Great River Taoist Center Forums

Scott, Thanks a lot for that post, it really emphasizes what a cutting blade is going through and reinforces your emphasis on safety, checking the weapon before and after usage to ensure its integrity! Even when the resulting cut looks nice and smooth, the blade is undergoing significant distortions...

To me, both arrangements make sense, and if one looks at the transformations between the five phases rather than the absolute correspondences between them and the ‘steps’ in Taijquan, then it perhaps does not matter which is used. The only reason that I tend to favor the advance (forward) = ‘metal’ ...

The point of balance is as far as I remember historically inaccurate for a jian, as the variation was some 5.5" to 6.5" with a strong emphasis at 6". Nick, I think that the POB that you cite is taken from where the handle meets the guard. To compare with what was posted previously you would need to...

I was taught very strict information... Josh, I am not so certain that your analogies about numbers or colors are appropriate since the Wuxing is essentially illustrating relationships between the five phases – and when arranged in a star shape the relationships would still apply whichever star-poi...

Josh, While I generally like what you have written, and it is obvious that you have given a lot of thought to this, I want to point out a few things that you may want to think about clarifying or refining. First, while I was taught the same five phases correlations that you list (i.e. “forward=metal...

I have compelling evidence that suggests at the close of the Qing Dynasty there was a recall of Military sidearms/swords within all Chinese states that were moved to various wharehouses in 1911...I guess a change of the guard so to speak with new regulation forms being adopted for the onset of the ...

I am looking for a source to supply me with a small amount of a specific wood (Tielimu 铁力木 or 'ironwood') in order to have Graham Cave reproduce Chinese wooden sparring swords (Jian) using historic Taiwanese material that was used for a pair of wooden swords purchased ca 1970, but I have not had muc...

David, While conditioning drills (including development of fajin power) often uses staff (or spear), some Yang style traditions do have staff as a sparring weapon. I personally have learned one choreographed sparring set for staff (coming from BP Chan lineage) as well as being shown another short on...

Since 1974, I have been drawing and painting dragons and tigers, as incarnations of the principle of Yin-Yang. Now I am really psyched!!! Next, I am going to paint a purple dragon, fluidly coiling about the ferocious and dynamic form of a white tiger (entwined as one). Somehow I've got to work jian...

I recently purchased the translated book (The Major Methods of Wudang Sword), and I would like to make some comments/observations that may help to clarify issues raised on this forum. Almanzo "Lao Ma" Lamoureux has kindly allowed me to examine his Taiwan manufactured wooden practice sparring swords ...

When we talk about internal and external, do you think that it gets reduced to chinese styles? What must show a western style to be considered as internal? This a difficult question to answer briefly on a forum like this, but here are non-Chinese martial arts that many consider to be ‘internal’ (ne...

Well let's not forget that the niuweidao is a more recent weapon that is not wholly accurate for many Chinese martial arts, despite its popularity. It is unusually balanced and one of the most obviously cut-oriented swords in common use, so whenever we use a niuweidao to compare dao and jian , we'r...

Dan, I think it's interesting what you say about jian being more akin to the flowing, circular movements of taijiquan , but why do you think that is? Surely, if your statement is correct(and there are certainly many who would agree with you), there should be some reason for it based on specific mar...

I first became interested in Chinese culture in high school when I took a Chinese literature class and studied the Yijing for a class presentation, along with reading the Daodejing, poetry, etc. In college a new Aikido club was forming which offered the first month free, and while I attended, that a...

Michael, I don’t know. It seems that the concepts that I point to that I thought may help explain differences in distances have equivalent concepts in both Chinese and European swordsmanship. Thus, they do not seem to address the apparent difference in starting distance (if there even is a differenc...