The 438 of professional wrestlers at Shan Pu Ying (善扑营) belong to but one of the three capitol city garrisons. The one where Yang Luchan, Liu Zhijun, and Song Mailun taught at – Shen Ji Ying, had over 2,000 instructors/weapons experts who led the training of 30,000 strong palace guards. That plus the battle-hardened agents of Big Ten security companies (Biaoju), members of Big Six martial arts of the north, and all the people who flock to the city to make a name for themselves, Beijing during Qing Dynasty represented the peak of development and growth of traditional martial art.
The lifetime patronage of the large number of ruling class already deeply steeped in martial culture played a huge role in all of this. The Manchurian, experts to start with, with unlimited time and resource, were discerning connoisseurs of martial art as in any of their other hobbies. One nobleman – Duke Lan,hosted Ma Gui for years hoping Ma would teach him the famous Eighteen Interception (si ba jie 十八截) – an advanced broadsword (regular length, can be worn at waist) skill.
Taken all together, given the large, vibrant, and knowledgeable community, it would be impossible for the Yang’s to be teaching one set of drastically watered-down skills to the nobles – the very people who made all these growth and development possible, and teach another, more advanced set to other Han people, whom the Manchurian patrons also know equally well.
taiwandeutscher wrote:Shuai Jiao imported during the Qing?
GrahamB wrote:"The martial elements fell by the wayside and the health and exercise element surpassed the former"
When Yang LuChan was invited into the Forbiden City to teach Tai Chi in the 1860s... why do we assume that he was teaching "martial arts". Why would protected courtesans want to learn "martial arts" that was viewed as a lower class activity? They had bodyguards.
Was this ever about fighting? Or was it really about feelgood symbolism?
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