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‪At the turn of the 20th century, in Northern China, martial practices developed into styles structured on cosmological concepts and using a language specific to Taoist alchemy. The transition from an imperial to a republican society sets the diachronic framework for studying one of these practices in particular: the “form and intention boxing” ( xingyiquan 形意拳). With, on the one hand, the end of the social justifications for organising the oral transmission of confidential knowledge and, on the other hand, the rise of nationalism, one observes the promotion of this practice in support of a specifically Chinese religiosity confronted with exogenous influences. Drawing on the interaction between language and technique, this article attempts to understand the processes of transmission leading to an intensification of religion, from a form of boxing with Buddhist and Islamic origins, transmitted by the “warrior-watchman” ( zuobiao 坐鏢) at merchant’s homes, to a Taoist form of boxing in the making, developed by their descendants.‪