[Sam N.]

It may sound strange, but think about it. Modern Chinese (and perhaps Asian) martial arts in general must be quite different from their Renaissance and Medieval era counterparts. I mean, certainly ancient soldiers and nobles were not trained with a primary basis in unarmed combat and only taught a few set patterns for weaponry.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I don't believe that the modern Wushu teachings are what were used on the battlefield in the past. Certainly there must have been come morphing of what used to be battlefield martial arts for killing into modern martial arts for self-improvement. I know that in Japanese martial arts there are the Koryu, systems of combat that (to my knowledge) predate the Meiji Restoration and still focus on effective battlefield technique (though these systems may have changed as well with disuse IMO).

Which brings me to my main questions: What systems of combat did the Chinese use during the Medieval and Renaissance eras? How did their teachings differ from now? Has there in fact been any effort to investigate these methods?

[Thomas Watt]

I can affirm that modern WuShu, although rooted in ancient traditional practice, is "modern" in the sense that it only goes back a few hundred years.
Individual forms or schools of boxing have older roots, all of which is guaranteed to generate an argument about whose lineage is older and more original.
Same is more or less true for sword forms... the modern school form dates from a synthesis form from early in the 20th century. Some individual sword forms are much older. (source: my sifu)