Re: What is Jin 勁? — Scott P. Phillips
Posted: Tue Jul 16, 2019 12:47 pm
Could be interesting for some people here:
https://www.amazon.de/dp/0824834917/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_KJIlDbVXNZCWE
It is „Gods, Ghosts, and Gangsters: Ritual Violence, Martial Arts, and Masculinity on the Margins of Chinese Society„ written by Prof. Boretz (https://hk.linkedin.com/in/aboretz1).
Some interesting quotes from his book:
https://www.amazon.de/dp/0824834917/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_KJIlDbVXNZCWE
It is „Gods, Ghosts, and Gangsters: Ritual Violence, Martial Arts, and Masculinity on the Margins of Chinese Society„ written by Prof. Boretz (https://hk.linkedin.com/in/aboretz1).
Some interesting quotes from his book:
These “ritual militias” are among the least studied topics of Chinese popular culture. This is surprising because anthropologists of modern China such as David Jordan have suggested that, in the past, “each village actually had soldiers for combat purposes.” 31 He observes that it is upon militias that martial arts groups who participate in temple festivals are based, saying that these processions of a temple’s “soldiers” represent a “god’s army” just as an emperor or general would proceed with his military forces. Moreover, Jordan claims, these troupes are trained on the basis of specific traditions of martial arts as well as on the basis of “classical novels.” 32 As we will see, this claim is consistent with historical circumstances.
More recently Stephan Feuchtwang has placed these local traditions of martial arts in relation to ritual training and spirit possession. He observes village protection bands who are “taught by masters of a tradition of martial arts practicing disciplines partly of possession by invoked deities
Martial arts traditions that emerge during the late Ming uprisings, such as the “Plum-Flower Fist” (meihuaquan), make use of weapons that are by that time quite uniquely associated with Li Nezha, like his “Wind and Fire Wheel” (fenghuolun). 93 As shown in Zhou Weiliang’s study of martial arts, the Plum-Flower Fist tradition is deeply rooted in the practice of rural militias that bring sacrifices to their gods. This correlation continues into the Qing dynasty, and the divinely strengthened warriors of the Plum-Flower Fist tradition end up participating in the Boxer Rebellion. 94 As I explained in the introduction, the Boxers represent martial traditions that revolve around trance possession by gods known from novels like Canonization, Three Kingdoms, and Watermargin. In reference to the specific martial arts tradition of the Plum-Flower Fist, Meir Shahar remarks that the north China plains witnessed “the spread of military brotherhoods with religious overtones, which were sometimes referred to as [associations] and sometimes as [religion].” 95 Clearly these brotherhoods perpetuate models of practice that correspond with those of the religious militias of the Yuan, with warriors fighting under the tutelage of gods.