The most martial Chinese was in Pre-Qin period. At that time, Chinese was a martial race. Even the intellects were martial in spirits.
The Orphan of Zhao - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
赵氏孤儿
Voltaire once translate a REAL life story of Zhao Orphan in ancient China as a drama. It was a big hit.
The real down set of China martial spirit got something to do with China unification by Qin and Han. When country is unified for 2300 years, you do not need so much warriors. Also too much warriors were security threats towards the central government.
Confucianism has been used to control and strike a balance between martial spirit and rule by intellect.
I think Japan Bushido has to do with the fact that Japan for quite a long time is under warring states.
Mao did destroyed Chinese culture but one thing Mao has done is he manage to mobilize entire China and for a small part revive the martial spirit of Chinese. Mao is a very toxic chemo therapy and we may need centuries to see if Mao's therapy is good. If CPC survive for 1000 years, then people will have different opinion about Mao.
Actually I prefer Taiwanese culture and it is softer and more closer to traditional Chinese culture. Taiwanese has also more moral values.
PRC culture is very different. She discard a lot of moral values with sole aim of achieving goals. I have worked in PRC. People are extremely political and it is a jungle world.