Quanjing is the first document that gives a comprehensive survey of Chinese civilian martial arts. It presumably affected greatly the establishment of martial arts of following generations, especially Taichi, and is an epoch-making material in the history of Chinese martial arts.
No past studies, however, discussed why martial arts, which are less effective than armed martial arts in actual fighting, were adopted as military martial arts in wartime and what part of Quanjing connected civilian martial arts and Taichi. This research aims to clarify the concept of Quanjing and its role. The following is the writer's analysis.
As to the concept, Quanjing indicates that martial arts have two concepts. One is the “toward others" concept that includes self-defense, basics of armed martial arts, and developing a robust body to overpower an enemy. The other is the “toward oneself" concept that emphasizes the physical aspect of turning a weak body into a robust one. Unlike Japanese martial arts that emphasize the spiritual aspect, Chinese martial arts tend to focus more on training the body than on disciplining the mind. This characterizes the difference between Japanese martial arts and Chinese martial arts.
As to the role, martial arts are intended to help people train their hands, feet, and limbs to build the base of a robust body for martial arts, and are evaluated highly as the base to support actual fighting, though they are not of direct help in a war.
The establishment of Quanjing changed civilian martial arts that had the limited concept of killing and wounding others and consolidated them into martial arts that share the “toward oneself" concept focusing on the body. This is an important point that connected the ancient civilian martial arts and Taichi, and was an epoch-making event in establishing martial arts with the concept of health promotion in the modern Chinese martial arts.
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