Peking, March 26.
About 15 years ago when the study of the Japanese system of self defence generally known as jin-mitsu became very popular in Occidental countries, cne dees not remember that was ever mentioned that jivejitsu was not native to Japan but, like so much else in Japan, had been originally borrowed from China, The most ardent living patron of physical training along old Chinese lines is the Commander of the 2nd Division of the Frontier Defence! Army and of the 47th Mixed} Brigade, General Ma Liang, now Occupation Commissioner at. Tsinanfu, Among foreign newspaper readers General Ma is probably best known through his conflict) with the student demonstrators in Tsinan last spring when he was given a great deal of adverse advertising, and was reported to have made many speeches, which seem to anyone familiar with the man's character utterly inconsistent with; the whole trend of his ideas.
For some reason it does not seem to be generally known in either foreign or Chinese circles that for 18 years General Ma has been working upon a revival of ancient Chinese military training that he has trained more than 30,000 students in this revivified science and has introduced his system of physical culture into so many branches of the army that) more than 300,000 soldiers are indirectly his pupils in a system of physical training designed to school them in_ self-defence.
The value of the work which General Ma has done can never be appreciated until one has seen 2 corps of his students going through their exercises. The foreigner in China usually has the impression that the Chinese take no interest in physical culture and that they would much rather be spectators to exhibitions of physical prowess than participants in any sort of sports. Perhaps it is because General Ma's system of training is: indigenous and is hallowed by ancient traditions that the Chinese take so kindly to it, but whatever the reason, General Ma's pupils do take up their work with a vim and enthusiasm which would astonish any foreigner who has preconceived notions of the Chinese aversion to tough sports, Biccest Tari ox Recory, The writer has witnessed the sports of many peoples, has been in the audiences of all the great circuses and Wild West shows, and is familiar with all the Occidental sports from boxing to lacrosse, but he has never seen a performance in which more skill and agility were shown or an exhibition of rougher horse-play than that which is provided by the men who drill in Tsinan under General Ma Liang's personal supervision.
Stace any Properzss.
The show begins gently and placidly with a drill in calisthenics and comes to a climax in a whirlwind of violence in which the performers are groups of sun-blacken ed over-muscled men of terrific strength and agility, none of whom one would care to meet in the dark. The drill-ground is a small court in which the earth has been rolled hard and from which every pebble and fragment of stone has been carefully picked. Along one wall there is a rack of antique Chinese weapons, straight swords, curved swords, lances, halberds, quarter-staves, clubs linked together like flails and many other weapons for which we have no name. At the south end of the court there is a number of large stone dumb-bells. piles of granite paving stones and little heaps of bricks and tiles which serve an astonishing purpose at the end of the show.
We Occidentals have gone pretty thoroughly into calisthenics, but the Chinese have contrived to devise a system of movements which has little in common with anything one sees in Western gymnasiums. It seems designed to develop suppleness and double-jointedness rather than muscular strength. In a remote city in Shensi, the writer once saw a soldier with his foot up on the parapet of the city wall, apparently making a violent effort to make his knee joint bend the wrong way. He explained that he was preparing his leg muscles against possible strain and this seems to be the basis of Chinese calisthenics. The muscles are twisted and the joints are strained by every movement and the result is that the boys seem remarkably lithe and tough, rather than much developed.
Quarter-start FoR THE MILLION.
Following the calisthenics comes a sword drill with straight swords, and following this there is a drill in the use of a quarter staff about six feet long. At this point in the performance, General Ma will explain to his friends and guests, that in this drill he has devised something which will rejuvenate China and give every man, woman and child not only a godd physique, but also self-reliance. He points out that the Chinese people are poor and that they cannot all possess firearms and be skilled in their use, but that 2 man with a good-sized club who knows how to use it, can take care of himself almost anywhere and that its constant use will give him an excellent physique. As he says, almost anyone, 20 matter how poor, can procure a club, and his training in the use, of @ club will give a man strength and self-confidence; that if everyone in China could be persuaded to go through this simple training, the people would be much more vigorous and aggressive, mentally as Well as physically.
'As this is a plea which is advanced for drills and gymnasiums of all sorts in every country' in which it is in vogue, there is nothing novel in the theory to the Occidental, but among Chinese General Ma's arguments for universal physical training are probably unique and somewhat radical. He declares that the Chinese people are too drowsy; that they sleep too much, sit too much and eat too much and that anything which would make them more active physically and more self-reliant in their personal encounters with one another would make them more aggressive and confident as a nation.
The quarter-staff drill is a little more strenuous than the callisthenics. It is followed by exhibitions of boxing, in which kicking also plays a part, and which, while it is apparently staged simply as an exhibition of agility and muscular control, involves some pretty hard slapping and kicking. The men dive about the courtyard, landing upon the hard ground jin all possible attitudes, roll over lightly, and bound to their feet. It does not seem to do the least harm to one of these acrobats to slide a few yards along the hard earth on his face, and a vigorous kick in the jaw simply starts one of the boxers on a series of back somersaults which he concludes with a bow and a smile. 23
Wrestttxe Fast axp Furious.
After this comes the wrestling which is fast and furious and which is very evidently no child's play. General Ma shows the keenest interest in this and impresses his friends with the fact that it is much more completely developed than the "small part" which the Japanese have borrowed. To the foreigner it would certainly seem the most business-like and most useful part of the whole performance.
The men strip to the waist and put on short, closely quilted canvas jackets which are belted with long sashes. The play is too fast and furious for a spectator to understand the rules clearly. It would seem that all grips are taken upon the canvas jacket, tripping is apparently permissible and while the spectators sometimes protest against leg-holds, - some of the wrestlers resort to this. A man is thrown when he Joses his balance and immediately releases his hold upon his adversary. In most cases, however, he does not go down gently and some of the throws are so violent that the thud of the defeated one's body resounds throughout the courtyard.
In this phase of the drill the Japanese are of course intensely interested. General Ma says that thousands of Japanese officers. and men have come at one time and another to seo the Yerformance,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.