Both in past and present China, fighting techniques are not just a military matter. These incorporated skills interact in various ways with medicine, meditation and a wide array of ritual traditions. “Warfare” (wu) plays a major role in modes of governance and in art: from statuary art to the epics that have since been adapted to the screen. Yet, this martial face of Chinese culture remains less well-known than the “civility or culture” (wen). Anthropologists, historians, sociologists and authors gather to contribute to structuring this emerging field of study.

In person and live on YouTube

Programme

Fiorella Allio(IrAsia/CNRS)
Circuits of exchanges and ritual confrontations. The services of processional martial troops in Taiwan

Alain Arrault (CCJ/EFEO)
The characters of martiality in the domestic statues of Hunan

Laurent Chircop-Reyes (CCJ & IrAsia)
Taoist principles of esoteric boxing (Neijiaquan) as learning levels and social markers

Catherine Despeux (CRCAO/INALCO)
The acupuncture needle, an exorcist weapon

Vincent Durand-Dastès (IFRAE/INALCO)
The “magical-tactical diagrams” (zhen): from ritual to theatre and martial arts novels

Georges Favraud (INACC, IFRAE & LISST-CAS)
The ritual and social dynamics of a contemporary Taoist boxer

Ji Zhe (CEIB & IFRAE/INALCO)
The tiger soldiers of the Qing Empire: war, ritual and possession

David Palmer (IHSS/HKU) & Martin Tse (IHSS/HKU)
Civil masters, martial masters: the wen-wu structure of a major Jiao ritual of Southern China

Xu Lufeng (IFRAE/INALCO)
Creating a “spiritual sport”? The Shaolin Chan bow

SPEAKERS

Sébastien Billioud (IFRAE/UPD), Adeline Herrou (LESC/CNRS), Édouard L’Hérisson (IrAsia/INALCO), Stéphane Molard (AFWK), Stéphane Rennesson (LESC/CNRS) AND Jean-Jacques Sagot (FAEMC)

Photo: Taoists martial arts master Li Jiazhong practises on the square of the Temple of Intensified Transformations (Hunan, China). © Georges Favraud, 2008.