---
title: "Sources & Method"
---

Wulin aims to be a **rigorously sourced, fair-use knowledge base for Chinese martial arts** — not received opinion or forum lore. Three kinds of material carry the weight: **public-domain primary texts** (the old training manuals 拳譜 and classics, in the original language), **reputable scholarship**, and **our own summaries and translations**. This page states what we draw on and how we cite it, so any claim here can be traced to a source you can check yourself.

## The method in brief

- **Primary sources first** — and public-domain where possible, so we can reproduce them in full.
- **Scholarship to interpret and corroborate** — cited, never pasted.
- **Living-tradition and in-copyright material** — we **link** at the source; we do not re-host.
- **Honesty about legend versus history** — origin myths are labeled as legend.

## What we reproduce versus link

We reproduce a text in full only when it is **public domain in the United States** (first published before 1931, under the 95-year term); Republican-era manuals cross that line on a rolling basis. Many old Chinese manuals are public domain in their **source country** (China and Taiwan use life + 50 years) but **not yet** in the US — for those we **link** to a freely accessible scan and cite it rather than hosting it. Every item notes its status.

## Where the originals live

The richest open reservoirs for the original-language manuals:

- **National Library of China** scans on **Wikimedia Commons** (`NLC416-\*` filenames) — Republican-era 拳譜, downloadable by catalog ID.
- **臺灣華文電子書庫 (Taiwan eBook)** — [taiwanebook.ncl.edu.tw](https://taiwanebook.ncl.edu.tw) — free 1911–1949 scans.
- **Harvard-Yenching** rare books (IIIF) for the Daoist and medical roots; [**ctext.org**](https://ctext.org) and **guoxuedashi.com** for transcribed text.
- For **Praying Mantis** specifically, the key trove is the **CUHK 黃漢勛 (Wong Hon Fan) special collection** — browser-only.

## Scholarship we rely on

All are in copyright: we summarize and cite, quoting at most one short phrase (under 15 words) with attribution.

| Work | Supports |
| --- | --- |
| Brian Kennedy & Elizabeth Guo, *Chinese Martial Arts Training Manuals* (2005) | The Republican training-manual genre and publishing context |
| Stanley Henning, articles on taiji/Shaolin history | Debunking the Shaolin/Wudang and Daoist-origin myths |
| Peter Lorge, *Chinese Martial Arts: From Antiquity to the 21st Century* (2011) | The broad historical frame |
| Andrew Morris, *Marrow of the Nation* (2004) | Jingwu, the Central Guoshu Institute, nationalized 國術 |
| Meir Shahar, *The Shaolin Monastery* (2008) | Shaolin history versus legend |

## How we cite

- **Public-domain first** — PD originals may be quoted and reproduced in the original language.
- **In-copyright works are summarized and cited, never pasted** — one short attributed quotation at most.
- **Legend is labeled as legend** — Wang Lang and the mantis, Bodhidharma and the 易筋經, the wandering-Daoist founder tales: tradition, not documented history.

<Callout type="warning">
  We cite original, publicly verifiable sources — never private aggregations. Personal notes may help locate a lead, but the citation always points to the underlying published source a reader can check.
</Callout>