Martial Arts Of The World - Webs

it in 1279. The Song History records a number of heroic personages involved
in the fighting against the invaders. Among these was the younger
sister of one leader named Yang Aner. She was called Woman Number
Four, and the history describes her as clever and fierce, and good at riding
and archery. This period also spawned the legend of the woman warrior
Hua Mulan, who was also said to have lived prior to the founding of the
Tang, but about whom no firm historical record exists. The story of her
substituting for her father by joining the military disguised as a man served
as a dual symbol of patriotism and filial piety.
Ever since the legendary Maiden of Yue, who supposedly lived around
200 B.C., women martial artists have had roles in popular literature. Of the
108 main characters in the Ming novel Outlaws of the Marsh (also known
as All Men Are Brothers or Water Margin), three are women. Stories about
women martial artists abounded during the Qing period (1644–1911).
Some are about fictional characters, such as the skilled young Buddhist nun
in Strange Tales from the Studio of Small Talk and others in various popular
martial novels. There are also numerous vignettes about real people in
the Stone Studio Illustrated News of the 1880s and 1890s, the Qing Unofficial
History Categorized Extracts (completed in 1917), and the official
Yongchun County Gazetteer—home of yongchun (wing chun) boxing.
Based on the record in the Yongchun County Gazetteer (Fujian
province), one can at least tentatively assume that what is now known as
yongchun boxing likely evolved from the skills introduced there by Woman
Ding Number Seven between 1644 and 1722. She is said to have come to
Yongchun with her father and taught some of the locals. One of these,
Zheng Li, supposedly improved the art further with skills he learned from
an itinerant Buddhist monk, who had picked up some Shaolin techniques.
These skills were then passed on in Yongchun to the twentieth century.
The vignettes in the Categorized Extracts and Stone Studio Illustrated
News reveal a variety of situations involving women martial artists, especially
incidents in which they beat numbers of male ruffians. One of the
most compelling stories is about a Widow Qi Number Two who, between
1795 and 1820, rescued a wrongfully imprisoned old nun and then joined
a group of White Lotus Sect rebels and became their leader. Women martial
artists also served in the ranks of the Taiping rebels (1850–1863) and
the Boxers in 1900. All this reflects a society in turmoil, where both men
and women might be forced to defend themselves. Under these circumstances,
the wealthy and well-placed depended on escort or protection
agencies. Women served in some of these enterprises as well.
After the Revolution of 1911, women continued to make their mark
in the martial arts, and they were prominent in the team that performed at
the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. They continue to play an important part in
Women in the Martial Arts: China 691