Chinese Swords and Swordsmanship - Vintage Test Cutting with Chinese Swords

Chinese Swords and Swordsmanship - Vintage Test Cutting with Chinese Swords

Chinese Swords and Swordsmanship: The Dragonfly Cut by Scott Rodell

Chinese Swords and Swordsmanship: The Dragonfly Cut by Scott Rodell

"The known as the Dragonfly Cut for sideways figure 8 shape the blade carves, it recognized as a demanding test of a swordsman’s speed and accuracy. Not only must the second cut be fast enough to sever the target before it drops out of range, it must be delivered at precisely the right angle or it will be flung aside instead being of cut. Drawing his jian Scott M. Rodell delivers two quick Pi cuts to a bamboo stalk."

Chinese Swords and Swordsmanship: Five Tips to Improve Your Jianfa #jianfa #chineseswordsmanship

Chinese Swords and Swordsmanship: Five Tips to Improve Your Jianfa #jianfa #chineseswordsmanship

• Tip control
• Do Not Make your Movements Too Large
• Don’t Step Out Before Your Cut
• Correct Cutting Intent
• Train with a Realistic Sword

Chinese Swords & Swordsmanship: Duanjian, the Chinese Short Sword - Scott M. Rodell

Chinese Swords & Swordsmanship: Duanjian, the Chinese Short Sword

"Scott M. Rodell, noted teacher and authority on Chinese Swords and Swordsmanship, discusses Qing period Chinese Duanjian or short swords. The cousin of the long, full-length jian, these short swords are largely overlooked by practitioners today but played an important role in Qing society. Interested in study Chinese Swordsmanship? Please check out the up coming online courses and sign up for the waitlist at https://threeislandsmedia.com/jianfa"

Li Bai learns Swordsmanship - By Bernard Kwan

"This is an interesting little article by Hu Nan written in the 1980s for Wushu magazine. I know nothing about the author's background but the article was relatively well written and provided many interesting snippets about Li Bai, the famous Tang poet and thus I am happy to share this here with my readers, particularly given my fascination with the sword. I have supplemented it with some additional information which I deemed interesting and it has somewhat evolved into my own composition.  

The sword is considered a short range weapon in wushu, easy to use and useful in close combat. The sword originated in the warring states of Wu and Yue and reached its apogee during the Tang dynasty and was termed the "Lord of the hundred weapons" 白兵之君 or the "Master of the hundred weapons" 白兵之師. In ancient times the weapon was used for war, self defense and for training the body. From the Spring Autumn period and the Warring States until the end of the Qing dynasty, swords were worn by the officer class as well as the cultured gentry. Indeed many common folk also had the interest to learn the sword and demonstrated a mastery of both literature and the marital arts. The relationship between the poets and was also a close one and there were many poems through the ages that praised the art of the sword. Amongst them, the poet Li Bai had studied the sword from his days of his youth and was skilled in the art of the sword.

Li Bai studied the sword as a child, and he woke up at the same time as the birds to practice, and trained until both his eyes shone with spirit, and his body was strong.  His first teacher was his father Li Ke, who was an unemployed literati who kept a famous Longquan sword in his house, which was a family heirloom.  Unfortunately, he was not a good teacher and did not have a refined technique, so in 724 to continue his study of the sword, he received the Longquan sword from his father left his relatives and moved to Shandong to study under the famous master General 裴斐. Under the tutelage of a famous master and due to his own hard work, his sword work showed great improvement. The sword was his constant companion and source of inspiration. ：「寧知草間人，腰下有龍泉」

Li Bai had the greatest respect for knight errant swordsmen, and his poem 《俠客行》 was a poem in praise to the life of a swordsman. And in it he showed his respect for the life of a martial hero and his distaste for power and authority. He would visit friends and look for teachers everywhere and by the time he had acquired of the sobriquet of being  one of the "three ultimates" of the Tang Dynasty he was already a master swordsman will a very high level of skill, having studied under the legendary  Hermit Zhao「趙處士」. Thus he exemplified the famous line "五嶽尋仙不辭遠 一生好入名山遊"  from his famous poem 《庐山谣寄卢侍御虚舟》, "I do not find travelling the five sacred summits to look for saints to be far, my life is devoted to travelling the famous mountains." and he wrote many poems praising the beauty of his native land at this time.

He was not afraid to fight and he stated "when I was fifteen, I was fond of swordplay, and with that art I challenged a few great men". Before the age of 20 he had killed a number of men during his wild youth in Sichuan.  「少年學劍術，凌轢白猿公」. Even though he calmed down as he was older, when he visited the capital Changan when he was 30, he was once surrounded by a bunch of gamblers and he chased them off with his sword with the help of one of his friends, showing no sign of fear, demonstrating his proficiency with the sword.    

He left behind many beautiful phrases praising the sword that are still quoted today. 「安得倚天劍，跨海斬長鯨」、「願將腰下劍，直為斬樓蘭」represented his desire to obtain military honors, fighting for his country. 「彈劍作歌奏苦聲，曳裙王門不稱情」、「知音不易得，撫劍增感慨」，represented his setbacks, when he could not serve his country in face of military defeat. 「起舞拂長劍，四座皆揚眉」、「醉來脫寶劍，旅憩高堂眠」，showed his disdain for riches and power and hthe importance he placed on freedom. 「撫劍夜吟嘯，雄心日千里」、「冠劍朝鳳闕，樓船侍龍池」reflected him chasing his dreams and his romanticism. In these poems, the swords were contained within the poems and the poems were contained in the swords, reaching a plane where swordsmanship and poetry were fused together, representing Li Bai's soul, dreams and burden.「長劍一杯酒，男兒方寸心」"With a longsword and a cup of wine, only then does a man have a heart".

There is also a marital arts set called Tai Bai Jian that is still extant today that is used to commemorate Li Bai. 太白 or "Great White" was his courtesy name." 

by Bernard Kwan FOUND HERE 

Chinese Swords & Swordsmanship: Jian - Historical Reality - Scott Rodell

Chinese Swords & Swordsmanship: Jian - Historical Reality 

Scott M. Rodell, noted authority on Chinese Swords and Swordsmanship, cuts through the common misconceptions and dojo-lore surrounding Chinese swords, presenting Qing Jian (double edged straight swords) in their historical context using period examples. #chineseswords

China Kungfu: The Swordsmanship of Wudang Style?

China Kungfu: The Swordsmanship of Wudang Style?

Wudang Swordsmanship 13 Techniques 武當劍法十三勢

Wudang Swordsmanship 13 Techniques 武當劍法十三勢

Wudang Swordsmanship 13 techniques (武當劍法十三勢)are introduced by “Magic Sword” General Li JingLin (李景林) in 1920s. General Li met and learnt Wudang Swordsmanship from a Wudang Sword Master Song WeiYi (宋唯一)from 1922. Ji(Strike), Ci(Stab), Ge(Block), Xi(Wash) are four main techniques in the original Wudang sword techniques which is taught by master Song WeiYi.

General Li JingLin introduced these swords techniques to his soldiers, after he created his swordsmanship company(劍術連) in the army. General Li also invited other swordsmanship teachers such as Xing Yi Master Sun LuTang, Bagua Zhang Master Jia QiShen to his swordsmanship company as an adviser. From numerous sword sparring and experiments inside the swordsmanship company in the army, general Li and his crews extracted and analysed the practice movements. They developed 13 main techniques and called “Wudang swordsmanship 13 techniques (Wudang Jian Fa Shi San Shi)”

This clip shows how the movement look like and application base on wudang sword techniques in "The Major Methods of Wudang Sword" by Huang Yuan Xiou (武當劍法大要- 黃元秀)

Free english translation is available in this site: https://brennantranslation.wordpress.... 武當劍法十三勢 武當劍法十三勢 武當劍法十三勢 由"神劍"李景林 將軍於1920年代推廣開來,。李景林 將軍於1922年向 武當劍傳人 宋唯一 習得 "武當劍法"。之後 李景林在軍中成立"劍術連 "把武當劍術授與部下,當中更邀請了劍術名家如孫祿堂, 賈岐山等作顧問。李景林在"劍術連" 中與其部下在不斷以劍對打及實驗中, 抽取實用技法, 並共同研究出劍術實用方法。 在原來武當劍法 中"撃,格,洗 ,刺 " 四母劍之基礎上, 整理出劍法十三勢。稱之為武當劍法十三勢。 以下影片是我們試演 。參考自"武當劍法大要" 黃元秀 著一書

UTS Kung Fu Club https://sites.google.com/site/utsjingwu/

Chinese Swordsmanship - the Art of the Jian - Trans by Scott Rodell

莊子曰：

夫為劍者，示之以虛，

開之以利，後之以發，

先之以至。

Zhuangzi Said:

"The art of the jian is to 

deliberately 

expose a weakness, 

giving the enemy the 

impression they have 

the opportunity to attack. 

Your hand moves after the enemy, 

but your jian strikes first."

Trans. Scott M. Rodell

Chinese Swordsmanship - the Art of the Jian