“Shaolin shadow boxing and the Wu Tang sword style, do
you think your Wu Tang sword can defeat me?” Wu Tang Clan – Bring Da Ruckus -
Enter the 36 Chambers - movie sample from Shaolin & Wu Tang 1981 (dubbed).
The Wu Tang/ Wudang sword method is famous in America because
of the Hip-Hop group The Wu Tang Clan’s use of samples from, and love of,
Chinese kung Fu movies. The book The Major
Methods of Wudang Sword by Huang Yuan Xiou is a classic and a must have for
anyone interested in Chinese straight sword (Jian) methods, philosophy or
anyone interested in historical swordsmanship. This book translates the
original text with pictures. It outlines the basics of the Wudang sword method
but do not expect to learn something a complex as the Jian from a book. The
book is a wonderful reference tool, but it is not meant to learn the real
method from.
The Jian is called the “king of weapons” because of its
complexity and subtlety. It was traditionally thought it would take 10 years of
consistent training to begin mastery. Because of its difficulty it was also referred
to as a “scholar’s weapon” and traditionally depicted as the preferred weapon
of the aristocracy of ancient China.
The Major Methods
of Wudang Sword is an important work and even more important because it was
one of the few English translations (until recently) of a Chinese Jian manual
(check
https://brennantranslation.wordpress.com
for others). I believe the thing that sets this translation apart from other
translations is the author and translator are both long time practitioners of
the Wudang Jian method. They lend their insights to the translations and they
help clarify some of the underlying principles of traditional Chinese
swordsmanship.
There are several chapters devoted to the basic theory of
the Jian. I think these chapters are some of the most insightful because they
outline different practice methodologies. With names like “yin – yang sword
circle method” and “triangular paired-practice method” there will need to be
some explanation, and for the advanced practitioner I found some of these
chapters to be most illuminating.
This is an excellent book and a must have for anyone interested
in Chinese straight sword (Jian) methods, philosophy or anyone interested in
historical swordsmanship. The biographies, history and discussion of the
methods are rare in Chinese and even rarer in English.
