Kung Fu in Taiping rebellion

Due to the heavy influence of Hong Kong action movies and Wuxia novels on one side and lack of knowledge of Chinese history on the other there is a specific view of Chinese warfare and the significance of Kung Fu in ancient China. Chinese are seen as a fanatically brave people who would storm the enemy through the rain of bullets and artillery fire armed with nothing than a spear or sword. Even movies about modern wars like WWII or Korean war use same stereotype simply because it looks attractive for the audience, there is nothing more heroic than facing the enemy who is so much more powerful that it is impossible to win over him, and there is no greater difference in power then between machine gun and a spear.

It is widely believed that Chinese army used only cold weapons until modern times, which is complete nonsense. Kung Fu practitioners stubbornly holding on to this image believe and preach about the crucial importance of martial arts in warfare in China.  In reality Chinese army use firearms since early 1300’s and during the Ming dynasty period fire arms technology in China was somewhat better than on the west. Ming arms engineers were able to make larger cannons and higher quality matchlock rifles than anyone in Europe at the time. Ratio of firearms and cold weapons in China and Europe up to the fall of Ming dynasty was pretty much the same.

Ching dynasty inherited Ming firearms technology and having no real challenges didn’t invest in further development of firearms being satisfied with what they already had. On the other hand, technology development was not very fast in other parts of the world and up to

18 centry Chinese matchlock rifle

cavalry matchlock rifles

Chinese navy flintlock rifle 1800

 the beginning of the 19^th century Ching army was not far behind the western counterparts.

For decades, Kung Fu culture was based on a story about Shaolin Monastery and the rebellion against Manchus where martial arts were actually the central theme of the story. Today, that story was proven false and kung fu lost its historical significance. To restore the previous believe and “place” of Kung Fu in Chinese history, people turned to the real historical events and as a focal point of Kung Fu history and development they chose Taiping rebellion. It is believed and preached that Taiping rebels used their unmatched Kung Fu skills to fight against Manchu oppressors.

Qing soldier from the early stage of Taiping rebellion armed with matchlock rifle

In realty Kung Fu had no influence nor part in Taiping rebellion what so ever. "Taiping Rebellion" as it is called wasn't merely another uprising against  Manchus, but probably the bloodiest war that had afflicted humanity in its history before the 20th Century. It's estimated that the Taiping Rebellion cost the lives between 15 and 30 million people and left more than half of the country's one thousand prospering cities in charred ruins.

Taiping  weapons from the beginning of the rebellion

Taiping weapons 

Originally Taiping uprising started as a religious movement influenced by Protestant missionaries. Over time however the Taiping become more and more of a social revolutionary movement. Only after initial successes against the government troops, the uprising turned against the foreign Manchus and became a serious threat to the ruling Qing dynasty, but originally didn’t started as such. As always happens when religion, nationalism and social protest are mixed, this victory gave the movement a tremendous momentum, but also had devastating impact on the conduct of warfare. The war was waged on both sides with unimaginable cruelty and lack of mercy, with the imperial troops taking a leading role in slaughtering civilians. When the Taiping conquered a city, they normally killed all inhabitants they believed to be Manchu supporters without pity. If imperial troops retook the city they massacred the rest of the population, since they had fraternized with the enemy.

Green Army weapons and equipment 

 Initial military success of the rebels happened due to several reasons. The corrupt and incompetent imperial generals were no match for the fanaticism of the Taiping. Corruption, incompetence, poor military organization, low moral of the tropes, local political and financial interests led to the defeat of the imperial army and almost unarmed rebels  finally conquered 17 provinces, in 1853 they even managed to take Nanjing. Second, or maybe the first and the most important reason why Taiping rebellion lasted for such a long time is the fact that rebellion overlapped with Second Opium War (1856-1860)  which was China’s second anti-foreign trade war. Third reason was The Nian Rebellion or Nianfei, an armed uprising that took place in northern China from 1851 to 1868, contemporaneously with Taiping Rebellion. The rebellion failed to topple the Qing dynasty, but caused the immense economic devastation and loss of life that became one of the major long-term factors in the collapse of the Qing regime in the early 20th century.

Qing infantry man

Improvised hand grenades used by both sides in conflict

Qing soldiers with a large rifles known in Europe as "Bird Guns"

In terms of organization and commanding structure Taiping armies mirrored Qing Green army form the smallest units up to the entire force.

In terms of the weapons and equipment at the beginning the difference between two sides was significant. While rebels had tremendous amount of people, due to obligatory service of all the people from the territory under rebels control they were very poorly equipped. Almost half of the rebel army was made of conscripted peasants armed with nothing else than bamboo spears. These tropes proved worthless in battle, they had no training and the only thing they did was making more chaos on the battlefield. More elite Taiping tropes were armed pretty much the same as the imperial tropes, they had more firearms but the ratio of cold weapons was still significant.

Qing dynasty cannons used by both sides

Qing Tropes at the beginning of the conflict, depending of the army, had different equipment. Green Camp was the Han army of the Qing, at the start of the war it was considered the main stay of the army, it was of a reasonably high mix of fire arms and earlier cannons and also a good deal of cold weapons.

The 8 banners were different from the Green Camp, they were Manchurian and Mongolian. They were almost completely cavalierly units and they used bows and arrows as main weapons combined with old matchlock rifles.

Banner man

After the initial period of the conflict weapons and equipment situation on both sides is rapidly changing. After rebels took Nanjing they were buying a lot of weapons from the Westerners. Of course westerners were selling the weapons to both sides.

At the beginning of the conflict European forces didn’t take sides staying satisfied with just selling weapons to both sides with enormous profit. Also both sides used foreign mercenaries.

Faced with international and domestic foes, the Manchus adopted a policy of playing the western nations against the Taipings by making major trade concessions—including legalizing opium in 1858. This was in marked contrast to the Han Chinese leaders of the Taipings, who, for religious reasons, adamantly opposed the importation and sale of opium. In return for trade concessions foreign powers sided with the Manchus .However, the Europeans were unwilling to finance a costly war against the Taiping and did not engage the rebels directly keeping their troops purely for defending their concessions in Shanghai. Of course they sold the imperial army weapons and gunboats for good profit, and sometimes supported them here and there with naval gunfire. While officially sided with Manchus many European merchants saw an excellent opportunity for profit and smuggled large amount of weapons to Taiping armies.

Enfield 1853 rifle , used by bith side in conflict

Needls gun used in a conflict.

Although imperial army got modern weapons they were unable to fight off the rebellion because they stuck to the outdated social structure and were simply unable to organize their tropes to fight with any significant success.  Taiping pushed victoriously further towards Shanghai and city filled up with hundreds of thousands of refugees, and supply became increasingly difficult, while hunger and crime grew alarmingly. Every day countless dead bodies were carried with the ebb through the channels of the delta towards the sea. These were unmistakable signs of the approaching fighting. When the rich Chinese merchants and bankers saw their lands being ravaged in the countryside and watched as trade collapsed in the isolated towns, they decided to do something about it and looked around for foreign professionals.

Colt 44 , popular on both sides of the conflict

Colt navy popular on both sides of the conflict

The Ever Victorious Army consisted of Chinese soldiers trained and led by an American and European officer corps. Though the Army was only active for a few years, from 1860 to 1864, it was instrumental in putting down the Taiping Rebellion. It was the first Chinese army which was trained in European techniques, tactics, and strategy. As such, it became a model for later Chinese armies.

Ever Victorious Army

Ever Victorious Army

Ever Victorious Army

Ever Victorious Army

The Ever Victorious Army had its beginnings as a force formed under the command of Frederick Townsend Ward in 1860, assisted by the local strategic support of the French diplomat Albert-Édouard Levieux de Caligny called "le breton" by the Chinese in the Shanghai French Concession. In 1860, when the force numbered only several hundred, the Foreign Rifles were armed with revolvers and breech-loading rifles. The revolvers mostly were American Colts, with perhaps a few other makes familiar on the American frontier. The Colt percussion revolvers .44 Dragoon, and .38 Navy, were quite common.The rifles were Sharps .577 percussion carbines. As the Foreign Rifles grew into the larger Ever Victorious Army between late 1861 and the end of 1862, there were not enough breech-loading rifles available to arm a force of 2000 to 4000, and rifled percussion muzzle-loaders became the norm. The 1851 and 1853 British Tower musket was a .702 rifled percussion model that was increasingly available after the Crimean War when, during the late 1850s, the 1853 Enfield .577 percussion rifle gradually replaced the Tower as standard issue to British troops.

Following Ward's death in September 1862 after the Battle of Cixi, command of the Ever Victorious Army passed, to Charles George Gordon, known as "Chinese" Gordon. Under Gordon the Ever Victorious Army, in collaboration with the Chinese Imperial forces, would fight some of the final and decisive battles that ended the Taiping Rebellion.

When in 1862 Admiral Sir James Hope began to provide the Ever Victorious Army with materiel support from the British surplus store of Tower and Enfield rifles in India, the army  had access to a sufficient number of weapons to arm the force through its days under Gordon to its final muster in May of 1864. Andrew Wilson, in his history of the Ever Victorious Army under Gordon, says “a thousand of the men [Ward’s men in early 1862] were armed with Prussian rifles of the old pattern.” These may have been the 1848 Dreyse .61 percussion rifle, also called a Needle Gun. 

Contrary to the prevailing expectations, the training of the Chinese progressed quickly. They developed rapidly into good marksmen and were also trained as artillerymen. Soon the best were promoted to sergeants. The Chinese were not only more disciplined than the permanently rebellious sailors, they were above all much cheaper and less demanding regarding sustenance. The pay ranged from $8 a month for a common soldier up to $20 for a sergeant. That was not much compared to the $150 which the lowest white officer received, but still several times what a Chinese could expect to earn normally. Already by the end of 1861 Ward had a small army of about 3,000 men at his disposal, and except for 100 Europeans and 200 Manilamen all were Chinese. Additionally there were some artillery batteries and a small fleet of steam-powered gunboats.

 

Qing Tropes  training Europan military tactics

The Taiping got their arms from a mixture of sources. Henry Burgevine defected to the Taiping in 1863, taking over 100 officers and an Ever Victorious Army steamship with him. Meanwhile, smugglers supplied various supplies to the Taiping, with Edward Forester attempting to capture a French arms smuggler in 1862 but ending up captured and tortured by the Taiping, whilst Lindley joined the Taiping having started out smuggling coins to the Taiping at Nanjing. Taiping use of modern arms was generally inconsistent in terms of proportion: according to Heath a quarter of the Suzhou garrison in 1863 had Western firearms, as did a third of the force attacking Songjiang and Qingbu in 1862, but only 10% of those initially approaching Shanghai in 1861 had modern weapons. These included long arms, usually rifles, and pistols – large-calibre double-barrelled pistols were apparently particularly popular amongst cavalry, but revolvers were also generally popular. Of course this doesn’t mean that the rest of the Taipings were armed with cold weapons, most still used outdated matchlock rifles and cannons. No matter how outdated these weapons were, still they were fire arms. Large number of people still used cold weapons for close combat but nor even close to what people usually think.

It is clear that in this conditions there was no place for Kung Fu of any kind. Simply, Kung Fu skills were useless for warfare at this time as well as any other time in history of China.Did some Taipings practiced Kung Fu? They certainly did, maybe even more than few. Did this fact influenced what was going on at any rate? As much as a spoon of sugar can change the taste of the ocean.

Two faces of Leung Jan

Leung Jan is probably the most famous Wing Chun master of all times. He is considered a hero who embodies all possible virtues and he is a role model for many generations of practitioners, not only Wing Chun practitioners but other styles as well. Good doctor provided medical care for free for all those misfortunate people who got ill and had no money to pay medical treatment. He upheld moral and ethical code of his time to the highest level, he was a person of perfect character and perfect manners. Of course, being a doctor he was well educated and of course very rich. Over all that he was a best Kung Fu master of his time who fought the injustice, protected the oppressed and according to legend (some say history) he fought 300 challenge  matches and never lost.

 Doctor Leung Jan became famous in the early days of the 20^th century when he became one of the best selling characters of cheap pulp fiction novels and same stories were later reprinted in early 1960’s. These literature was very popular at the time and it brought fame to many fictional characters who were considered real historical figures for a quite some time , like Fong Sai Yuk and his mother , Five Elders from Shaolin temple ect. Stores from these old novels were considered a real history until recently. While Leung Jan was a historical character we don’t know virtually nothing about him, his life, work and martial arts practice. Only few details can be proved as facts.  Exact year of his birth and death is not known, there are several different dates of his birth and death. His final resting place is unknown, simply his grave site could not be located. It is not known how many children he had, number goes from one to five. It is not known how many students he had. It is also unknown how many fights, if any, he had. It is also unknown what was the name of the art he was practicing, there are no written record of the name of his art prior to his debut as a pulp fiction hero. Although there are some claims that Leung Jan actually name his art him self around late 1880’s there is no prof for that claim, it is entirely possible that name Wing Chun appeared for the first time in the novels. How he had conducted his medical practice is unknown as well as the claim that he cured poor people for free. It is also unknown how Leung Jan looked like. Most of information about Leung Jan’s life, public and personal affairs came mainly from popular novels in which good Doctor was main character and “oral histories”.

This is not historical article and there will be no attempt to prove of disapprove anything about Leung Jan, these subject was already covered in various articles some of which can be found on this very blog. Leung Jan has the most important place in Wing Chun tradition and there is a no amount of historical research nor the evidence found that can change his role and importance. 

This is the article about something else, it is the article about the face, actually two different faces of famous doctor. In recent years a few pictures (photos and painting) appeared and people who presented them claim these are original pictures of Leung Jan.

The first one was a photo ,,discovered” by the renowned Wing Chun master. The photo is obviously taken from an old grave site somewhere. First published in original shape and size later was edited with photoshop. Now there is an obvious question here, why if the photo was taken from the tomb stone, the entire tomb stone was not photographed so we can see the name of the tomb. If Leung Jan’s name is on the tomb that would be the hardest evidence that the published photo is his. Of course, if the name was different it is logical to show only the photo of the face and skip the name on the tomb. Not only that Leung Jan’s grave would be located and could with careful research reveal at least some mysteries of his life but such a place would become a place of pilgrimage for many people who follow his linage from all over the world just like Yip Man’s and Chan Wah Shun’s grave sites already became.

The second face of Leung Jan appeared by pure miracle on the old painting “found” in his old home in Foshan. In 2005  team of researchers form Foshan museum and few government officials went to old Leung Jan’s home and did the detail search of the place in order to find anything of historical value because the house was old and it would be tear down. They didn’t find nothing and left the house as they found it. Short after a person visited the house alone and by miracle found a portrait of Leung Jan, something that the whole team of professionals missed. 

Both attempts to finally give a face to most famous Wing Chun master are obvious frauds. The question  remains  why anyone had to do something like that? The place Leung Jan has in Wing Chun culture will not change with or without knowing how he had looked like. These frauds just mark one more dark spot in Wing Chun culture which is already more based on legends , blunt lies, fake histories, politics than on facts and real fighting skills.

Wing Chun , history of pseudohistory

Pseudohistory is a form of pseudoscholarship that attempts to distort or misrepresent the historical record, often using methods resembling those used in legitimate historical research. Pseudohistory frequently presents a big lie or sensational claims about historical facts which require the revision (re-writing) of the historical record. Pseudohistory is related to pseudoscience and pseudoarchaeology and usage of the terms may occasionally overlap.

Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that are claimed to be both scientific and factual, but are incompatible with the scientific method.Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable claims; reliance on confirmation bias rather than rigorous attempts at refutation; lack of openness to evaluation by other experts; and absence of systematic practices when developing theories, and continued adherence long after they have been experimentally discredited. The term pseudoscience is considered pejorative because it suggests something is being presented as science inaccurately or even deceptively. Those described as practicing or advocating pseudoscience often dispute the characterization

Pseudoarchaeology—also known as alternative archaeology, fringe archaeology, fantastic archaeology, or cult archaeology—refers to interpretations of the past from outside of the archaeological science community, which reject the accepted data gathering and analytical methods of the discipline. These pseudoscientific interpretations involve the use of artifacts, sites or materials to construct scientifically insubstantial theories to supplement the pseudoarchaeologists' claims. Methods include exaggeration of evidence, dramatic or romanticized conclusions, and fabrication of evidence.

Any work that claims to be history, but does not use established historiographical methods; especially one that uses disputed evidence and speculation rather than relying on the analysis of primary sources 

Pseudohistory is purported history which

-          Treats myths, legends, sagas and similar literature as literal truth

-          Is neither critical nor skeptical in its reading of ancient historians, taking their claims at face value and ignoring empirical or logical evidence contrary to the claims of the ancients

-          Is on a mission, not a quest, seeking to support some contemporary political , economical or religious agenda rather than find out the truth about the past

-          Often maintains that history is nothing but mythmaking and that different histories are not to be compared on such traditional academic standards as accuracy, empirical probability, logical consistency, relevancy, completeness, fairness, honesty, etc., but on moral or political grounds

-          Is selective in its use of ancient documents, citing favorably those that fit with its agenda, and ignoring or interpreting away those documents which don't fit

-          Considers the possibility of something being true as sufficient to believe it is true if it fits with one's agenda

-          Often maintains that there is a conspiracy to suppress its claims because of racism, atheism or ethnocentrism, or because of opposition to its political or religious agenda

Pseudohistory should be distinguished from the ancient texts it is based on. The sagas, legends, myths and histories which have been passed on orally or in written documents by ancient peoples are sometimes called pseudohistory. Some of it is pseudohistory, some of it is flawed history and some of it isn't history at all.

Pseudohistory should also be distinguished from historical fiction and fantasy. Despite the fact that historical fiction is often historically accurate, it is not history. Anyone who cites a work of historical fiction as if it were a history text is a practicing pseudohistorian. These are writers of historical fiction who intentionally falsify and invent ancient history.

Films seem to present a special challenge for some people; for, they argue endlessly about the duty of filmmakers to be historically accurate. Unless a film claims to be a documentary, it is fiction or fantasy no matter how accurate or realistic it is. Film makers have no more duty to be historians than do novelists. Anyone who would cite films as if they were historical documents is a pseudohistorian. Rather than demand that filmmakers be responsible historians or citizens, we should demand that filmgoers be critical thinkers. Being "based on a true story" is not a sufficient condition for being non-fiction

Separating facts from truth is extremely hard for pesudohistiruans. Facts are not things that are discovered or created, they are simply acknowledged or denied. When you deny a fact you are incorrect. Facts are things that you cannot argue into or out of reality. Examples of facts: Water is wet, fire is hot. These two things cannot be reasoned out of existence. There is nothing to argue.

But truth is far more fluid. “God is Dead” or “God Exists” are statements of truth, which can be argued and reasoned, and whether they are true or false does not change reality. Water is no less wet if God exists or not, but nonfactual things, such as your view of human nature does change. Much of Pseudo-History is focused on moral and political truth, rather than on historical fact. They are trying to tell a narrative that matches a moral code, which may or may not be good fiction or life perspective, but it’s not good history.

History of Wing Chun today is completely pseudohistory and here are the reasons for that.

-          There is not even one research that is done by professionals of the field (Archaeologists, Historians, and other accompanied fields necessary for full and complete process of research)

-          There isn’t any relevant historical institution like a museum or university that ever conducted research about history of kung fu in general, not to mention Wing Chun.

-          There isn’t any scientific study published in any scientific journal so it can be peer reviewed and discussed by the professionals.

-          Complete absence of physical evidence of any kind, no artifacts, no written documents , no physical remains of the people supposedly involved in the creation of the art.

-          The only source of information is the “oral transmission”. But there are so many different versions of “oral history” that either contradict in key details or completely and often create paradoxes in the timeline. These ‘’sources’ shouldn’t be even considered for serious scientific research because , they are not histories at all and their social and political as well as moral and ethical function is something far beyond presenting historical facts.

-          All the “researchers “ who had done any research about Wing Chun history are not even an amateur historians but people who think that practicing wing chun gives them some special insight and abilities to do the fully scientific research which cannot be more wrong.

-          None of these researches could pass the test of the scientific approach an methods in the process of gathering ,sorting and interpreting the findings.

In fact all the research done by all these people qualifies as pseudohistory and pseudoreserach on first glance, researchers used all the above named method of pseudohistory very obviously from the very beginning.

-          These researches not only lack  knowledge and skills for such research but also they lack resources , money , laboratories , access to significant data bases and of  course complete absence of professionals form various scientific fields who actually do the analysis of specific kind of findings .

-           

Of course , many of these people are devoted Wing Chun practitioners  with great passion for learning all segments of their chosen art. Over the years many valid things were discovered , unfortunately more often than not these information were understood without right context or put in wrong one. There researchers , at least some of them had an honest desire to find out as much as possible about history of the art. Many others just tried to prove them right and put them above all else in political, historical (chronological) and form some reason believed technical sense.

This is the truth about Wing Chun history research without exception. Whatever we know or more accurate think we know about art’s history simply cannot be taken as the truth. True History of Wing Chun will come to light of the day that moment when some serious historical institute starts real scientific research and even then , at the end we may know less than we think we know now.

Kung Fu Taphophilia or something else

People had special appreciation for deceased and cemeteries since the earliest times of human evolution. For centuries people make pilgrimages to the gravesites of important religious figures and they honor their ancestors. Different cultures and religions have different and sometimes unique ways to honor their dead.

The veneration of the dead, including one's ancestors, is based on love and respect for the deceased. In some cultures, it is related to beliefs that the dead have a continued existence, and may possess the ability to influence the fortune of the living. Some groups venerate their direct, familial ancestors. Certain faith communities, venerate saints as well as pray for departed souls .

In Europe, Asia, and Oceania, and in some African and Afro-Diasporic cultures, the goal of ancestor veneration is to ensure the ancestors' continued well-being and positive disposition towards the living, and sometimes to ask for special favors or assistance. The social or non-religious function of ancestor veneration is to cultivate kinship values, such as filial piety, family loyalty, and continuity of the family lineage. Ancestor veneration occurs in societies with every degree of social, political, and technological complexity, and it remains an important component of various religious practices in modern times.

While honoring the dead is important part of human civilization there is also unhealthy obsession with death and especially cemeteries. Taphophilia is described as morbid or abnormal interest in graves and cemeteries. Term “Taphophile" describes an individual who has abnormal passion for and enjoyment of cemeteries, funeral, epitaphs, gravestone rubbing, photography, and history of deaths.

Yip Man's grave - good place for a couple to take a happy photo

Someone may wonder what all this has to do with martial arts? In the recent years, like a wild fire, in kung fu community spread a custom of visiting gravesites of kung fu teachers of the past and taking photos which are later spread over social network. Some people go so far that they try to “pay their respect” to the ancestors” who not only have no relation to them what so ever but do that in a way that is not originally part of their religion, of course all that photographed or recorded on video and again spread over a social media.

Yip Man's grave - good place for friends to hang out

While it is totally normal to honor immediate deceased relatives and your blood lineage it is completely abnormal to honor someone who is not blood related. There are of course special cases when people who had great impact on society and people’s lives become honored by majority of people in some area or country , but these are really rare cases. Of course, someone may have strong feelings towards some kung fu master of the past, although it is very strange, and someone may have the desire or urge to show appreciation to that kung fu master. Let’s go even further and say taking photo or a video of the process of honoring the dead on the gravesite is normal and someone wants to have a memory of the event but why sharing it on social media, why sharing it to large number of total strangers? Is that a form of exhibitionism?   

Two guys are copying the front side of Bruce Lee's grave by rubbung the paper with a pencil

Interestingly, people who so eagerly share photos or videos of themselves on the gravesites of kung fu masters do not share the same on the gravesites of their own deceased, parent, grandparents or other relatives! Why? Is it because they feel it is wrong? Or maybe they cannot gain anything from such action? Putting a picture of gravesite of your own relative on social media is not something considered normal, usual and socially acceptable, at least not in most places of the world. Why would be any different with a grave of some total stranger who practiced kung fu?

Words are not necessry 

Anyway, it is not a custom for students to perform ceremonies or honor their kung fu teacher or kung fu ancestors on the gravesites. That is a responsibility of the family members and no one else, so if someone wants to follow the tradition and really honor kung fu ancestors, let their blood relatives and descendants to do that.

So, is there a large number of Taphophiles involved in kung fu or is something else in question? Simple answer is, people who share their photos or videos on gravesites are worst kind of people. These people usually have abnormal fascination with graves or dead but they simply use these for the purpose of selfmarketing. “Look how humble I am” , ‘’ I do what others don’t , I honor my kung fu ancestor” , “Look I am on the final resting place of XYZ master,(while most of the others never came and never will come)” , is usual message behind these photos and videos.  And that is all about this subject. Once more it can be concluded that in a chase for money and fame people have no moral or ethical boundaries and will do anything to promote them self , they don’t even leave dead to rest in peace.