud of wearing swords and dancing with them. Tao people Li Bai and Du Fu both learned swordsmanship when they were young. General Fei Min's swordsmanship, Li Bai's poetry, and Zhang Xu's cursive script are known as the three wonders of the Tang Dynasty. Some people praise Fei Min's sword as "the sword dances like a dragon, lingering and returning with the wind." No wonder the painter Wu Daozi asked Fei Min to dance with the sword to stimulate his creative passion. What is even more breathtaking is Du Fu's painting of Mrs. Gongsun's sword dance: "In the past, there was a beautiful woman named Gongsun. When she danced with her sword, she moved her sword in all directions. The viewers were as depressed as the mountains, and the heaven and earth were depressed for a long time. It was like a chess game shooting nine sunsets, and she was as powerful as a group of people. The emperor flies like a dragon; when it comes, it calms down its fury like thunder, and when it ends, it condenses like a clear light on the sea." This shows that the swordsmanship routines at that time were already at a very high level.
During the Song Dynasty, there were internal and external troubles and frequent wars. People often formed societies and practiced martial arts to protect themselves. For example, "Jiaodui Society", "Yinglue Society", and "Gongjian Society" are all relatively large private martial arts organizations. At this time, martial arts in rural and remote areas mostly focused on military practicality; while in the streets and alleys of cities, they focused more on routines and used martial arts as a performance content, collectively known as "Baixi". The martial arts performed include cornering, boxing, kicking, and There are sticks, sticks, swords and spears, swords, bullets, crossbows, etc. The sparring is called "taozi", and there are "guns versus cards", "swords and swords" and so on. The term "ten men's martial arts" also appeared in the classics of the Song Dynasty. According to Song Huayue's "Cuiwei Northern Expedition Record": "I heard that the bow ranks first in six out of thirty military weapons, and the bow ranks first in eight out of ten martial arts." The original intention of this article was to emphasize the importance of bows and arrows in battle, but It has been reflected that there were far fewer than 18 types of weapons at that time. We can get a glimpse of the development of martial arts in the Song Dynasty from several ancient novels, such as "The Complete Story of Yue", "Generals of the Yang Family", "Water Margin", etc., all of which describe many male and female heroes with strong martial arts skills and unique kung fu. .
Due to the acute ethnic conflicts in the Yuan Dynasty, the Mongolian rulers restricted the practice of martial arts among the people. Many martial artists became anonymous and martial arts organizations turned into secret private organizations, which greatly inhibited the development of martial arts.
The Ming Dynasty was an era of comprehensive development of martial arts in our country. There are many schools of boxing with different styles and schools. The "New Book of Jixiao" written by Qi Jiguang, a famous anti-Japanese general, records that "Taizu of the Song Dynasty has thirty-two long fists, continuous and open short strikes, Wen's seventy-two lines of boxing, and thirty-six closed locks." , Shandong Li Bantian's legs, Eagle Claw King's grasp, Qianlu Zhang's kick, Zhang Bojing's blow...
***Sixteen Boxing Schools "It's really like a hundred schools of thought contending, and boxing. They are all named after the surnames of those who are good at them. The great development of martial arts in the Ming Dynasty is inseparable from the thought of Yuan Zhang, the ancestor of the Ming Dynasty, who valued all-round talents in both civil and military arts. He advocated that "military officers should learn etiquette, and literati should learn riding and shooting." In this way, in the Ming Dynasty, not only were there many boxing techniques, but the equipment routines were also more colorful, and they began to have power, methods, and boxing formulas. This shows that martial arts, which was born out of military fighting techniques, had gradually formed a form of exercise based on routines by the Ming Dynasty, and far exceeded the development of confrontational sports.
In the past, martial arts skills were mostly taught by word of mouth and example, and few were preserved in the form of documents. Due to the Ming Dynasty's all-round talent in both civil and military affairs, martial artists reached their peak in writing books and writings with rich pictures and texts, retaining precious martial arts heritage and providing an important basis for future generations to study martial arts. According to statistics, in addition to Qi Jiguang's "New Book of Jixiao", important monographs include Tang Shunzhi's "Wu Bian", Yu Dayou's "Zhengqitang Collection", Zheng Ruozeng's "Jiangnan Classics", Cheng Zongyou's "Remaining Skills of Farming", He Liang Chen's "Array Records", Mao Yuanyi's "Wu Bei Zhi", Wu Duo's "Arm Records", etc.
During the Qing Dynasty, in order to maintain their dominance, the Manchu nobles restricted martial arts training, so martial arts activities in the Qing Dynasty were not as good as those in the Ming Dynasty. However, due to the broad mass base of martial arts among the people, and the existence of many anti-Qing and restoration organizations at that time, the people's practice of martial arts in an attempt to overthrow the Manchu rule made various schools of martial arts more diverse in the world. According to the region, it is divided into the Southern School and the Northern School; according to the mountains and rivers, it is divided into the Shaolin School and the Wudang School; according to the religion, it is divided into the external skills of Buddhism and the internal skills of Taoism; and according to the categories, it is divided into Tai Chi Sect, Xingyi Sect, Bagua Sect, and Mizong Sect. , as well as long boxing and short hitting categories. There are many martial arts schools, symbolizing the prosperity of martial arts.
However, there is also a lack of communication between various factions and the inability to make up for each other's shortcomings