Wu Shu

Wu Shu

W ú sh ū, also known as Wu Qiao, is a poet and historian in the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties. He is also an outstanding martial arts artist and scholar. Wu Shu is not familiar with him in the field of history. Few people study his life and deeds. But his name is very famous in the martial arts field, and his "arm record" is a martial arts masterpiece that everyone is familiar with. However, because most of Wu Shu's books are not popular ancient books, it is not easy for people who are not familiar with ancient books to see them.

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Wu Shu, also known as Wu Qiao, was born in Taicang, Jiangsu Province. He came to Kunshan in his early years, so he became a native of Kunshan. He was born in 1611, the 39th year of Wanli in Ming Dynasty, and died in 1695, the 34th year of Kangxi. Wu Shu was a adherent of the Ming Dynasty. Although he lived a long life and was "highly talented and erudite", he had any official positions to describe in his life and often lived a miserable life. There is no academic inheritance in his studies, and his knowledge mainly comes from "reading everything". However, he traveled extensively in his life and traveled between the north and the south for many times. He had many contacts with literary figures in Shunzhi and Kangxi years, and his experience and academic activities were very complicated. Some people in the Qing Dynasty said that Wu Shu was a "strange man", which is not without reason.

One of Wu's "strangeness" is his aloofness and arrogance, which is especially reflected in his almost unbridled style of writing. This made him suffer a lot of criticism and censure. However, in his whole life, he didn't change his mind much. In his later years, his words were very different and his mouth didn't cover up! Secondly, his whereabouts and social contacts are quite mysterious. We don't know much about them, but we vaguely feel that there are some strange contents. If he was involved in the "anti Qing Dynasty and restoration of Ming Dynasty", what did he do? Who are the old man Yuyang, Zhu xiongzhan, Ni Jinlou, Weng Huisheng, Xiang Yuanchi, etc. with whom he interacted? This still needs to be explored. The third and most important point is the particularity of his own academic orientation and construction. Specifically, Wu Shu has his own unique academic system and another field. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, he was undoubtedly one of the most successful scholars who tried to master both arts and martial arts, so he didn't have to compete with other scholars. With this self-confidence, in the academic circles of Ming and Qing Dynasties, where there were so many famous scholars, he was so arrogant that he was very rare to match him.

At the end of Ming Dynasty and the beginning of Qing Dynasty, there was a trend of discussing military science and advocating martial arts among the scholars in the north and the south, which should be related to the background of frequent wars and serious national situation, and also to the sudden rise of anti Neo Confucianism. At that time, the so-called "weathering, scholars shoulder to shoulder", wandering in which the north and South scholars are not the same. For example, in the north of China, Fu Qingzhu and Fu Mei, father and son of Shanxi, mingled with martial monks and practiced martial arts; Wang Yuyou, Yan Yuan, Li Gong and Wang Yuan of Hebei, studied and disseminated military science and martial arts, which eventually became one of the main characteristics of the "Yan Li school". In the south, Mao Yuanyi, the grandson of Mao Kun, a writer of Wuxing, was fond of learning and military science. During the reign of Tianqi, he wrote 240 volumes of Wu Bei Zhi, which was a military masterpiece of the late Ming Dynasty and had far-reaching influence. Qian Qianyi and Cheng Mengyang's contacts with many low ranking figures in the Wulin, among which there are some interesting things; the special friendship between Huang Zongxi, Huang Baijia and Wang Zhengnan, the righteous scholar of the anti Qing Dynasty, is the source of the emergence of "neijiaquan" in modern times. Lu Shiyi, Feng Zhu, Feng Xingzhen and others all have specific military activities, and some even have theories handed down. But to be fair, Wu Shu was the most hardworking and accomplished. He has devoted himself to it for decades, connecting the past and the present, and integrating the north and the south. Many martial arts works have been handed down, which are still shining and continue to have an impact. Wu Shu's "strangeness" is mainly due to his successful integration of literature, history and martial arts, creating a unique academic model, which is the most prominent representative of the style of study of both culture and martial arts during the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

In ancient China, where emphasis on culture is more and more important than martial arts, culture and martial arts can be divided into two ways. It is very difficult to integrate the two, and not much has been done well in history. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, when martial arts were regarded as the last learning, it was not easy not to discriminate against them. In this regard, Wu Shu is indeed a very special case. It is not a mistake to call him an extraordinary and outstanding figure.

Wu Shu was erudite and diligent in writing, and he continued to write until his old age. However, he was "in trouble all his life", and he was very lonely behind him. Apart from his well-known works "Weilu Shihua" and "arm record", some of his other works have been lost, while others only exist as transcripts, such as desolate and lonely steles.

For a long time, many scholars have been searching for Wu Shu's works, tracing his trace, and trying to have a deep and comprehensive understanding of this "strange man". According to the research of scholars, so far, there are 24 kinds of works written by Wu Shu, of which 13 kinds have been preserved up to now, and the other 11 kinds have been lost or are unknown. Among these 24 kinds of works, there are 5 kinds of martial arts works. Three of them are engraved, and two are only handed down. Wu Shu's martial arts works are very precious documents in the history of Chinese martial arts. They are of great historical value for us to study the evolution of martial arts in Ming and Qing Dynasties and to understand the activities of some important martial arts figures. At the same time, it is also the most direct material for us to understand and study Wu Shu's own historical experience and his martial arts thoughts.

According to the information provided by friends, this paper gives a brief introduction to Ji Xiao Da Ci and arm record written by Wu Shu.

Ji Xiaoda's speech

1、 Ji Xiao Da CI (20 volumes)

It is one of the military books written by Wu Shu. It is his rewriting, interpretation and development of Qi Jiguang's famous military work Jixiao Xinshu in 18 volumes, which can be regarded as a handout or guide to Jixiao Xinshu. The signature of the book is: "Ming Dingyuan Qi Jiguang, Yuan Jing's legislative successor, Wu Shu's Xiuling Daci".

Ji Xiao Da CI is very rare. In the catalogue of public and private collections in Qing Dynasty, it can only be found in the catalogue of Xiao CI Tang by Wang Wen Yuan (Sheng Hong), a book collector in Suzhou between Qing Kang and Yong Dynasty. The preface of the book was recorded in Lou Shui Shui Zheng by Wang Baoren of Qing Dynasty. This book has never been printed in a rigid way. It is only handed down in transcripts. As far as I know, there are only two transcripts of Qing Dynasty in China, which can be said to be extremely rare.

The preface of Ji Xiao Da CI is the preface of Qi Jiguang's 18 volume Ji Xiao Xin Shu, followed by Wu Shu's. Wu Xu said that since ancient times, most of the people who run the army did not talk about the method of fighting with banners and drums, but Qi Jiguang's Ji Xiao Xin Shu said it in the most detailed way, "people can read it well and think about it, though they are old at the line." However, he thought that Qi Shu was "not organized in ranks, too many words and sentences, and it was not pleasant to read." There should be some abridgement and coherence in the writing, including the adjustment and relief of the content. There were many copies of Qi Shu in Ming Dynasty, most of which were of poor quality. By the early Qing Dynasty, it was difficult to see a complete copy. Most of the 32 volumes of Quan Jing in Volume 14 were incomplete. Some had 28 volumes left and some had 24 volumes left. Therefore, it is not Qi Jiguang who caused the "incomplete ranks, many words and sentences", but the common fault of Mingfang edition.

Wu Shu said: Yu Yu Ding Chou and Wu Yin were determined to write a book here for future use. After that, I was so frustrated that I didn't know where the book was. Today, Jiang Dahong and yongdongpan in Lucheng, hude County, Yunjian County, have repeatedly used the words of Wei for a moment, but they have taken back the local version, which is even more based on the old meaning. In the end, this book is called Ji Xiao Da CI.

Ding Chou and Wu Yinjian were in 1638, the 10th and 11th year of Chongzhen reign of Ming Dynasty. At that time, Wu Shu had deleted Ji Xiao Xin Shu as a book for future use. This shows that Wu Shu started early in the study of military science, which should be in the same line with his learning martial arts from Changshu Shidian (Jingyan) as early as his seven or eight years in Chongzhen.

This book was written in the first year of Kangxi (1662). Wu Shu was 51 years old. According to his preface to the "Emei shooting technique", he worked as a tutor in the Sheng family of Kunshan this year and met Zhu xiongzhan, who was "the best archer of horses", and got the Emei shooting technique taught by Cheng Zhenru from Zhu. In August of this year, he also wrote a book named "single knife illustration". In short, in the first year of Kangxi, Wu Shu devoted himself to studying the art of war and martial arts. Ji Xiao Da Ci and most of his martial arts works were written in this year. It took more than 20 years for him to finish the book again at the instigation of several friends, such as panpinger.

Jixiao Xinshu is one of the most scientific and practical military works in Ming and Qing Dynasties. It had a profound influence on military science after Ming Dynasty. Until the end of Qing Dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, it was still a necessary book for military administrators. Wu Shu takes Ji Xiao Xin Shu as the research object, and makes a revision and supplement deduction to it, in order to be more practical, and also to see his deep military literacy and high vision. Compared with some of his contemporaries who liked to talk about military affairs, Wu Shu not only made great efforts in military science and martial arts, but also based his statements on practical application, which was by no means a mere paper talker. However, Wu Shu was a scholar after all. He had no military experience in his whole life, and his martial arts practice had great limitations. So they still can't get rid of the scholar's habit of "holding hands to talk about soldiers". Some comments are inevitable, but they are subjective by feeling, which is also illustrated in Ji Xiao Da CI. However, Wu Shu does have his own advantages. As a martial arts expert, he has a lot of experience and is good at comparing and distinguishing between long and short weapons. Therefore, there are many wonderful expositions in the chapter of attack and stab in Volume 6 and the chapter of competition in volume 7. Some of them are helpful to Qi Shu and give us a better understanding of it