In ancient times, when transportation was not developed, the Grand Canal communicated between the north and the south, which not only facilitated the transportation of materials, but also facilitated people's travel. However, it was not safe for the ship to sail on the canal, so there were water escorts. They are highly skilled, travel north and south, and escort goods for customers.
China's canal is the longest ancient canal in the world, and it is a great project of ancient China like the Great Wall. The city where the canal flows is like a dazzling pearl in ancient times, becoming a rich place that people yearn for. Some people say that there would be no Beijing City without the Grand Canal, and Cangzhou, located in the northern section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, is also such a city.
In the second year of Ming Hongwu, that is, in 1369 AD, the old city with a history of more than 1500 years was abandoned, and a new Cangzhou city was erected on the canal. The longest stretch of the city, the Cangzhou section of the city, where the canal flows, is now cut off, and the river has plummeted and the hustle and bustle is gone.
In May 1998, archaeologists found a Jin Dynasty shipwreck in the canal, and archaeological investigations found more than twenty other shipwrecks in the Cangzhou section of the canal. So many shipwrecks are a testament to the economic prosperity along the Cangzhou Canal, as well as its integrity and historical continuity.
The basic function of the Grand Canal is water transport, which is an important channel for the transportation of grain from the south to the north in the era of cold weapons, so it is necessary to ensure the safety of materials and the safety of relevant personnel. With the prosperity of Caoyun, the demand for dart bureaus, dart masters and personnel engaged in the bodyguard industry has surged, which has promoted the development of cangzhou martial arts.
Yan Zhaoduo's generous and tragic singers, the Cangzhou people's practice of martial arts has been recorded as early as the Han Dynasty. And most people know Cangzhou through the classical Chinese masterpiece "Water Margin".
In "Water Margin", the leopard head Lin Chong fa with Cangzhou, the scene of being forced to liangshan in the temple of the Wind and Snow Mountain is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. In fact, this is only a deduction of literary works, but it is an indisputable fact that prisoners were assigned to Cangzhou at that time.
Historically, Cangzhou has been on the border between the two countries for a long time, and wars have been going on, and the army needs prisoners to serve as miscellaneous servants. Perhaps for survival and self-defense, Cangzhou villagers like to practice dance. In the Ming and Qing dynasties, there were 1937 Wujinshi and Wuju people here, and there were 8 Wu Zhuangyuan in the Qing Dynasty, and this all stemmed from this once sparkling canal.
The convenient shipping of the Grand Canal facilitated the spread of martial arts. The Eight Pole Quan was passed down to Cangzhou by a Yunyou monk and later became widely spread. LiuheQuan was passed on to the local villagers by a chivalrous warrior after being rescued from a wharf in Cangzhou. It is said that the fist originated from Mount Emei in Sichuan, and later spread from Tianjin to Cangzhou. Yanqingquan, also known as Lost Fist, first spread from Shandong to Cangzhou, and then from Cangzhou martial arts master Huo Yuanjia along the canal to Tianjin, Shanghai and other places.
People often say that "Hirakawa is fertile, and there are few land dangers to rely on." The rivers are thousands of curves, and there are often bandits", and the economic wealth and humanities along the canal are gathered. Where the profit lies, thieves are born. As a result, the bandit plague made the dart master a hot industry, and the dart board also came into being.
At that time, from the north to the Beijing Division and the south to Suzhou and Hangzhou, there were many dart bureaus along the canal. Cangzhou people rely on their superb martial arts to serve as dart masters or command dart bureaus in various local dart bureaus, and Li Fenggang is one of the best.
Li Fenggang has been practicing martial arts since he was a child, and by the age of fourteen he was already proficient in all kinds of boxing techniques and instruments of Liuhe Fist. Later, he traveled north along the canal to a dart bureau in Tianjin as a dart master. One day the dart masters were eating in the canteen and asked Li Fenggang in unison to practice double knives. Li Fenggang saw that there were a bunch of dishes in the canteen, and said that I would play with a knife, and you would throw these dishes at me together to see if you could hit me.
Four or five dart masters grabbed potatoes, eggplants, and peppers and threw them at Li Fenggang's body together, only to see the light of the knife flash like raindrops, and the dishes thrown over were all cut down one by one by Li Fenggang's double knives, and none of them could hit his body. Only then did the dart masters understand that the name of "Double Knife Li Fenggang" was really worthy of the name. Li Fenggang quickly gained a foothold in the dart master industry with his superb martial arts.
There are land darts and water darts. Dart car is an important means of transportation for land darts, dart cars there are many kinds, horse-drawn carriages, cars, carts, by the transport of goods and road conditions to determine. But the most common is the unicycle. Escorting land darts requires horse warfare and vehicle warfare, that is, the ability to fight on horseback and on bumpy carriages.
Li Fenggang, who grew up by the canal, prefers to escort waterway darts, and it seems that it is not a beautiful fact to take a water dart and travel in a rafting boat than a land dart without Kurama Lawton.
There are three rules that must be followed. First, wake up day and night. Because there are fewer cases of boat robbery during the day, thieves and robbers often choose to act at night.
Second, man does not leave the ship. The economy along the canal is prosperous, the tea houses are lined with liquor stores, the village clubs are often performed, and it is easy to lose darts when landing on the shore to watch.
The third is to avoid women as much as possible. The dart master has always attached importance to Martial Virtue, and cannot enter the rear cabin after boarding the ship, and if the employer has a family, he must retreat, so that the boat owner and the employer can rest assured.
Waterway darts have high requirements for water warfare, and the dart master must have strong light skills and plum blossom makeup kung fu, not fall into the water when fighting on the ship or cabin, and be able to save the dart. Li Fenggang went south and north to fight countless times with people, and never lost a dart. After middle age, he returned to Cangzhou and took over the Chengxing Dart Bureau founded by his uncle, and the dart master of the Chengxing Dart Bureau practiced a variety of fists, including Liuhe Fist and Split Hanging Fist, as well as Bagua and Taiji.
When Li Fenggang selected a dart master, he should look at martial arts, and even more importantly, he should look at martial virtue. When Li Fenggang taught martial arts to his disciples, there were strict rules: those who misbehaved their virtues were not passed on, those who did not filial piety to their parents were not passed on, those with sinister hearts were not passed on, those who were strong and aggressive were not passed on, and so on. Li Fenggang's operation of the dart bureau pays attention to harmony, and in addition to the dart bureau with strong funds and strong martial arts, it is also necessary to manage various relationships, give three points, and make friends.
Li Fenggang's apprentice, the Great Dao King Wu, first served as a dart master in the Chengxing Dart Bureau, and later went north to open the Yuanshun Dart Bureau. He himself was deeply influenced by Li Fenggang, and Wang Wu made rules for himself, important dart carts should be personally escorted, visiting friends should be warmly entertained, and winter winter clothes and summer clothes should be given to poor people.
Wang Wu's righteous deeds bought people's respect for him. Once, Wang Wu escorted more than 100,000 taels of silver from Beijing to Tianjin. Halfway across the road, a boat blocked the way, and there were thirty or forty people on board, armed with weapons, headed by a man named "Sai Jiaolong" He Qing. Hearing that the dart bearer was the Great Sword King Five, He Qing hesitated, but he still danced hard and threw a big gun at Wang Wu.
Wang Wu swung his knife to greet him, and the big knife slammed into the barrel of the gun, which made He Qinghu's mouth tingle, he wanted to draw a gun to change his move, Wang Wu's big knife had split on his left shoulder, and the big gun fell to the ground. He Qing saw that Wang Wu did not take advantage of the victory to attack, and his left shoulder was also painful but not injured, so he quickly stopped his hand and conceded defeat, thanking Wang Wu for his mercy under the knife. Later, He Qing and Wang Wu became friends.
Li Fenggang's Chengxing Dart Bureau and Dadao Wang Wu's Yuanshun Dart Bureau both later became among the top ten dart bureaus in China.
As an inland river, an artificial river, the canal is of course characterized by water. The good is like water, and the water is moist for all things. The canal not only enriches the fists of Cangzhou martial arts, promotes the cause of martial arts, but also has a stimulating and pulling effect on the construction of martial arts in Cangzhou.
Dart master was a special profession in ancient China, equivalent to today's armed escort. Although the dart masters are well paid, they live a life of begging for a living on the tip of the knife. Nowadays, the dart bureau and dart master have gradually disappeared with the development of society, while the Cangzhou people along the Grand Canal still continue the ancient tradition of practicing martial arts, fitness and strengthening the body from childhood, and the influence of martial arts and martial arts continues to this day. There are more than 50 types of martial arts here, included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage, and a number of Olympic champions have been trained.