Chinese Swords and Swordsmanship

It's high time to discuss swords again, don't you think? Below is an excerpt from a post at appeared at Be Not Defeated by the Rain. The full post may be read here.

I wanted to spend a little promoting this website. ChineseLongsword.com is a research and translation project of ancient Chinese sword manuals led by the Historical Combat Association (Singapore). Their goal is to preserve the ancient wisdom contained in these manuals for future generations. Their founder Jack Chen has also been in correspondence with my Sifu. Their efforts should be deeply commended and appreciated by the martial arts community. I hope that I can meet with them next time I am in Singapore.


The first manual they worked on was 單刀法選 "Dan Dao Fa Xuan", a Chinese swordsmanship manual, written and drawn by 程宗猷 (Cheng Zong You) during the Ming Dynasty, when the Japanese pirates fought with the Ming soldiers. He was taught by 劉雲峰 (Liu Yun Feng), who learned Japanese swordsmanship (Kenjutsu) directly from the Japanese.

This has since expanded to include writers such as 俞大猷 (Yu Da-You) a famous Ming-Dynasty General who defend China against the Japanese pirate invasions. Legend has it that General Yu visited Shaolin Temple, and improved on the monks' Staff techniques with his own teachings. He later wrote and compiled 正氣堂集 (Zheng Qi Tang Ji), "Compilation of Vital Energy". In his book, is a section called 劍經 (Jian Jing), "Sword Treatise" Other authors cover the spear, shaolin staff, shield and wolf brush and many others.