Qi Jiguang
戚繼光
Chinese general of the Ming dynasty (1528–1588), a fighter against pirates and the author of the manual Jixiao xinshu with a chapter on fist fighting in 32 movements.
Quick Facts
ChinaBiography
Qi Jiguang (戚繼光), courtesy name Yuanjing, was a Chinese general of the Ming dynasty and author of the military manual Jixiao xinshu, which contains one of the oldest surviving Chinese texts on fist fighting. He was born on 12 November 1528 in Luqiao in Shandong province and died on 17 January 1588 in Dengzhou.
His family hereditarily held the post of Dengzhou garrison commander, and he took it over at seventeen after his father died. According to the Ming dynasty history Ming shi, in 1557 he was dismissed after the failed siege of Cengang and continued to serve under a penalty. In 1561 he won nine battles against pirates in the area of Taozhu and Qitou, and in 1563 he helped capture Pinghai. In 1568 he was entrusted with training troops in the north, and in autumn 1571 the Great Wall watchtowers were completed.
He wrote the manual Jixiao xinshu in an eighteen-volume version around 1560, and the fourteen-volume version was printed in 1584. The fist fighting chapter Quanjing jieyao describes 32 movements, each with a quatrain. Peter Lorge points out that a later version omitted this chapter. We have not found a martial arts teacher of Qi Jiguang in the sources.
After the death of Chancellor Zhang Juzheng he was transferred to Guangdong, left due to illness, and died three years later. The Ming shi states that the name of the Qi family army became famous throughout the empire. We have not been able to verify a quotation from his manual in the original.
Early life
According to English Wikipedia, which cites the Dictionary of Ming Biography, Qi Jiguang was born on 12 November 1528 in Luqiao in present-day Weishan in Shandong province. According to the Ming shi his courtesy name was Yuanjing and his family hereditarily held the post of commander of the Dengzhou garrison. His father Qi Jingtong (1473–1544) was a military commander who, according to the Ming shi, led the military administration of Daning. He took over command of the garrison after the death of his father, at the age of seventeen. At twenty-two he came to Beijing for a military examination and during the Mongol siege submitted proposals for defence.
Training and teachers
We have not found a martial arts teacher of Qi Jiguang in the sources consulted. In 1553 he was promoted to assistant regional military commissioner of Shandong with the task of defending the coast against pirates. According to the Ming shi, in 1557 he besieged Cengang with Yu Dayou and after a long failure was dismissed from office and continued in service under a penalty. In 1561, according to the Ming shi, he won nine battles in the area of Taozhu and Qitou.
Contribution and innovations
According to an academic text from Peking University, the eighteen-volume version of Jixiao xinshu was produced around 1560 and completed by 1566 at the latest. The fourteen-volume version was first printed in 1584, during his forced retirement. The chapter Quanjing jieyao pian is the fourteenth chapter of the older version, and according to Peter Lorge the later version omitted it. The chapter describes 32 movements, each with a quatrain and a picture. Lorge sees in the manual the second oldest surviving Chinese discussion of martial arts. Around 1572 he led exercises with more than 100,000 soldiers, and according to English Wikipedia he wrote Lianbing shiji about it.
Legends and documented facts
English Wikipedia states that the fist fighting chapter mentions over forty positions and about fifteen of them have names similar to the taijiquan of the Chen style, but it gives no academic citation, whereas Voronov and a 2026 study speak of 32 movements. The years 1560 and 1584 denote two different versions of the manual, the eighteen-volume and the fourteen-volume one, which are often confused. English Wikipedia gives a decisive victory over the pirates at Cen in 1558, while the Ming shi in the passage we consulted describes an unsuccessful siege in 1557. The figure of more than a thousand watchtowers on the Great Wall is given only by Wikipedia.
Legacy
In 1563, together with Liu Xian and Yu Dayou, he took part in the capture of Pinghai, where according to the Ming shi 2200 enemies were killed. In May 1568 he was entrusted with training troops in Jizhou, Changping and Baoding, and in the autumn of 1571 the watchtowers on the wall were completed according to the Ming shi. After the death of Chancellor Zhang Juzheng he was transferred to Guangdong, left because of illness and died three years later, according to English Wikipedia on 17 January 1588 in Dengzhou. The Ming shi states that the name of the army of the Qi family became famous throughout the empire. According to Wikipedia, a Taiwanese frigate and a Chinese training ship bear his name.