Issue 78 - Tse Qigong Centre

In Chen taijiquan we use a number of weapons: the spear and da dao,
the jian and dao; long weapons and short weapons, yin weapons and yang
weapons. It is important to understand how to use the weapons that you train
with for a number of reasons.
“It is a Sword that Kills”
Understanding how to use a weapon
as a weapon will make you much
more careful and respectful of it.
Accidents should never happen with
weapons. It is important to understand
that whenever you have a sword in your
hand it is a weapon that is capable of
killing and you have to be responsible
for it. If you are not careful with weapons
you can quickly become a liability to
those around you and you will not be
welcome in class or anywhere else. This
also means not leaving weapons around
where someone else less responsible than
yourself could pick them up. Particularly
pay attention to the dangers for children,
and the possibility of theft.
Secondly, understanding how to
use the weapon you have in your hand
will make your forms and exercise
more correct. Understanding the
mechanics and applications of a
technique or movement is
important to give it meaning and
energy. Even if you never
intend to use the
techniques it is
important to
understand them.
Just as an
understanding
of the principles
of
relaxation or
good posture
will improve
all of your
m ovement s
so an understanding
of the
principles of attack and
defence can help to clean up
the movements of the forms
and will help you to circulate
qi more effectively.
Thirdly, if you ever
find yourself in the
unfortunate position of
having to defend yourself
against a weapon or of
having to use one it is
important to
understand how and
where the human body is vulnerable.
Such knowledge can help you minimise
the amount of damage that you receive
and allow you to make more educated
choices about how you might ‘stop’ an
assailant.
If you use a sword correctly there
are really only two offensive techniques.
The first is the thrust and the second is
the cut. A thrust is made by pushing the
point of your sword forwards to create a
puncture wound. A cut will generally be
made with the nine inches of blade
nearest the tip by swinging the blade
with force. In taijiquan thrusts are
normally made straight down the line,
while cuts are usually made to the line
using one of the eight directions. When
you are doing your forms cuts and thrusts
should be clearly distinguished.
In the traditional Chinese
swords both the jian and the dao
are suitable for cutting and
thrusting but the jian is more
suited to thrusting while
the dao is more suited
to cutting. A spear is
primarily a thrusting
weapon, a da dao
primarily cuts and it is
only the tip of a staff
that can kill unless it
is very heavy.
Back in the
old days, duelling
with swords used to be
quite common in Europe.
According to statistics
most participants in
duels died (something
like sixty percent),
which is one of the
reasons for not
a d v o c a t i n g
duelling with
live weapons
in class.
A n o t h e r
reason is that the Chinese generally
consider making holes in people to be
bad manners. The most common cause
of death in nineteenth century duels was
blood poisoning as a result of a puncture
wound. Any puncture wound should,
therefore, always be treated as serious
and potentially life threatening.
Professional treatment should always be
sought for any serious injury, or any blow
to the head.
There are a number of kinds of
cut and thrust. The first consideration is
the kind of blade being used. A straight
pointed blade like a jian will cut and thrust
very differently to the curved blade of
the dao. The main difference between
cuts is where they are from. A cut from
the shoulder will be very powerful, from
the elbow less so, from the wrist less so
and from the fingers very weak. Because
of its weight the dao is not really used to
cut from the fingers but with the jian
finger control is a key skill. For the dao
the main concentration is on cuts from
the wrist and shoulder. One allows power,
the other speed and accuracy. The elbow
cut is a kind of middle ground.
When thrusting the primary
concern is the position of the hand. For
the dao the thrust tends to be made or
completed with the hand in complete
supination and the bladed edge of the
sword upwards. The thrust of the dao also
tends to have a slight curve to it to
make the most of the blade. The
thrust of the jian on the other hand
should be as straight as possible. The
classic thrust is made in partial supination
with the palm facing upwards. This gives
the best control and accuracy. A thrust
called ‘dotting’ is made with the thumb
upwards. The use of the elbow can make
this thrust too heavy and inaccurate,
especially in reflex action. Other thrusts
can be made with the palm down, or
the little finger upwards (with the arm
fully twisted in either direction).
Whichever form of thrust is used the jian
blade should be cleanly and deliberately
positioned on either a horizontal or
vertical plane.
to be continued... by Glenn Gossling
Qi Magazine Jan/Feb/Mar 2006 page 11