Is “Single whip seizing spears, outstanding martial arts” true?
The plot in Romance of the Sui and Tang Dynasties that Yuchi Gong had outstanding martial arts and could seize spears with a single whip is not fabricated out of thin air. The Old Book of Tang, Biographies of Yuchi Jingde, Qin Shubao, and Cheng Zhijie explicitly records that he 'was skilled at avoiding spears; whenever he rode alone into enemy formations, even though the enemy thrust their spears at him in unison, he could never be wounded, and he could also seize the enemy's spears and thrust them back at them.' The novel faithfully reproduces this plot artistically.
The official history indeed records his ability to seize spears, while the door-god image originates from later novels.
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