Boxer Zhang Songxi and the Origins of the Internal-External School Concept

Marnix Wells, Stanley E. Henning

Abstract


Zhang Songxi was so highly respected for his boxing skills that the emperor’s grand secretary, Shen Yiguan (1531–1616), was inspired to write the Biography of Boxer Zhang Songxi. Later the historian Huang Zongxi (1610–1695) wrote an epitaph for a resistance fighter named Wang Zhengnan. In the biography he labeled both Wang and Zhang as practitioners of the “internal school of boxing,” versus what he called the Shaolin or “external school.” Since Shen Yiguan never mentioned Zhang as an internal- school practitioner, it appears that Huang was using the internal-external concept to symbolically express his dissatisfaction with China’s Manchu rulers. The Zhang Songxi biography provides some evidence that the internal-external school concept was more political than martial arts oriented.

Keywords


China, Chinese martial arts; internal styles; external styles

References


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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.18002/rama.v6i2.5

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Copyright (c) 2012 Marnix Wells, Stanley E. Henning

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Revista de Artes Marciales Asiáticas - RAMA

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Attached to the Department of Physical Education and Sports, University of León (Spain)

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