Martial arts gym

During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, due to the development and prosperity of the feudal social economy, compared with the stagnation in the Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties, martial arts can be said to have risen again. The Tang Dynasty implemented the "martial arts examination system" and selected talents with outstanding martial arts skills through examinations. This policy also promoted martial arts training activities among private and official people. Shaolin Temple was famous for its martial arts in the early Sui Dynasty. During the Wude period of Tang Dynasty (618-626), Shaolin Temple became even more famous because of its contribution in helping Li Shimin to eradicate the Sui Dynasty's separatist power Wang Shichong. The government allowed it to set up its own camp and train monk soldiers.

During the Song Dynasty, there were internal and external troubles and frequent wars. People often formed societies and practiced martial arts in order to protect themselves. For example, "Jiaodui Society", "Yinglue Society", and "Gongjian Society" are all relatively large private martial arts organizations. There were two forms of folk martial arts halls in Zhanjiang in the past. One was a folk amateur martial arts training venue based in the countryside, which was mostly held in ancestral halls, temples, grain houses, or schools in the countryside. The masters are taught by people from the village who know martial arts. Some people from outside, commonly known as "kung fu masters", are invited to be masters. Most of the activities are during the leisure time. The other is a martial arts gym in the town that teaches martial arts professionally, also called a martial arts gym. Located in a house with a wider space, people who can box and stick usually set up the studio as their own instructors, recruit apprentices, and charge a certain commission. The apprentices come from all walks of life. Some martial arts teachers have expertise in the treatment of bruises and injuries, and they also treat patients and sell medicine.

Both of the above mentioned martial arts schools are aimed at fitness and self-defense. Certain ceremonies are held when becoming a master. Rural martial arts schools kneel down and worship to the shrines of their ancestors, while urban martial arts schools worship the portrait of Guan Gong or the God of Huaguang, and swear to practice martial arts not to bully the weak, not to do bad things, not to do evil, not to harm nature and justice. The martial arts hall is equipped with ancient knives, spears, swords, halberds, shields and other weapons for apprentices to practice. In addition, there are also earthen stone anvils, stone poles, sandbags and sandbags for arm strength training. During every year and festival, the martial arts school will participate in local celebrations. People armed with guns and sabers will accompany the parade in temple tours and perform martial arts programs such as fisting and kicking, spear dancing, stick playing, jumping and other special martial arts shows, showing the majesty of the martial arts hall. Martial arts schools also send out lion squads to compete for youth, which is an important event for each martial arts gym to compete in terms of strength and show off their talents. The so-called green one is to wrap some money and a bunch of lettuce in red paper and hang it high for the lion to pick it up. Some lions are as high as two or three stories high. A highly skilled lion troupe can stack several layers of human ladders to perform difficult lion dance moves to gain qing, thereby increasing the martial arts gym's popularity and expanding its influence.