Sun LutangOne of the persistent problems that I see in amateur discussions of Chinese martial studies is a lack of understanding of how broad the traditional martial arts really were, and the variety of life experiences that they encompassed. In fact, rather than discussing Chinas martial culture in the singular, it would probably be better to think about these cultures in the plural. The martial arts never were just one thing, and our experience with the modern traditional arts tends to seriously skew our perceptions of the past.To counter this trend I have been compiling a series of short biographies on important and interesting martial artists from the 19th and 20th centuries. So far we have seen the martial arts used as a revolutionary philosophy by a cross-dressing political terrorist, as a means of economic and political advancement for a poor boy from the country, and as an natural outgrowth of southern Chinas intensely commercial marketplaces. All of our previous martial artists have pursued very concrete economic, social and political goals. With the exception of Qui Jins use of martial imagery in some of her revolutionary poetry, none of them have viewed the martial arts as an overly philosophical or spiritual endeavor.I believe that this accurately represents the life experience of the vast majority of Chinas 19th century martial artists. Most of these individuals were relatively uneducated youth from the countryside. They sought out the martial arts either as a means to better paying employment (perhaps as a caravan guard) or as a source of entertainment and personal cultivation during slack periods of the agricultural year.Yet this is not how most western martial artists view the Chinese styles today. Discussions of the traditional martial arts (in both China and America) are prefaced with the assumption that these practices are really about health, weight loss, qi cultivation or mental peace. I think that these often heard assertions would come as something of a revelation to most of Chinas 19th century boxers. It is not that they did not value the health benefits of regular exercise. In an age without modern medical care they certainly did, and Qigong-esque exercises have been around for a long time. But that was never why they braved social condemnation to practice these arts in the first place.Still, since the late Ming dynasty there has been a small minority of individuals who did practice and advocate the study of boxing as a form of self-cultivation. Meir Shahar, in his masterful study of the evolution of the fighting arts of Shaolin, has demonstrated that in the late 1500s at least one group of monks at the temple started to abandon the study of battlefield weapons in favor of unarmed boxing mixed with Daoist longevity practices and traditional medical philosophy.It is not a mystery that small groups of monks might find the mixture of strenuous physical training and philosophical mysticism intoxicating. These individuals were, after all, monks. Self-cultivation and the attainment of altered states of consciousness through strenuous esoteric activities was their day-job. This was just a new technology to accomplish the goals that monks in many religious traditions have always sought.What was surprising was Shahars finding that the growing popularity of this strange brew was not confined to the nations Temples, but that it was spreading quite rapidly throughout the lettered classes in the late Ming and early Qing period. At exactly the point in time when one might have expected elites to be the most interested in serious military study, they were instead turning their attention to more mystical pursuits.So we know that this interest in Daoist philosophy, medicine and longevity practices has been an undercurrent in certain corners of the Chinese martial arts world for some time. Probably over 400 years. Depending on how you interpret the story of the Maiden of Yue (a Bronze Age fencing master who showed a keen interest in philosophy) maybe a lot longer. But we lack the literary evidence to say much about the pre-Ming period.Still, this view remained a minority one. It was the sort of thing that was mostly taken up by the few educated elites who had any interest in Boxing, and it did not have a huge impact on the goals and military aspirations of ordinary martial artists.This basic social pattern started to undergo a fundamental shift in the wake of the Boxer Uprising (1899-1901). In the modern era (dominated by firearms) the original military applications of the martial arts started to look outdated to a number of educated social elites. Actual military and police personnel had reasons to continue to be interested in unarmed defense, but these sorts of concerns rarely bothered arm-chair reformers or May 4th radicals. In fact, many of these reformers and modernizers wanted to do away with traditional hand combat. To them boxing was an embarrassing relic of Chinas feudal and superstitious past.For the martial arts to succeed in the 20th century they would need to transition. They had to be made appealing to increasingly educated and modern middle-class individuals living in urban areas. It would be hard to imagine a group more different from the rural farm youths that had traditionally practiced these arts. But this is the task that the early martial reformers of the 20th century dedicated themselves too.We have already briefly discussed the Jingwu Association (created in Shanghai in 1909) and their pioneering efforts to reform and save the Chinese martial arts (as well as the nation). However, there were a number of other reformers in the same era. And while the traditional martial arts did survive, the systems that we have today are in many ways quite different from what the Jingwu, and later Guoshu, reformers envisioned.Sun Lutang is a seminal figure in the history of the early 20th century Chinese martial arts. While best known in Neijia and Taijiquan circles (where he is credited with the creation of Sun style Taiji), his vision of what the Chinese martial arts should be is still being perpetuated today. In fact, he did more to promote the idea that the martial arts are fundamentally about health and self-cultivation than any other single figure. Through his ground breaking publications in the 1910s and 1920s he codified a set of ideas about the nature of the Chinese martial arts that we continue to carry with us.In some senses I am hesitant to write on Sun Lutang. I do not practice Sun style Taiji, Xingyi Quan or Bagua. For that matter I am not particularly sympathetic to the view that the Chinese martial arts should be about health and self-cultivation. I am much more familiar with the local histories of southern China and Cantonese culture. I come to this question as an outsider.Yet the influence of Sun Lutangs ideas and reforms have stretched far beyond his homeland in the central plains. His theories continue to influence popular perceptions, in both the east and west, about what the Chinese martial arts are and what they should be. With his triple dedication to hand combat, Daoist longevity and classical Chinese philosophy, he has become the perfect little old Chinese man that all other martial arts teachers are subsequently judged against. In short, it is necessary for the field of Chinese martial studies to address the contributions of this dynamic writer and thinker on a more fundamental level than any specific contributions that he may have made to popular lineages of Taiji or Xingyi Quan.The next three posts comprise a brief discussion of Sun Lutang and his contributions to the traditional Chinese martial arts. The remainder of this post provides an overview and timeline of his life. The information in this review is based on the introductory essay (by Tim Cartmell, 2003) in A Study of Taijiquan (1921) by Sun Lutang. Cartmell drew on a variety of sources when assembling his biographical sketch, including extensive interviews with Sun Lutangs surviving daughter Sun Jianyun. A skilled martial arts teacher who worked with her father, Sun Jianyun was able to fill in many of the gaps and paint a more accurate picture of her fathers day to day life.The second post in this series will focus on Sun Lutangs association with other martial artists and hand combat institutions. In fact, one of the most interesting elements of Sun Lutangs life is the window that it opens onto the transformation of late Qing hand combat traditions and the development of modern martial arts culture in Northern China. While the brief biographical sketches that we present below cannot always flesh out the social importance of events in his life, we hope to be able to expand on some of this material in the second post.With a better understanding of the factual and social foundations of Sun Lutangs life, the third post will turn to a discussion of his lasting impact on the traditional Chinese martial arts. While Sun Lutang lived most of his life in Northern China, his ideas have spread around the country, and even around the globe. What impact did his synthesis of philosophy, medicine and hand combat have on the development of the southern Chinese martial arts? To what extent did he provide the intellectual and philosophical foundations that allowed the Chinese martial arts to become a middle class phenomenon outgrowing, in large part, their origins in rural poverty? Do we see his hand in the emergence of the Qigong craze on the 1990s, and the subsequent medicalization of the Chinese martial arts? Lastly, when I deal with students who want me to tell them that Wing Chun is really an internal art, to what extent are they responding to ideas and hierarchies that were first developed by Sun and promoted by his students?Kennedy and Guo have called Sun Lutang the most important Chinese martial artists of the modern era (2005 p.182). I dont think that this assertion is an overstatement. Of course saying that someone has had a huge impact on the development is not the same as saying that they were the most talented practitioner to ever live. If nothing else his books have clearly had a transformative impact on all the literature that has come after them. Still, it seems that relatively few modern martial artists (outside the Neijia community) really have much of an idea of who Sun actually was or what he accomplished. He is lionized by members of his Taiji lineage and ignored by pretty much everyone else.My review of Sun Lutangs life will have little to say about his specific martial teachings or contributions to Taiji. Instead I hope to promote a broader appreciation of this figure in the field of Chinese martial studies. His life is a fascinating case study that illustrates a key era in the transition of the Chinese martial arts. Further, the ideas that he authored or popularized continue to shape how many people approach these fighting styles to this day. Even the practice of people who will profess to have never studied Sun is often profoundly marked by his writing.Historic Lotus Ponds in old Baoding. Source: Wikimedia.Historic Lotus Ponds in old Baoding. Source: Wikimedia.Childhood: Overcoming Injustice with the Brush and the Sword.The early years of Sun Lutangs life are interesting enough to be the subject of a number of movies. Originally named Sun Fu Quan, there is some debate as to when exactly he was born. His daughter says that he was born in 1862 on a small farm outside of Baoding (south west of Beijing) in Hebei Province. Suns father had never been very prosperous and did not marry until middle age.Recognizing the intelligence of his son he sent him to study the Confucian classics with a local teacher when he was seven years old. For the next two years Sun memorized and copied basic texts. Despite his obvious intelligence his formal education came to an unceremonious end when his fathers crops failed and the family was forced to sell the farm to pay off debts or taxes. A short while later Suns father fell ill and died, leaving the young boy fatherless and with no means of support.Suns mother felt that she was unable to care for her child so she placed him in the home of a wealthy (but apparently sadistic) landlord as a servant. Sun was never actually paid for his work but he was fed. It seems that virtual slavery did not suit the young childs personality and while he suffered through many beatings he started plotting a means of emancipation, at least to the degree that an eight year old child can imagine such things.His first big break came in 1872. While in a field tending sheep Sun came across an old man of about 70 leading an outdoor martial arts class. The next day he returned and begged to be taught the martial arts. When asked why he wanted to study boxing the nave 11 year old bluntly told the teacher (surname Wu) about his situation and desire to take revenge on his employer and his equally abusive family. Aghast at the tale of the young child lifes the older martial artist took him on as a student, but only after warning him that The martial arts are not just for fighting, these principals are very deep.I hope to explore Wus background and his influence on the young Sun in my next post. While a good mentor for the boy his influence on him only lasted a couple of years. On New Years Day of 1875 Sun got in a confrontation with the son and nephew of his employer. After successfully defending himself from an unprovoked attack, his boss threatened to beat him to death and Suns term of employment as a household servant came to an end.With no means of supporting himself, and no plans for the future, Sun fell into deep depression. His only interest now lay in the martial arts, but even that was soured by the taunts of local villagers. They felt that Sun was sure to grow up to become a bandit and a blight on the countryside and delighted in telling him so. Statistically speaking they may have been correct. Most bandits were young men without prospects or land who suffered an economic setback that forced them out of village life.Not wishing to be a burden on his mother the young Sun resolved to hang himself. Fortunately his suicide attempt failed and the boy was cut down by a passing traveler who took the boy home. After assessing the situation he gave the family some money that they used to leave the hamlet and travel to Baoding proper where Sun had an uncle who ran a shop selling calligraphy brushes. The uncle took in the struggling family and gave the young Sun a job as a clerk. This was an immense step up in life from what he had known in the countryside and the Uncle proved to be a kind employer. Further, his job in town put him in touch with the literary elements of society and gave him a chance to practice his calligraphy on scraps of paper.It was through his Uncle that Sun would meet two men who would change his life forever. The first of these individuals was a scholar named Zhang. Zhang immediately recognized the young boys talents and invited him into his home to study calligraphy and literature. He in turn introduced Sun to a friend of his named Li Kui Yuan. Li Kui Yuan was a talented Xing Yi Quan student and the owner of the Tai An armed escort service. He was delighted to find a student and resumed Suns formal instruction in the martial arts.When he was 18 years old, Sun and Li went to visit Zhang on his 50th birthday. Zhang took the opportunity to suggest that Li accept Sun as his formal disciple, and Li suggested that Sun should be engaged to Zhangs 16 year old daughter. Both ideas were heartily accepted and Sun place in society was now secure. But he did not marry immediately. Instead he and Li traveled to Beijing to study with Guo Yun Shen, Lis original Xingyi Quan teacher.Lion state at a temple on Emeishan. source: Wikimedia.Lion state at a temple on Emeishan. source: Wikimedia.The Wandering YearsBy 18 years of age Suns life had changed dramatically. His mother was cared for (by Zhang), he had a fiance and the sort of martial education that would allow him to make his way in the world. This was when most young martial artists would settle down and get on with the business of life.But Sun was reluctant to marry immediately. Nor did he only view the martial arts as a means of career advancement. He wanted to understand them on a deeper level, and doing so meant leaving the confines of Baoding and traveling to the capital. Guo Yun Shen would be the key figure in his subsequent development into a master.Sun learned quickly as he studied with Guo. The older master was impressed with the intelligence and footwork of the youth, enough so that he made him the formal inheritor of his lineage of Kung Fu. He also bequeathed upon him the nickname smarter than an active monkey.In total Sun spent eight years with Guo. In addition to his earlier education with Wu and Li, he now had a formidable martial education. But he was not done yet. In 1889 Sun used an introduction from Guo to meet Cheng Ting Hua, a master of the relatively young Bagua system. At the age of 27 Sun undertook a detailed study of this new art.Sun studied with Cheng for three years. In that time he focused on Dragon Style Bagua, Bagua Sword and spear training. At the end of this period he was apparently left with additional questions, but Cheng claimed he had no more to teach him.Instead he said that if he Sun wanted to understand the system more deeply he needed to study Daoism. However, Sun was not free to undertake such a trip lightly. He now had responsibilities to consider. In 1892 he returned to Baoding, married his fianc and saw the birth of his first son. To support the family he started a popular school that attracted a number of students.But the advice of Cheng was not forgotten. In 1894/5 he set out for Sichuan province where he met the monk Zhi Zhen who taught him both Emei Qigong and the theory behind his approach to I-Ching analysis. On the return trip Sun stopped at Wudang Mountain (an important site for Daoist instruction) and studied Qigong and immortality practiced with Jing Xu. I hope to investigate this philosophical turn in Suns martial practice, and its specific connection to his trip to Emei, in the next post.In 1896 he returned to his home town near Baoding with his wife and son. During this period Sun established not only martial arts classes, but also literary clubs to help spread literacy and basic education among the peasantry. He even appears to have started to lecture about philosophy directly in his classes.While things were going well for Sun and his family, in 1899 we once again find them on the move. This time he moved the whole family away from Baoding and relocated in Xing Tang, 120 km from Beijing (twice the distance of his previous residence). Xing Tang now appears to be part of Shijiazhuang.This move is usually passed over with relative silence in Suns various biographies. That is unfortunate as it is probably one of the most interesting, and wisest, decisions that he made in his entire life. The Boxer Uprising was brewing in in 1899 and there was substantial violence along the border between Hebei and Shandong. The spreading violence was clearly headed to Beijing, and Baoding was directly in its path.By late in 1899 inter-community violence was breaking out between Chinese Christians (often armed with modern western rifles) and anti-foreign Boxers (armed with spears and swords) in Baoding. The area saw repeated massacres in February and March of 1900, when things started to spiral out of control. Some of the most important violence of the early Uprising happened along the Baoding-Beijing railway to the east of the city.Joseph W. Esherick reviews events in and around Baoding in his groundbreaking study The Origins of the Boxer Uprising (1987). Most of the Boxers were impressionable country youth rather than sophisticated martial artists. Many of them relied on spirit possession and magical formula for their military power, not years of formal training. Still, it is undeniable that many martial arts schools in the region were caught up in the violence. Others foresaw tragedy on the horizon and tried desperately to distance themselves from the coming cataclysm.It would appear that Sun was in the later camp. By moving his family to Shijiazhuang they avoided the brutal waves of inter-community violence, and later western retaliation, that tore Baoding apart. It would certainly be interesting to know the fate of his Baoding students from this period, whether they too fled or if they stayed to fight. Cheng Ting Hua, Suns Bagua teacher and the individual who sent him on his quest to study Daoism, was shot and killed by German troops during their sack of Beijing.His new home was also far enough from the capital that he could continue to practice and teach the martial arts in the years after the Uprising. This is significant as schools were being closed and martial artists were forced underground across the country. In this period public sentiment turned decidedly against boxing and the traditional martial arts came closer to extinction than they have been before or since.As a young man Sun Lu Tang was very interested in the practical applications of his fighting arts, something that is still reflected in the basic structure of Sun Taiji. He fought in a number of challenge matches and worked as a guard and bodyguard. However, later in his career he claimed that the martial arts were really for health maintenance and self-cultivation. He famously told his students that if they wanted to fight they should get a gun. One wonders how much of this shift in his attitude had to do with his philosophically inspired wandering, and how much of it can be attributed to the utter destruction of Baoding (and the murder of Cheng Ting Hua) during the throws of the Boxer Uprising.One of the most iconic images of the Boxer Uprising. This photograph was taken for the turn of the century wire news media.One of the most iconic images of the Boxer Uprising. This photograph was taken for the turn of the century wire news media.Sun Lutang on the National StageIt is a minor miracle that the traditional modes of hand combat survived the social fallout from the Boxer Uprising. The western retaliation in the wake of this wave of anti-Christian violence was terrible and indiscriminate. Educated individuals around the country blamed martial artists (quite unfairly) for the diminished state of their country. Nevertheless, after a few years had passed it became possible to reopen schools that were closed in the initial calamity.In 1907 Xu Shichang, (still a Qing official) invited Sun to the far northeast of China (Feng Tian) to set up a school. While there he defeated a local bandit who was terrorizing the area and may have been scheduled to fight with a foreigner in a public challenge match. I cannot confirm its authenticity, but the popular story is that Xu Shichang called the fight off because he feared diplomatic retaliation if Sun defeated the foreigner.The stay did not last long, though it helped to cement his relationship with Xu, a figure who would be an important politician in the Republic era. It also introduced Sun to a new circle of potential sponsors. Late in 1907 he returned to Baoding to reestablish his schools there after almost eight years of absence.But politics would once again shape Suns destiny. As we saw in our biography of Qiu Jin, the period before and after the 1911 revolution was an interesting time to be in Beijing. Intellectuals were meeting across the city to discuss different ideas for reform and the future of the country.These dynamic possibilities attracted Sun who must have bemoaned the diminished state of the martial arts. He decided that if he was going to promote the martial arts on a national scale he needed to be in Beijing. And so he moved his family to a little house in the capital. As a result Sun had a front row seat for many key events in the revolutionary period.In 1914 his daughter Sun Jianyu was born. She would go on to become an important teacher of her fathers arts and a master in her own right. The same year also saw a chance meeting with Master Hao Wei Zhen who fell sick while in the capital and was cared for at the Sun house. He later repaid Sun by teaching him Wu style Taiji. Sun studied Taiji for two years; this was the last major element of his martial education. He was already 52 years old when he first undertook the study of Taiji.Kennedy and Guo quite rightly call Sun the most important writer on the Chinese hand combat. Through his books he has become probably the most influential martial artist of his generation.His first book, a Study of Xing Yi Quan, was released in 1915. This groundbreaking effort was the first really practical modern martial arts manual that could actually teach readers the key points of an art. The text was relatively straightforward and helpful. It was also the first book to contain a large number of photographs documenting every step of a movement or form. Pretty much every martial art manual published from that point onward has copied Suns basic format.This early work turned out to be just the beginnings of an ambitious publishing agenda. In 1916 he published a Study of Eight Trigrams Boxing. In 1921 he published A Study of Taiji Boxing, in 1925 he wrote The True Essence of Boxing (his most philosophical work) and in 1927 he released his monograph on the Bagua sword (jian).The popularity of martial arts instruction started to pick up again in Beijing (and around the rest of the country as well) in the mid-1910s. Recall that this is the era when the Jingwu association came to prominence in Shanghai. Multiple groups were advocating saving the nation through strengthening it, and the traditional martial arts seemed to be an idea training tool. That same philosophy appears to have appealed to Sun and he likely helped to popularize it.In 1916 he joined the Beijing Sports Lecture Hall (which included such luminaries as Wu Jian Quan, Yang Cheng Fu and Li Jing Lin) where he taught classes on both the martial arts and Chinese philosophy. The later subject was calculated to appeal to a more educated middle class audience, so this is clear indication that Sun was attempting to change the demographic profile of the martial arts.A number or reformers during this period concluded that for the martial arts to survive they had to become more appealing to educated middle class individuals. Suns emphasis on health and self-cultivation was one way of accomplishing this goal. The Jingwu strategy of offering classes on photography or western sports was another. This period of time is also important for the development of the five modern styles of Taiji, including Sun Lutangs own offering that combines the essential insights of Taiji, Xingyi and Bagua.Suns growing reputation allowed him to rekindle his contacts in government. In 1919 Xu Shichang secured him a government appointment to teach martial arts in the Presidential Palace. Sun was subsequently assigned the rank of Lieutenant in the Nationalist military and held this position until he formally resigned it in 1924.In 1922 tragedy struck when Suns third son, Sun Huan Min, died of complications from broken ribs after falling and injuring himself in a martial arts demonstration in Shanghai. At that point Sun moved to Shanghai, a growing and dynamic metropolis, and established new schools with hundreds of students.In 1924 Sun traveled briefly to Shanxi where he further expanded his student base. He did not stay in the region long, and returned to Shanghai to teach in 1928 at the invitation of Zhang Zhi Jiang and Li Jing Lin of the Central Guoshu Institute. Sun remained active with the Central Guoshu Institute for some time, receiving appointments in Nanjing and Zhe Jiang. In 1931 he even opened a large all female class in Zhe Jiang that he later turned over to his daughter. After the Japanese invasion of the country in 1931 he resigned his various appointments and returned to Beijing.In late November or early December 1933 Sun began to have premonitions about his impending death. His daughter states that he used his knowledge of the I-Ching to predict the exact day and time that he would die. Believing that the end was near he returned to his home in Baoding. After returning home he stopped eating and went into a state of almost continual meditation. On the 16th of December he died in the same room, of the same house, that he had been born in.An image of Sun Lutang, permanently memorialized in one of his own books.An image of Sun Lutang, permanently memorialized in one of his own books.ConclusionSuns physical death did little to slow the flow of his ideas. His theories about the martial arts, the value of health and qigong training, and the intrinsic connection between boxing and Daoism continued to gain adherents. In fact, his ideas shaped the foundations that the Republican and post-war Chinese martial arts would be built on. They still live on today. While they are the subject of deep study by some martial arts students, they have also generated many popular assumptions about the traditional arts that are blindly perpetuated by the media and entertainment industry.The previous review has only touched on some of the historical highlights of Suns long and eventful career. What is still needed is a social history of his contributions to the martial arts, one that can connect him to the political, social and martial currents of his day. After all, Suns innovations did not happen in a vacuum. He lived in one of the most dynamic and interesting periods of martial arts reform. We will turn to a more detailed examination of these issues in our next post.In the first section of our special series on Sun Lutang we presented an outline of the life and career of a key figure in Chinese martial studies. Sun has made many contributions to the traditional martial arts community. He is responsible for innovations as diverse as the use of photography in training manuals, the popularization of the term Neijia (or internal) as a descriptive category, the pronounced emphasis on health and philosophy in the Chinese martial arts, and the creation of his own style of Taiji. His ideas have been incredibly important. For better or worse they have shaped the subsequent development of the martial arts in every region of China and the west. We will look at this legacy in more detail in the next post.From the perspective of Chinese martial studies, perhaps the greatest gift that Sun left was a rich and well documented life that intersected with some of the most important social, political and martial trends of the era. Even though Suns detailed diary of daily life was lost in the Cultural Revolution, we still have a surprising amount of information about his life, study, travels and thoughts on the state of the martial arts. He associated with many of the leading lights of the period and witnessed critical events in the formation of the social systems that we now refer to as the traditional martial arts.Sun Lutangs life provides students of Chinese martial studies with a surprisingly clear window into the past. By carefully studying his associations and innovations it is possible to gain a much greater understanding about how the martial arts of northern China were evolving and changing at the end of the 19th century. His biography, when placed in the proper context, reads like a textbook of martial arts history.The following post goes back and reviews a couple of trends that first arose in our brief summary of Suns life and career. Our goal is to ask how these events illustrate larger themes or questions in Chinese martial history. No shocking revelations emerge from this exercise. Yet a much more nuanced view of the basic institutions of Chinese martial culture emerges when they can be studied within the career of a single martial artist.Closed Doors vs. Secure Networks: The Economics and Social Functionality of Traditional Instruction.We have all encountered the debates before. Who was a closed door student of whom? Who can really claim to be a true inheritor of some style of Kung Fu? Of all of the criticisms that one can make of the Chinese martial arts, a lack of interest in politics will never be one of them. At the end of the day all sorts of debates in the modern Chinese martial arts seem to devolve into attempts to criticize or illegitimate the quality of someone elses instruction.The idea of secrecy has infected the Chinese martial arts like a virus. It seems that everything that emerges out of this cultural milieu continues of have issues with secrecy. Even in my own art, where Ip Man loudly and explicitly rejected the idea of secrets techniques and closed door teachings, there are still vigorous debates as to which of his students was his super-secret closed-door disciple. The answer of course is that none of them were. Yet the idea of secrecy is so deeply embedded in the culture and the mythology of the martial arts that it is hard to exorcise. After all, we all know that this is how the arts were originally taught. Right?Well, not quite. It is true that the modern institution of the public commercial school is a fairly recent invention. To have public commercial schools a few things need to be in place first. You need to have a monetized economy where people have jobs that afford them free time and pay them a cash salary that they can pass along to their teachers. The creation of lots of cheap, easily available, commercial real estate also helps this process along.In short, our current martial arts institutions are an outgrowth of modern capitalism. They are a natural extension of our social and economic world. However, early 19th century China was not really a capitalist place according to our current understanding of the term. For the most part the economy was not monetized. Except for a small group of very wealthy individuals, most people rarely had access to cash. The Qing government didnt even bother to consistently mint coins as they accepted tax payments in raw one ounce silver ingots or Mexican silver dollars. In short, while there may have been groups of people who wanted to learn the martial arts, there usually was not a really easy way to pay the teacher.Payment often happened in kind. One paid a teacher by inviting them to live with you, providing them with rice, new shoes, and new clothing. While effective, this situation is not very economically efficient. It is hard for a martial arts teacher to monetize the value of his knowledge or skill with in kind payments. As a result many of the best martial artists would simply work for the military or an escort company (some of the few places where you could earn a regular salary) and not teach at all. Teaching was often seen as a retirement job.The best teachers were usually supported by a single family. A father might hire a teacher, who lived as part of the household, to teach his sons. This might be seen as a means of preparing them to take the governments military service exam. Obviously this sort of instruction was private. But was it really secret?The answer is no. It many have been a source a jealousy, and certain ideas were exclusively held, but the teaching was not secret. If you had enough money to support and house a full-time teacher, you too could know the martial secrets of the universe. This was a system characterized by inefficiency, but it was not driven by secrecy. After all, these teachers were looking for a way to support themselves. Too much secrecy would work against their basic economic goals.A western style map of the area around the capital. This is the region where most of Sun Lutang's life happened. First published in 1875.A western style map of the area around the capital. This is the region where most of Sun Lutangs life happened. First published in 1875.Occasionally other teachers were able to find a way around this dilemma. In theory it would be possible for a group of students to support a teacher just as easily (or more easily) than a single family could. In practice this was usually a challenge, especially when dealing with impoverished peasants.While everyone would want to enjoy the benefits of the teaching, when it came time to pay their fair share, a lot people would come up short. This is the basic idea behind the free rider problem in economics. Cooperation is rare in large groups because individuals do not directly bear the costs of defection and enforcement is difficult. I have long suspected that many of the strongly community/family oriented norms seen in traditional martial arts schools (where a Sifu is treated, in some ways, as a father) were a partial attempt to solve the free rider problem. But that is a subject for a different post.What you do see in northern China in the 18th and increasingly in the 19th century are traveling martial arts teachers. They would have a circuit and would go from one village festival to the next. Festivals often corresponded with the selling of crops so these were rare times when peasants had disposable income.Such individuals would set up outdoor boxing grounds, give demonstrations, sell medicine, and (if they were better known) recruit students and hold classes. This sort of rural instruction at outdoor boxing grounds is precisely how some of the most important styles in Northern Chinese hand combat, such as Hong Quan and Plum Blossom Boxing, were spread. Esherick has even written short biographies on a number of these sorts of instructors which can be found in his volume on the Boxer Uprising.In fact, it is in a setting exactly like this where Sun Lutang first encounters Master Wu teaching a group of local peasants the finer points of Shaolin boxing. Wus life history is very instructive. Like Sun he grew up hard and traveled extensively. Given his location and era, his claim to have studied at Shaolin is actually pretty plausible. His martial repertoire, which included Hong Quan, 64 Hands Free Fighting, and Virgin Boy Qigong (among other forms), would have fit right in at the venerable temple. More interesting was the fact that Wu was a veteran of the terrible Taiping Rebellion, the largest and most destructive civil war in all of human history. After the end of that conflict he made a living as a public performer, traveling from market to market.The ease with which Wu accepted Sun as a student is interesting. Sun had to petition for acceptance, but it is clear he had nothing of value to offer his teacher. In short, Wu (70 years old at the time) made his living teaching the martial arts in a traditional setting, yet he was probably teaching all comers, even penniless youths like Sun.A different model of martial arts instruction can be seen after Sun arrives in Baoding. Here he is introduced to his twin mentors, Zhang and Li Kui Yuan. Li was a student of Xingyi and became Sun Lutangs second hand combat teacher. This is interesting as it appears that Li did not teach a large number of people. Why? Because he had a more effective means of monetizing his skill. He was the owner of a successful armed escort service.This career path was probably not open to Wu for a variety of social reasons. In order to be allowed to operate in public spaces (like markets), armed escorts had to have the trust of local officials. Li was a known quantity and his social network included scholars, like Zhang. It was precisely these contacts with social elites that allowed him to make a living. It probably was not necessary for him to teach to support himself.But sometimes individuals teach for other reasons. A friend of mine in Chengdu has been interviewing local martial arts masters. One of the interesting (and sad) things that emerged from these interviews is that with the current contraction of interest in the martial arts, there are not enough students to go around. There are a lot of individuals with a lifetime of skills who wish to pass something on, but they just cant find anyone who is interested in learning. It seems that teachers need students as much as students need teachers. At its most basic level what we are discussing is a profoundly human relationship.When you look at the amount of effort that Li invested in Sun, apparently only because the boy showed an interest in the material, I start to suspect that this is not the first generation with a deficit of students. Studying the martial arts was not a socially prestigious activity in the 19th century, especially not in the social circles that Li moved in while in Baoding. Like the old Chinese proverb states, finding the right student can be just as difficult as finding the right teacher. In fact, many of the accounts of late 19th century China that I have reviewed would seem to indicate that it was actually a buyers market.Sun was eventually adopted by Li as his formal disciple. Lacking a father, I suspect that this ceremony had deep resonances for him that went well beyond their martial significance. It does not appear however that Sun was a closed door student of Li in the more esoteric sense of the word that is common today. This term has been invested with all sorts of exotic meaning in countless martial arts novels, radio programs and movies. Its original meaning was actually more mundane. Such a student lived full time with the teacher, often taking care of household chores and helping to maintain the school, so that they could dedicate themselves to full-time study.Living with your teacher gives one an opportunity to observe their practice and martial philosophy in detail. Often those aspiring to a martial career of their own might live with their teacher, though this was not always the case. Sun appears to have continued to work for his Uncle (who, unlike his first employer, was kind and actually paid him) during this period. Yet there is no indication that Li purposefully held back information simply because Sun had not yet been taken on as either a formal disciple or a closed door student. In fact he indicated very strongly that he taught the young boy everything he knew and even introduced him to his teacher to continue his formal education.This brings us to the next stage of our observation. In popular discussions the institutions of traditional martial arts instruction are always viewed as primarily an engine of secrecy. Their great virtue in the eyes of the movie going public seems to be their perennial exclusion of outsiders. But when you look at Suns life as it has been outlined in my previous post, it is clear that this view doesnt really capture the true essence of how these institutions functioned in a real social setting.Rather than being purely about exclusion, the traditional modes of education created artificial hierarchies meant to entice people to join. These hierarchies gave individuals a chance to build social status that they might not otherwise have. That promise of social status was in turn a means of attracting students (like Sun) who might otherwise have spent their time developing other talents. It was the myth of secrecy and exclusion that made the promise of inclusion and status so attractive.When looking at late 19th century martial arts history it is vital to understand this powerful psychological dynamic. At the same time, it is probably better not to believe all of the propaganda. It does not actually appear that many people were ever turned away from martial arts instruction for any reason other than a lack of money, and in some cases (like Sun) even that could be overlooked. We must not confuse this veneer of exclusivity for real elitism. It seems that most martial arts teachers benefited from the former but could not actually afford the latter.Another map of the capital. This one was published two years after Sun Lutang moved there from Baoding. Circa 1912.Another map of the capital. This one was published two years after Sun Lutang moved there from Baoding. Circa 1912.Promoting the Chinese Martial Arts: From Networks to Public Institutions.The traditional modes of instruction did more than just create artificial power structures for the achievement of social status. They also became powerful networking systems. As one might expect, the dominant metaphor used to define and understand these networks was the traditional Chinese kinship system. This gave one an immediate frame of reference to understand ones social relationships with other practitioners of the same style who you may have never met before.These networks of social relationships were very important to the people that constructed them. Workers in Guangdong in the late 19th century used them to network and find out about employment opportunities. I am sure that individuals in Northern China did exactly the same sorts of things.These networks also became an infrastructure that could facilitate the transfer of martial knowledge. They were a means by which one could branch out, travel and get introductions to study with different teachers. Rather than being exclusively about secrecy, traditional martial structures actually provided students with access to a vast network of information and contacts.The average martial artist, intent on getting a job and making a living, probably did not do much to exploit these opportunities. Sun Lutangs life as a young adult is fascinating precisely because he did call on the full resources of his martial network. Not only did he exploit direct lineage relationships (traveling to Beijing to study Xingyi Quan with Guo Yun Shen for eight years), he drew on other types of friendships and alliances as well. From Guo he received a letter of introduction recommending him to Cheng Ting Hua, an important Bagua instructor. He subsequently studied with Cheng for another three years. In short, a detailed examination of Suns studies can teach us much about the actual social structures of 19th century martial arts communities.His frequent travels make it clear that Sun had a degree of flexibility in his life that not all martial artists of the period were as lucky to possess. But it is also clear that an overriding ethic of secrecy was not the thing holding them back. Rather than seeing traditional martial arts kinship systems as engines of exclusion, they are better viewed as secure social networks, in an otherwise dangerous environment. The very purpose of these networks was to build social status and make the open sharing of information possible.This is a critical point as social reformers after the Boxer Uprising would spend a lot of time criticizing the traditional martial arts community for its fratricidal and superstitious secrecy. There were very few protests from the traditional martial arts community over these demands for reform. They certainly realized the value of exchange and discussion and they saw their institutions as something that accomplished those goals.Given the quasi-feudal economy that existed at the start of the 19th century, these traditional teaching structures might have been the most efficient institutions possible. However, the basis of Chinese economic life was being rapidly reformed. This made new types of cooperation, sharing and networking possible. Ever the innovator, Sun would be at the forefront of these reforms.I think that we need to look to early 20th century Swordsman novels, and later Kung Fu movies, to understand the emergence of our current ideas about traditional martial arts networks. These stories often revolved around deadly rivalries between schools and the theft of an ultra-secret text that revealed the true heart of Kung Fu.Apparently someone did steal a book from Sun Lutang. It was his daily diary, taken by a live-in student. While I am sure there was a lot of interesting information about the day to day life of the master in that volume, I doubt there was any hidden wisdom. Instead what the wayward student likely discovered was a painstaking record of exactly how many hours his teacher had dedicated to practice and hard work.I have noted in another post the interesting observation that Chinese martial arts students from the 1960s-1980s were often actually much more conservative in their understanding of martial virtue than their teachers. The life experience of individuals like Sun Lutang, T. T. Liang or Ip Man were shaped by tremendously tragic events and vast military conflicts. Having seen quite a bit of real conflict in their lives I think that these individuals knew exactly what the martial arts were, and none of them were too attached to traditional institutions. Rather their loyalty lay with the goals that those institutions were meant to accomplish. When times changed they simply created new teaching structures.It seems that later generations of hand combat students, more concerned with identity formation than survival, came to see traditionalism as a goal in itself. This is a very different attitude than what we see exhibited in the lives of most of the early 20th century martial arts masters. While some of these individuals may have been socially conservative, as a group they are better characterized by their pragmatism.Again, we see this in the life of Sun Lutang. Even though he was trained on a traditional boxing ground in the 1870s, by the 1910s he is running large modern commercial schools with hundreds of students around Hebei province. Apparently he continued to accept these students with the traditional rituals, but there can be no doubt that the institutions they were educated in were quite distinct from what he had grown up with a generation before.A detailed map of the capital proper. This is how Beijing was laid out for most of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Circa 1890.A detailed map of the capital proper. This is how Beijing was laid out for most of the Ming and Qing dynasties. Circa 1890.Reforming the Chinese Martial Arts to Save the NationWhen examining the middle and later period of Suns life we should also note the development of a new sort of martial arts institution. The rituals and practices of a traditional lineage education were quickly adapted by commercial public schools in the 1910s and 1920s. This process of consolidation and evolution was made possible by the increased monetization of the economy. It was also driven by the growing emphasis on training better educated urban workers and professionals. These individuals had money, but they also had demanding day jobs. Classes had to be restructured so that information could be conveyed within a 1 hour class period. Further, these classes had to be offered either before of after the close of the working day, or sometimes during the lunch hour. In short, the martial arts had to be remade to fit around a typical industrial work schedule. Again, we see a veneer of traditional exclusivity being placed around what is actually a quintessentially modern public institution.But that veneer of secrecy was not always good marketing. In some situations it was necessary to publicly demonstrate ones dedication to the nation, modernization and revolutionary goals. As a result an entirely new set of non-lineage based cooperative institutions begin to emerge in the urban areas of China between about 1910 and 1928 (when the spread the of Guoshu movement finally collapsed this section of civil society).The hallmark of these groups was a call for national salvation through martial arts education. Typically such groups combined the efforts of teachers from a number of different styles. They publicized the martial arts, called for reform (usually by ending the twin perils of secrecy and superstition) and published lots of newspaper and magazine articles on how hand combat training was compatible with modern life. Of course they also offered classes, often at very reasonable rates, to both the public and local schools.Jingwu was the first of these groups to really explode on the national scene, but it was far from alone in the field. It seems that every city of any size had at least a few of these modern martial arts federations. A classic example might be the Tianjin China Warrior Society (based in Tianjin) which did much to popularize and spread Xingyi Quan throughout Hebei and actually published a few of Suns books. The network that formed around the Yi schools (later the Zhongyi Association) in Foshan is another example.The Beijing Sports Lecture Hall, which Sun joined in 1915 or 1916, was a similar institution. It taught multiple styles of Taiji and a few other martial arts to the local citizens of Beijing. Sun saw his involvement with the group as a way to save the Chinese martial arts, strengthen the people of the country, and contribute to the welfare of the Chinese nation. These grandiose sounding goals were very common. They are not all that different from what a member of the Jingwu Association or the Tianjin Chinese Warrior Society might have claimed.An interesting question to ask is why this sudden interest in patriotic community building emerged within the Chinese martial arts community in the first place. Clearly some of the later groups were formed as a response to the initial success of Jingwu and the other early pioneers. But there was a lot of activity in this area around 1910, well before most people in the Chinese martial arts community would have had any opportunity to hear about Jingwu.I suspect that there are three related issues that can account for this sudden burst of institution building and reformist zeal. To begin with, the Chinese martial arts were in genuine peril after the 1900 Boxer Uprising. Not only was civilian hand combat briefly suppressed by the state, but it became deeply unfashionable. This was something of an accomplishment given that it had never been that popular in the first place.The Boxer Uprising was an embarrassment to the nation and it led to renewed calls for modernization. This happened in the military realm in 1905 when the Qing abolished the Military Service Exam. Training students to take that exam had been one of the main professional callings of martial arts teachers throughout China. Many people trained in the martial arts explicitly because they wanted a career in the military. That career path was, with some exceptions, closed to martial artists after 1905.In short, the Chinese martial arts took two critical hits in a five year period. Lots of hand combat teachers found themselves unemployed at exactly the same time that their skills are being publicly ridiculed and blamed for the weak state of the nation.This is the environment that fueled the burst of social organization that took place over the next decade. Social elites were paying more attention to physical culture as they looked at reforming the national education system and military, but the traditional martial arts were being shut out. In order to save their arts, and position in society, hand combat teachers began to organize in an attempt to prove their revolutionary credentials and demonstrate the benefits of martial arts training to a modern state. And the Japanese system of Budo just to the east was a powerful argument that this could be done.I think that this is the main reason why these groups were so desperate to get government backing in the first place. Most martial artists had worked for the government (specifically the military), right up until 1905. Jingwu may have been somewhat unique in its steadfast dedication to civil society. I suspect that most of these groups were actually more interested in renewed government patronage, and were only too happy to be incorporated into the government run Guoshu network after 1928. Still, the evolution of the martial arts in the 1910s and 1920s was shaped in important ways by large, non-lineage based, public institutions. It is important to understand where they came from and how they functioned.A modern tourist map of Beijing. Note how much the the city has grown over in size over the last 100 years. Vintage maps can be a useful research tool when writing on Chinese martial studies.A modern tourist map of Beijing. Note how much the the city has grown over in size over the last 100 years. Vintage maps can be a useful research tool when writing on Chinese martial studies.ConclusionSome individuals dedicated their entire lives to these institutions. It is clear that Sun did not. He taught at the Beijing Sports Lecture Hall, and even offered classes on Chinese philosophy there in an attempt to attract more educated, professional students. But it appears that Sun also accepted other official appointments and teaching responsibilities during this time. He also taught a huge number of students in his private lineage schools.His elite networking and role as a leading public intellectual of the martial arts were both critical activities during the 1920s. Friends in high places could open many doors. For instance, the widespread adoption of martial arts training as part of the secondary school physical education curriculum throughout the nation was due in no small part to countless friendships cultivated between local martial artists and provincial officials.Secondly, as more educated people became interested in the martial arts there was an increased demand for a new type of literature. While swordsmen novels remained popular, students now wanted more practical information. This demand was driven by the vastly increased number of urban consumers with buying power who began to study the martial arts during this period. The efforts of Sun and other to change the social profile of the martial arts led directly to the explosion of the Republican era martial arts manuals discussed by Kennedy and Guo.Contrary to their off-handed assertion, small mass-produced boxing manuals or chapbooks had existed in the late Qing period. I hope to discuss a translation of one such source in a coming post. But there is no doubt that printed martial arts manuals became vastly more common as number of educated middle-class martial artists exploded.Suns five books were some of the most important works on the martial arts published in this period. In fact, I think it is safe to assert that his lasting impact on the Chinese fighting arts came through his publications. In lineage terms, he was never quite as successful as some of the other top martial artists of the period (usually named Yang), and so he does not get quite the same respect in China that one might expect given his actual contributions.Still, his ideas have lived on and are incredibly important. They have been disseminated through countless reprints of his books (now firmly in the public domain) and through the lectures and discussions of many other martial artists who may, or may not, remember to properly cite their original source material. Anytime you go to a Taiji class and hear inscrutable conversations about what someone is doing to their qi, they are (usually unconsciously) repeating something that Sun said almost 100 years ago. The current fashion of martial arts, Daosim and qigong based health practices that many of us now take for granted would not exist without Suns books.Suns career is remarkable because he was both part of the general movement to modernize the martial arts, making them accessible to educated individuals, but unlike most of his contemporaries, he could actually give those middle-class minds something to wrestle with. I think that, more than anything else, explains his lasting influence on the Chinese martial arts.In the final installment of this series we will take a closer look at the origins and after life of some of Suns key ideas. Why did he believe that the Chinese martial arts were intrinsically linked to Daoism? What exactly did he mean by internal? In what ways are these ideas still shaping the martial arts today?