Another article from the Ming Bao by Hing Chao - some of the material has been covered before but there is some valuable information contained herein nonetheless.
According to the "History of Guangdong Martial Arts", the martial arts history of Guangdong began when the Han Dynasty created the state of Southern Yue. In order to pacify the South, the Southern Yue Court instituted a policy of [co-opting the local people], where the indigenous Yue people played a part in the politics, a good example was the Yue native Lu Jia who became prime minister, and appointed king over the western border territories; in addition the court encouraged the locally governed provinces to imitate the Han Culture of the Central plains. This form of soft "Confucianization" and social engineering, led to the what were then called the "Southern Barbarians" to gradually abandon their tribal systems and culture, opening up the first stream of what was become a mass migration of Han people.
From archaeological artifacts, researchers have found many bronze knives, swords, etc. demonstrating the exchange of political philosophy, military activities and culture between the Han Court and Guangdong, and culminating in the foundation of the Southern Yue state, which stimulated the development of military culture of the central plains in Guangdong. With the import of weapons and the associated military technology, Han culture gradually replaced the indigenous weapons and methods of making war. From the time of the Han, the flow of culture from the North to the South, slowly became a permanent trend.
The transmission of Han culture to the south, was primarily caused by the constant influence of the military and culture of the minority tribes upon Hua Xia culture. From the Warring States Period, when King Wu Ling of Zhao instituted the military revolution [to adopt the mounted warfare of the northern tribes], for 2000 years the military model of the Northern peoples, their weapons and technology (especially the art of horseback warfare), led the development of the main current of military thought, martial arts and culture. From the time the Xianbei peoples founded the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534) on the Central plains until the Manchus crossed the mountain passes into China, the minority tribes of the steppes invading the Central plains became a regular fixture of Chinese history, bringing a perpetual method of renewal and vitality to Huaxia culture. During ancient times, Guangdong and Fujian were considered to be the frontier territories of the South, and as a result were less influenced by the minority tribes of the North. Whenever the tribes of the north entered into the Central plains and founded a "Conquest Dynasty", this would lead to multiples instances of the mass migration of peoples, notable incidents were the Anlushan Rebellion of the Tang Dynasty, the Jingkang Incident of the Northern Song, the invasion of the Mongol peoples and the Manchus.
During this process, the culture of the northern tribes and the northern Chinese clashed and intermingled, leading to an important change in Central Plains culture, especially during the two dynasties of the Liao (916-1125) and Jin (1115-1234). Under the rulership of minor tribes for over 300 years, the area north of the Chang Jiang and centered upon the Yellow River, in terms of language, culture or customs had been "Tribalized" from an early period. Conversely, many of the important northern families or even a few imperial families, under the threat of northern invasion, had migrated to Guangdong and Fujian border territories from an early period. So the separation by their Yuan rulers of the Han people into "Han People' and "Southerners" was to a certain extent appropriate, showing that the there was a big difference between northern and southern culture at that time. Conversely, as the area of Southern Fujian was rather remote, it preserved a large amount of ancient culture, for example the dialects of Fujian and Guangdong most resemble ancient Chinese and the martial arts have retained certain techniques that were used in ancient warfare.
The Process of transmitting Martial Arts to the South and their Localization
As the ancient martial arts left few traces in the written record, what we know is limited and the remaining content of ancient martial arts still extant in the South has been explained in the previous issues of Hong Kong Wu Lin. For a detailed exposition, please consult the essay "The Evolution of Ancient Martial Arts"
The emergence and flourishing of Cantonese martial arts actually mainly took place during the Qing period. Many people who study Cantonese martial arts, focus their attention upon actual schools, techniques or people. But due to a lack of historical records, most of the information passed down is of a rather late period, most coming from the end of the Qing and the beginning of the Republican period, with a major emphasis on the Republican period. Using the oral transmission to re-imagine the development of the Cantonese marital arts during the Qing period is unreliable. Thus when studying formation of Cantonese martial arts from the Qing to the Republican period, we have to begin with a study of society, understand the actual circumstances and investigate the relationship between marital arts and society and popular culture. The social phenomena which bear a relationship with the development of martial arts which merits our attention are : (1) The militarization and armed conflict in arising from the increasing population in Guangdong; (2) The internal migration resulting from the unrest and turbulence in the middle of the Qing period, leading to the transmission of martial arts from north to south; (3) The self strengthening movement of the twentieth century that led to a "Guoshu Fever", resulting the further spread of marital arts amongst the general populace.
The Population Explosion in Guangdong and development of a Militarized Society
Qing-era Guangdong and Fujian saw a historically unprecedented increase in population. Certain Qing policies such as the maritime embargo, caused the livelihood of the coastal population to be caught between a rock and a hard place, but it did to a certain extent place a limit on the growth of population. However when we reached the Golden Age of Qianlong, the lessening on taxes on the general populace led to a jump in the rate of growth of the population, and at the end of Qianlong's reign, the population of Fujian and Guangdong had far exceeded that of the most prosperous times during the Ming period. This population increase let what had been a sparsely populated area to experience an invisible pressure, forcing the marginalized masses from lowest rungs of society to leave their agrarian society, to search for a new pastures to make a livelihood. Having left their homes on the farms and their family networks, and in order to protect their rights and resist the depredations of the prominent families and landowners, these migrants formed many Brotherhoods, and through oaths of fealty created many "clans" unrelated by blood which gradually evolved into a large "underground society".
The history of Cantonese martial arts make reference often to "Overthrowing the Qing and restoring the Ming", to a large extent this was a slogan used by the secret societies to justify their existence and promote themselves. As to for the Southern Chinese Brotherhoods, secret societies and "underground society" researchers both in and outside of China have done a great deal of research, and interested readers should consult "Brotherhoods and Secret Societies in Early and Mid-Ming China: The Formation of a Tradition" (Ownby 1996) and "Rebellion and its Enemies in Late Imperial China,: Militarization and Social Structure, 1796-1864" (Kuhn 1980). What is worth noticing, is that the militarization and arming of Cantonese society and the flashpoint, was originally the conflict of family groups over land, and the formation of these non-traditional associations was a result of the worsening of the ratio between land and resources and the population. However later on, with the spread and development of these non-traditional associations, they transformed into vehicles for illegal appropriation, often taking part or even inciting local armed conflict, or even inciting mass rioting and insurrection, leading Southern China to become a large disaster area in the late Qing. With our current state of research we are unable to ascertain the role of the martial arts schools or certain marital arts teachers roles in this situation, but one thing is certain, the militarization of Southern China a close connection with the development of martial arts, and the contemporary weapons - such as the double knife (butterfly knife), cudgel staff - and their related techniques also have direct correlation with this phenomenon.
The problem of the Qing population was one affecting the whole country, apart from the Shandi Hui and Big Knife Association of southern Fujian and Guangdong, the social unrest caused by these non-traditional organizations, affected the each part of China, the Yi He Brotherhood - "Quan Fei" spread to Shandong, Henan, Hebei, and Anhui, and the Taiping Kingdom laid siege to Jinling, and spread its military strength to Guangxi, Hunan, Hubei, Jiangxi, Anhui, Jiangsu, Henan, Shanxi, Zhili, Shandong, Fujian, Zhejiang, Guizhou, Sichuan, Yunnan, Jiaxi and Gansu provinces. This cross provincial movement rested upon a wave of population migration, and was a trend causing the horizontal transmission of culture. The transmission of northern boxing south, taking root in a foreign land was born out of this megatrend, of which the most prominent was the Tai Ping Kingdom.
The Taiping Kingdom promoted the interaction between North and South
The Taiping Kingdom Uprising (1850-1864) and the Nien Rebellion in the North (1851-1868) took place at the same time, and the flames of war engulfed half the country, involving tens of millions of inhabitants. Hong Xiuquan started his rebellion Jintian in Guangxi, further extending it to Hunan, before turning his attention to Hubei, and finally in 1853 laid siege to Jiangning (present day Nanjing) and made Tianjing his capital. Before long he opened a western front and advanced on the North and his troop occupied eight provinces. Almost all of the country was plunged into war, in addition with the Yellow River bursting its banks in 1855, a large number of refugees in the north lost their homes and joined the Taiping troops. [ ] However by 1863 when You Dakai was sentenced to death, it was already a spent force and joined hands with the Nien Troops in the North and struggled on until 1868.
We believe that the extended military activity in the north and the Jiangsu-Zhejiang area, led to a large movement of people from the North to the South, the interaction between the Nien troops and the Taiping troops led to the exchange of martial arts between north and south. As northern Guangdong bordered on Hunan, after the fall of the Taiping Kingdom, many troops fled to or back to Guangdong, one of the most notable of which was Chen Heng, the founder of Choy Lay Fut. To a large extent one can say that Choy Lay Fut was the Guangdong school that had the earliest contact with the Northern arts and who derived most the most benefits. Its trademark movements - [gua, Xiao, cha] are different from the style of Southern arts and have a strong Northern boxing flavor. Apart from Choy Lay Fut, other styles such Mok Family Boxing, Hup Gar also have a northern local martial arts influence, but the influence was later and came subsequent to the fall of the Qing Dynasty.
The Self Strengthening Movment of China
The many uprisings of the late Qing, all were predicated upon the self strengthening consciousness of the people and were also a result of it. Whether it was the government or the people, they both placed great emphasis and value upon the martial arts' ability to save the nation. What is even more obvious was during the early Republican era, the exchange between north and south was even more frequent.
First was the founding of the Jingwu Association. Huo Yuan Jia and others set up the Jing Wu Sports School in 1909, and changed its name in the next year to the Jing Wu Sports Association. Under the aegis of the spirit of "strengthening the country, and strengthening the race", it unceasingly promoted the native sports culture of the Chinese people. During its peak, the 9 branches in the southern provinces had more than 40 thousand members. It quickly established 38 branches in South-east Asia, becoming one of the largest private sports organizations of the time. It became the vanguard in the modernization and popularization of martial arts, spreading large amounts of northern arts to the south, and its contribution cannot be denied.
Next the government operated Central Guoshu academy was established in 1928 and was the first national level atheletics organizational body, in the same year the first "Guoshu Exam" was held, making Guoshu a national treasure, [ ], the founding of the Guoshu Academy of Guangdong and Guangxi should be brought to our attention, it was promoted by Li Ji Shen the premier of Guangdong Province, and Wan Lai Sheng was Dean, and the head of the teaching staff was Li Jian Wu, and its instructors included Gu Ru Zhang, Fu Zhen Song, Geng Dehai, martial artists from the north and the south. This was what the martial world called "The Five Tigers head South" (although there is some dispute whether Geng De Hai was included among the five tigers.) Although the existence of the LiangGuang Guoshu Academy was short lived, it had an active meaning for exchange of martial arts between north and south. According to the "History of Sports Culture in Guangdong", the Gu style 10 Set Shaolin Boxing became the most practiced northern style in Guangdong.
Both Jingwu and the Guoshu academies laid out a very good roadmap for the modernization of Chinese wushu, and during the time of warfare and political instability, many lineage holders from many styles came down to Hong Kong, [ ] northern and southern arts came into conflict and began to localize, seeping into everyday life through a variety of conduits. It even led to the creation of several local styles such as Dashing Pigua and Nothern Shaolin Ditang Bagua.
Looking back at the building blocks of the Hong Kong network of martial arts, it as we have mentioned in previous editions of Hong Kong Wulin, northern martial arts makes up a very important component, and an irreplaceable part of the whole framework. The system of the Central Guoshu academy and the Jingwu Association, can be seen as playing an extremely important role at the center of Hong Kong martial arts circles, but of course we must also acknowledge the local lineage holders of other influential northern martial arts. Like Grandmaster Geng Dehai of Dashing Pigua, his earlier activities were intimately connected with the Jingwu association and the Central Guoshu Academy, but he later held true to his own beliefs and insisted on starting his own school, and interacted closedly with other southern martial artists. Finally he developed a southernized version of a northern art in the form of a local system, developing the martial arts in a new direction and achieved great success. He transmitted the art to Master Chen Xiu Chung, and nurtured masters like Wan Wing Gai, Fung Lam Wo , Chan Kwoon and others. Their success in the ring, had a lasting influence on the combat sports. For example Master Fung Lam Wo is both a famous veteran and teacher of freestyle fighting and Muay Thai, and has never stopped in pushing the development of local combat sports, and of the original students of Dashing Pigua, most of them are outstanding action stars, or lion dancers. In another way, there have been a portion of northern syle lineage holders such as the famous director Tsui Siu Ming who is a lineage holder in Taiji Mantis, who has made great contributions to the Hong Kong film and television industries.
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