What are the "eighteen martial arts" that people often refer to?

A traditional term for the Chinese martial arts, it refers to a variety of martial arts, the content of which varies from period to period.

The name "eighteen martial arts" was first used in Yuan dynasty compositions. For example, there is a line "He has learned all the eighteen martial arts, and he is familiar with the book of the Six Towers" in "Jingde's Disobedience to Old Age," which is included in "Ancient and Modern Miscellaneous Operas". At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, early Ming Dynasty, Shi Nai-an wrote in the 2nd episode of Water Margin that Shi Jin, the Nine-Tattooed Dragon, practiced martial arts from Wang Jin, the head instructor, and said, "Which eighteen martial arts are he practicing? Spears, hammers, bows, crossbows, cannons, whips, mace, swords, chains, Laos, axes, battle-axes, and go, halberds, cards, rods and guns, steaks." He was referring to weapons. To the late Ming dynasty Wanli years, Xie Zhaozhe in the "five miscellaneous chopping block" volume 5, said: "eighteen general: a bow, two crossbow, three guns, four knives, five swords, six spears, seven shields, eight axes, nine battle-axe, ten halberds, eleven whips, twelve mace, thirteen haggard, fourteen Shu, fifteen fork, sixteen head, seventeen Mian rope lasso, eighteen white hit." The so-called white fight, according to the Ming dynasty Zhu Guozhen (Wanli Tianqi between people) in the "Chung block sketch" volume 12 "weapons - martial arts eighteen things," said: "white fight that is hand-to-hand combat play,...... commonly known as boxing, Suzhou people said that hit the hand. " Early Qing Dynasty Zhou Liang Gong in the "Min Xiaoji" said: "White fight, that is, today's hand-to-hand combat, the name of the short hit is also", and said "martial arts eighteen, the end of the white fight to white fight, to white fight for the end, clear that it does not hold an inch of iron also". Eighteen martial arts originally refers to all weapons, to this point and the white hit included.

Tang Shunzhi (1507-1560), a famous general of the Ming Dynasty who fought against Japanese invasion, said in "Martial Arts", "There are six of the thirty weapons, and the bow is called the first. Martial arts ten eight, and the bow for the first." At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the power of firearms is still not high, the battle is still to bow, crossbow for the distance weapon, so in the military weapons thirty-six, martial arts eighteen, the bow are listed as the first.

Since the Qing Dynasty, the eighteen martial arts and there are four kinds of statements:

The first statement that "knife, gun, sword, halberd, □, stick, fork, rake, whip, mace, hammer, axe, hook, sickle, steak, crutch, bow and arrow, rattan card" (Figure 1 fork).

The second statement is the same as the above eighteen-like arrangement, but the last three pieces were changed to: generation, choice, bow and arrow.

The third statement is "nine long and nine short". Nine long for the gun, halberd, stick, battle-axe, fork, □, hook, long spear, ring; Nine short for the knife, sword, crutch, axe, whip, mace, hammer, stick, pestle. Nine long and nine short in not listed in the long-distance shooting weapons of the bow and defensive weapons of the card or rattan card, this is the modern martial arts teacher generally do not learn the bow and arrow, only to teach the set of reflections.

The fourth kind of statement, some people in the modern opera world that is the knife, gun, sword, halberd, axe, battle-axe, hook, fork, whip, mace, hammer, grasp, □, stick, lance, stick, crutch, meteor hammer and other 18 kinds of weapons.