The second case is what appears to be a simple method of hard qigong. At that time, almost everywhere was the "invulnerable" Boxers, how many people could really practice "iron cloth shirt" kung fu? The vast majority are masters of the quick fix of cutting corners. On the eve of the outbreak of the Boxer Rebellion, Xuzhou Dao Ruan Zutang once sent someone to secretly visit the Boxer Society, according to his report, the so-called "Golden Bell Jar" drill of the Broadsword Society, "when it practiced the law, the poor were not subject to the ceremony, and the powerful took 6,000 Beijing money as a penny, and they were employed in the middle of the night." Burn lamps and incense, and draw water from new wells. Draw the talisman with white cloth, and its talisman is slangless, with words such as Zhou Gongzu, Peach Blossom Fairy, and Golden Cover Iron Armor Protecting the Golden Body. The preacher could not read, or could not read, so he sent someone to write on his behalf. In addition, he was given a mantra, recited a mantra and burned a charm, flushed with water to make him kneel and drink, that is, he inhaled and blew all over his body on the lamp, and then hit him with bricks and sticks. The night of reciting the incantation can control the sword, and the reciting of firearms for a long time cannot hurt it. Roughly like the method of luck, where the qi goes, the slam can not enter with the knife, and the slightest setback, then the blade is also drunk." Such tedious rituals such as receiving karma in the middle of the night, lighting lamps and burning incense, offering well water, reciting mantras and swallowing charms, etc., are actually to create a mysterious atmosphere, and to use "divine power" to help the study of strength, so there is a "divine effect" that can be used to control the sword on the day of reciting the mantra. In fact, this is just the "cat greasy" of the master who passed on the karma, that is, using the principle of mechanics to make the knife cut without injury, and the practitioner actually has no real kung fu, so it is said that "a slight setback", that is, changing the angle of force, will still be injured. Of course, people who really practice hard qigong are said to also recite mantras, but people mainly practice mantras, and the main role of reciting mantras is to mystify their kung fu and strengthen the belief of the practitioners, while this simple practice is the opposite.

The third case is actually an extension of the second. During the heyday of the Boxer Rebellion, the boxers in various places fully carried forward the "spirit of mass initiative", greatly simplified the rituals, and combined them with the sorcerer Shenhan's séance possession. In fact, when the Boxers practice the Fa, they enter a certain qigong state, a bit of martial arts foundation, if the temperament and psychological state are more compatible, people are very easy to enter this qigong state, and after entering the state, people often have extraordinary "ability", such as jumping high, jumping far, etc., plus the master's guidance of the Fa, luck is appropriate, and the knife really can't cut in. At this time, people can't help but believe that Guan Zhang Zhaoma and Sun Wukong, Zhu Bajie and the like are possessed, what others think is another matter, and they first believe that they are "invulnerable". Of course, there are also some people who are not in such a good state, according to the people of the time, when the Boxers of the Boxers ascended to the law, many people will be like the famous anthropologists Malinowski and Fraser depicted the wizards of the primitive people, foaming at the mouth, confused, but there are also so-called "clear people", "after the gods descend, they are still conscious, and they will not fall into a coma". There is also the so-called "fate of the body", "it is said that there is a fate with God, and you don't work hard, but if you think about it, its god will descend". In fact, the latter two of the "clear body" and "fate of the body" belong to the poor state, if you don't practice, you will have an accident, so at that time, the boxing circles of the Boxer Rebellion often had records of "leaking guns" and "leaking knives", that is, when practicing at home, knives and guns will also have the possibility of "entering".

The last scenario of the Boxers' "invulnerability" was actually a pure charlatan, which can also be said to be a kind of magic trick and trick. The Boxers are mixed, everyone has them, and the artists in the rivers and lakes are naturally less and do not mix in, and the "invulnerability" spell that was originally used to resist or scare foreigners has become a magic trick in them. Zou Weisan, who served as a county magistrate during the Boxer Rebellion, recorded in the "Yuguan Chronicle" a "magic show" by boxers in Shanhaiguan. According to his records, the scene was still quite sensational: "At that time, the streets were full of rumors, this is the real god group, the people saw it, with guns and foreign guns to fill the medicine, the boxers and so on all stood a hundred steps away, let the guns hit, bullets and body, not only did not enter, but they could be received in their hands to show the public, everyone was amazed, thinking that they had never seen it, and those who went to the altar to seek advice were like returning to the city." This lively performance turned out to be very disappointing, and some masters who were not enthusiastic about the scene debunked the trick on the spot. It turned out that the shooter secretly used "fragrant noodles as pills and rolling iron sand" as a gun in advance, and when the gun was fired, the noodles turned into green smoke, and the subject first hid the iron pellet bullet in his hand.

It should be said that in addition to the first of these four "invulnerability", the rest are close to deception, and none of the four "magic techniques" can really actually be "invulnerable", and it is useless at all in the face of foreigners who have advanced to the era of breech guns. However, at that time, the whole country believed in this very much, and even when the foreigners came in and the Boxers' "invulnerability" spells failed one after another in the face of foreign guns and cannons, people still stubbornly believed that there was really such a thing as "invulnerability". At that time, an Englishman in China recorded such an incident, saying that even though his Chinese servants saw the Boxers shouting "invulnerability" and charging forward, and finally drank bullets and were wounded and killed, he still insisted that these people were not the real Boxers, and that the real Boxers could really be "invulnerable". The most ridiculous thing is that the people who create this kind of "myth" supposedly understand that their "magic" is not true, but when the whole society, from Lafayette (Queen Dowager of the West) to the mountain and village husbands, really believe in "invulnerability", on the contrary, some of them are a little confused, or dazed, and really believe that they can be "invulnerable". In the Boxer Rebellion**, there were many Boxer masters and senior brothers and second brothers who ran to the Qing army with foreign guns, asking for a demonstration of "invulnerability" on the spot. What's more, some people even put out a wide public notice and swaggered, and set a time to publicly demonstrate the "invulnerability" spell in the bazaar, and this demonstration was not a deceptive move, but a real gun and ammunition, and the result was self-evident, and the hero was killed on the spot in front of the crowd and in full view of everyone. If it weren't for the tricks he played to make him unconscious, why would he have recruited people to see him lose his life and make a fool of himself. It is not surprising that superstitious people end up fascinating their own homes, at least not in China. When a pathological behavior spreads explosively in a particular situation, and is constantly supported by the always respected scholars and even the imperial court, it itself will be as contagious as a plague, and may swallow everyone in it, even those who are the origins of the plague.

Why the Chinese at that time would be so devout about a kind of originally imaginary thing, and it was a nationwide pious faith, in fact, it cannot be explained simply by the ignorance, backwardness and superstition of the Chinese, after all, we Chinese still have a pragmatic and rational side. The child is silent, the strange force is confused, the common people are also a radish and a pit, hearing is false, seeing is believing, usually believing in God and believing in witchcraft, most of them are sick and go to the doctor, when they are in a hurry to hug the Buddha's feet, when they are too peaceful, except for the timid and scared old woman, no one can think of the gods and gods of the other world. The reason why the myth of "invulnerability" is so popular is, of course, that the Chinese people have a tradition of believing in myths after all. They more or less believe in God, whether it is the mud tire in the temple, or the heroes, fairies and ghosts on the stage throughout the ages, they all have a great influence on them; They may also believe in witchcraft, when they are sick or bad, and when they ask for medicine and do not work, they will ask witches and gods to dance the gods and evil spirits; More importantly, qigong, which has always had practical effects, is also very attractive to them, and in the process of spreading through the intermediary of monks, Taoist priests, and folk teachers, qigong has become inseparable from the "teachings" and "spells" of these professional and semi-professional religious scholars. Therefore, when qigong and hard qigong have the appearance of "effectiveness" accompanied by the breath of gods and witches, people are naturally happy to believe it. In a sense, the Boxer Rebellion is really a bit like a large collection of folk mystical culture: the organization of the regiment is divided into gossip (Qianzi group, Kanzi group, etc.), and even the color of the service is also involved in the nine palace gossip; self-proclaimed "Buddhist Boxer Divine Order"; The practice of the law is called "Anlu"; The possession of the god is witchcraft, but the possessed gods are not the foxes and weasels that the witches and gods like, but the righteous gods of the "Great Religion" (the common people call the officially recognized Buddhism and Taoism the Great Religion); Plus some mysterious charms, spells, and words. After these layers of rough but effective protective colors, there is no way to prevent the people from falling in and out.

Despite such a strong foundation in mystical culture, this chaotic situation in which both the government and the opposition were mad would not have existed had it not been for the near-hopelessness of China after the First Sino-Japanese War. From the Boxers, the Manchu princes and a large part of the scholars seemed to see something that could counter the power of the West, from the spiritual morale of the people to the "invulnerability" of the spiritual world. In fact, this group of scholars and doctors is in a state between backward and advanced, and their attitude determines the direction of China to a large extent. At this time, they actually preferred to believe in "invulnerability" rather than believe in it, because since they are no longer willing or unable to obtain the strength to counter the West in the reform and reform, they can only rely on these "lower nine streams". They really wanted to drive the foreigners out, almost to the point of rushing to the doctor. Chinese are invaded by foreigners and bullied by foreigners, this is the common feeling of China's upper and lower strata; without the mixing of the upper strata, the common people will of course make trouble "invulnerable", but it is impossible to make trouble to the point of the whole country. In fact, before and after the Boxers, the "restless" peasants were playing this trick, with various sect uprisings in front and the Red Gun Society and Divine Soldiers in the back. Anyone with a little common sense of modern history knows that the Red Gun Society and the Divine Soldiers, shouting "invulnerability", have resisted the Beiyang warlords, the Japanese devils, the Kuomintang and even the Communist Party. However, the encouragement of the scholars made the common people of "Anfen" doubly obsessed, because in their bones, the common people still believe in those who "know how to read and reason".

In the resistance of the Boxers who played a role, it was still the foreign guns collected by the boxers, and the martial arts and bravery that came with them. The magic of "invulnerability", in addition to playing a little propaganda and inspiring use before the war, is almost useless in wartime, and may even be counterproductive, making people lose even the courage they should have. To give an example, at that time, there were only a few dozen foreign soldiers in the Xishiku Church in Beijing, and there were no continuous weapons, and tens of thousands of Boxers surrounded it with three layers inside and three layers outside, and attacked it for several months, but they could not attack it. If the Boxers present really showed some strength that was not afraid of death, they would have rushed in as soon as they embraced it, sacrificing dozens of heroes at most.

The bombardment of foreign guns and foreign artillery by the Eight-Nation Coalition Army drowned the Boxer Rebellion and its "invulnerability" in a pool of blood, and from then on, the last bit of traditional attachment of scholars to the remnants of the scholars was swept away, and few people, whether they were in the upper or lower classes, would no longer believe that people's bellies would resist the foreign guns of foreigners. It seems sad that there is an epidemic of foreign phobia among the common people of Anfen, so that to this extent, in the 20s of the 20th century, the hooligan-born warlord Zhang Zongchang gathered a group of White Russian soldiers, and every time a war starts, as long as the tall and blond and blue-eyed White Russia charges, the other side will scatter like birds and beasts. Our historians are always keen to quote the "famous saying" of the commander of the Eight-Nation Alliance, Wadsey, who said that it was really a good idea to divide China, to illustrate the great achievements of the Boxers, but in fact, at that time, Westerners said a lot of things to the Chinese, most of which were to pity the ignorance of the Chinese. Since then, some missionaries have started a wave of education in China, the traces of which are still visible, but unfortunately people are reluctant to face them.

More than 100 years have passed, after all, the Chinese people are much smarter, in today's although people with "kung fu" have innovated, dare to say that they can change the trajectory of the world, make matter change the molecular structure, and even destroy the earth, but no one claims to be "invulnerable" anymore, let alone test the gun on the spot in public.