The Chinese Government still promotes the arts for health to this day.

The history of Ba Gua Zhang, and most other Chinese martial arts as well, is such that today it is very difficult for anyone interested in studying these arts to again exposure to a complete system By complete system I am referring to a comprehensive step-by-step method of training which is designed to develop a high level of well-rounded martial arts skill. While all traditional martial arts styles started out as complete systems, over the years these systems have been whittled away until all that we are left with today, in many cases, are fragments. In some cases all that is left of a particular system is one form sequence. If we look at the history of China in relation to the martial arts, it is not difficult to understand how the fragmentation occurred.

Since the end of the Qing Dynasty martial arts instruction and practice in Mainland China has undergone a slow transformation from being studied solely for use in defense of one's self and others to being practiced predominantly for health and/or performance. This transformation began to take place during the early years of the Republic when prominent Government officials and skilled martial artists developed public martial arts programs for the purpose of improving the physical fitness of the Chinese people. The Central Martial Arts Academy (Zhong Yang Guo Shu Guan), which was opened in the late 1920's in Nanjing, and its network of subsidiary provincial martial arts schools, was an outgrowth of this program. The transformation further progressed under the communist government who will promote a diluted version of the health and performance style martial arts and has sought to standardize the martial arts by reducing complete systems of training down to a handful of performance oriented forms.


Marital Arts for Health
After the overthrow of the Qing Government in 1911, the "martial arts for health" movement began to emerge in China for two reasons. First, the Chinese people were generally weak. A corrupt government, foreign invasion, opium addiction, and poor harvest had beaten the people down. Second, for the same reasons listed above, national pride was low. The new government decided that in order to strengthen the country, they needed to strengthen the people. In order to strengthen the people, and increase national pride, they chose to use traditional Chinese methods of physical training, which meant using the Chinese martial arts. Influential intellectual martial artists, like Sun Lu Tang, helped begin this movement. Sun Lu Tang's introduction to his book on Xing Yi Quan (Xing Yi Quan Xue - published in 1915) states, "the way of becoming prosperous and strong lies in the bracing up of the people. The important point is to brace up the spirit. A strong country cannot be composed of weak people. We cannot make people strong without physical training. To brace up the people through physical training is the way to strengthen the country."

Other traditional martial artists began to echo Sun's words. They even began calling the martial arts the "national arts" or guo shu to distinguish them from Western sports activities and promote a sense of national pride.


Wushu - China's performance arts. Martial beauty without the fighting.


As time went on and China was plagued with Japanese imperialism and further Western modernization, the guo shu movement became stronger and plans were made for a national guo shu program. The principal of the Central Martial Arts Academy in Nanjing (Zhong Yang Guo Shu Guan), Zhang Zhi Jiang, proclaimed, "strengthening oneself strengthens the race and protecting oneself protects the country."

The Central Martial Arts Academy was officially opened in December of 1927 and by March 1928 they had acquired sufficient funds to get the school off its feet. Their goal was to train a crop of instructors who would spread martial arts training throughout China in public schools in order to "make martial arts common in all walks of life." However, as traditional martial arts were exposed to a wider variety of people, the traditional instruction was greatly modified for mass consumption.


The public view of martial artists are often reduced to acts of amazing human feats such as this.

In the late 1800's and the early years of this century, those that studied martial arts in China were primarily farmers and peasants who hoped to obtain jobs as bodyguards, caravan escorts and residence guards. Since police protection did not exist outside of the major cities, men in small villages also trained in martial arts in order to protect their homes from bandits and thieves. The majority of these individuals were uneducated and were considered to be "ruffians" by the educated class in China. Sun Lu Tan's introduction to his book on Xing Yi Quan say, "There was a prejudice in the old days that literates despised martial arts as martial artists were short on literary learning."


However, he also indicated that the times were changing. He continues by saying, "Now the country will be improved through reforming affairs. Martial arts has been put into the curriculum in schools so that students can be cherished on both literary and military sites. This is a good way."

While the student was studying the fundamentals of the art, the teacher also tested the student's loyalty, patience, martial morality and determination. All of these factors were weighed along with the student's physical ability when the teacher made decisions about when the student would be exposed to new material. This training, at all levels, was extremely difficult and the teacher placed high demands on the students. Only the most loyal, hard working, and highest skilled students would earn the right to become "inner door" students and lineage holders. It was not uncommon for an instructor to only choose one student to receive the full transmission of his art. In order to teach short "martial arts for health" courses to the public something had to give.

Traditional martial arts instructors who participated in the national programs saw this as an opportunity to gain some "face" for themselves and the martial arts, however, they were not totally willing to let go of tradition. Traditional instruction consisted of a student studying with one teacher for a significant amount of time in a private or small group setting. The teacher usually taught at his home or in a park near his home. Students were taught slowly and steadily with an emphasis on basic training. Advance skills were only taught after fundamental skills could be performed with a sufficient degree of expertise.

Wushu exhibit


What occurred in the public classes was that the students were taught a very small slice of the complete martial art. The forms and exercises that were taught were traditional, however, typically the teachers only taught a few basic exercises and forms which were good for developing general balance, coordination, and flexibility. Since health became the emphasis, the very rigorous training which was designed to teach students how to fully develop into good fighters was not generally taught. Of course, if the student in the public class showed great potential a teacher would take that student aside and teach that student privately and possibly give that student the complete transmission of the art, but these cases were rare. Most of the individuals in the public classes only received the surface level of the art they were studying.

Originally published in the Pa Kua Chang Journal - July/Aug 94
Used with permission.