| （School of Physical Education，South China Normal University，Guangzhou 510006，China) Abstract: It was said that DONG hai-chuan got into the imperial palace by castrating himself at middle age, which was an unprecedented incident in the history of Wushu. But why he did that remained an unsolved mystery all the time. The authors believed that DONG did not get into the imperial palace by castrating himself at middle age, probably he was already castrated when he was a child; the story saying that his self castration was an attempt to get into the imperial palace to assassinate the emperor of the Qing dynasty as trusted by HONG Xiu-quan was made up by Baguazhang de-scendants in a well-meaning way; the legend saying that DONG’s self castration was for achieving peerless martial arts, and the story about his self castration for practicing “Sunflower Treasures” as told in a novel written by JIN Yong, were the results influenced by “the principle of sperm preciousness” in traditional Chinese medicine and Taoist health keep-ing philosophy. Either DONG was originally a castrated man, or he castrated himself for practicing martial arts, whichever is enough to show the close relationship between Baguazhang and Taoism.
Key words: sports history；DONG Hai-chuan；Baguazhang founder；principle of sperm preciousness；Taoism |
