To discover the true essence of Chinese martial arts, one has to return to its origins - military affairs. In the ancient battlefield, military martial arts were all about the use of cold weapons - spears, sabers, bows and arrows. Later these martial arts migrated from the military sphere to the civilian, evolving into training methods for use in unarmed combat with a special emphasis on the use of the fist - the "Quan" that features in the Chinese names of many martial arts.