Wuke, Qing Imperial Military Examinations
by Peter Dekker
Introduction
When a Qing military man wanted to go up on the ladder in the army, and had no connections nor special skills to stand out and get promoted, he was left to the rigors of the Qing military exam to earn his rank. The exam consisted of a number of activities, among which: Performing a form with a heavy yanyuedao, drawing a heavy strength testing bow, lifting stone weights and archery. I will describe all these below, with illustrations of period regulations and actual antique examples of the items used. I want to emphasize that this does not cover the entire examination, which likely composed of other elements like swordplay and strategies as well but of which I have little information.
Wukedao: Imperial Examination yanyuedao
The yanyuedao is a weapon used in the Chinese military from at least the Song dynasty (960-1127) where it appeared in the military text wujing zongyao. It is often mistaken for guandao because it became associated with Guan Di, a legendary and historical figure of the period of the Three Kingdoms (222-263 A.D.). In reality, there are no historical references nor antique specimens that suggest the weapon was already in use at the time. The most important work on this period however, was written in the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) when the weapon was already in common use for centuries. The author of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms erroneously equipped his hero with a weapon that in his time already saw widespread use in the Chinese army for centuries: the yanyuedao.
Yanyuedao literally translates as "Reclining Moon Blade" and is characterized by a strongly curving blade with a spike at the back, mounted on a pole. Many examples have a notch at the spike in which a weapon can be trapped. The other end of the shaft is balanced with a heavy spike that can serve as a weapon in it's own right. Functionally it relies on using the pole as a lever to deliver powerful thrusts. In the Qing dynasty it was still used by the Luying or Green Standard Army, consisting of mainly Han Chinese that often served to oppress local rebellions.
In the exam one had to do a set form with a special heavy version of a yanyuedao, the wukedao. This weapon was unsharpened and entirely made of iron, including the shaft. Weights of the three types of wukedao described in the Huangchao Liqi Tushi are 120, 100 and 80 jin. (60, 50 and 40 kilos respectively. The exact routines which were to be performed with the wukedao are either lost or hidden in yanyuedao forms studied by martial artists today.
The 1759 Huangchao Liqi Tushi, lists a wealth of items used in the Qing empire and also shows the two types of yanyuedao. Fig 1.shows the original woodblock print that is used in the work to show the item. Although rare, some specimens of these wukedao still remain. One is located in the Beijing Military Museum, made nearly exactly according to the regulations compiled under the Qianlong emperor. See fig 2.
fig. 1
fig. 2
Details of an antique wukedao. Click images to enlarge.
Wukegong: Imperial examination bow
The strength testing bow used in the military exams was an oversized version of the Qing military bow. Instead of drawing it with a thumb using a thumb ring as is common for drawing bows all over Asia, the candidate could draw this bow with the whole hand and was required to hold the position a set amount of time. Also called haogong or "numbered bows", these bows often beared a number on one of their ears indicating the strength of that particular bow. Numbered bows came in strength 18, 13, 12, 10 and 8. The heaviest of which appears to have had a draw weight of as much as 240 pounds. For a detailed article about, and pictures of an antique strength testing bow I refer to my article "A heavy Manchu composite bow" elsewhere on this website.
See fig 3 for the 18th century wooblock print shown in the Huangchao Liqi Tushi.
fig. 3
Wukeshi: Imperial examination stone
These stones are carved out of rock and have two openings in them that serve as handles. According to the Huangchao Liqi Tushi, these come in three different weights: 300, 250 and 200 jin. (150, 125 and 100 kilos respectively.) Their strictly specified sizes suggest that they were always made out of stone with equal density. The actual examples I have seen appear to have been made out of marble. In lifting them I found that the only practical way to do it is to squat over them, put a hand in each opening and lift them usinng mostly the power of your legs.
See fig 4 for the 18th century wooblock print of such stones shown in the Huangchao Liqi Tushi. Fig 5 shows one of a few actual examples I encountered at the military encampment at laolongtou or "Old Dragon's Head, the place where the Great Wall meets the sea.
Interestingly, the examples I lifted appeared to have been lighter than specified in the 18th century regulations. As the Qing military largely lost it's edge during the course of the 18th and 19th centuries, it could well be that military examination rules got loosened. Such was also the case for the archery exam where one needed to hit a target from a certain distance.
fig. 4
fig. 5
The Archery Examination
Archery had played an important role in the Qing army at the time of their founding in the first half of the 17th century until well into the 19th century. Archery was a part of the military examinations up to the first years of the 20th century. Not only was it important to hit the target with at least 2 out of six arrows, examinators also paid attention to the syle of shooting, calmness of the contestant and graciousness of his routine.
Elementary examination
Bow and arrow dimensions and weights were standardized for these examinations. The distance was also set but appears to have changed over the course of time. In the early Qing is was placed at a distance of 80 gong or "bows", an estimated distance of about 127 metres. This distance was reduced to 50 gong (approx. 77 metres) in 1693 and shortened again to 30 gong (approx 46 metres) in 1760. Candidates were to shoot at the targets in pairs, each carrying six arrows. Normally ten candidates shot an arrow each in succession until they all fired a total of six arrows. In 1786 this was changed and all candidates were to shoot all of their arrows in one go. This makes the test a bit easier because it grants the candidate the chance to calibrate his shooting, rather than to start "clean" every shot as was previously the case. Hitting the target with two out of six arrows meant the contestant meets the requirements. The target stood 192 cm tall and was 90 cm wide and had a red circle in the center, which likely only served for concentration purposes as any hit on the target counted.
Mounted examination
The ultimate exams were the mounted exams that only differed from the elementary examinations in that the candidate shot from a galloping horse and that an extra target was added, a red leather ball of about 30cm diameter that was to be hit with a blunt arrow. In total, the mounted archers shot seven arrows, six at the targets and one at the ball. A candidate conformed to the regulations when he hit three out of seven arrows, hitting the ball counted the same as hitting any other target. The course was 307 metres in length, three cylindrical targets are placed upright along the track, about 90 metres apart and 160 cm in height.