Wudang and Kunling sword form

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David Mcleary
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Wudang and Kunling sword form

Post by David Mcleary » Sat Nov 20, 2010 8:16 am

I have read on a couple of Yang Michuan websites referring to the Wudang and Kunlun sword forms. What exactly are these forms and are they different form the Michuan sword form or just another name for it? Any clarification would be greatly appreciated.

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Re: Wudang and Kunling sword form

Post by Nik » Mon Nov 22, 2010 10:55 am

From the top of my head (again), there isn't one "Wudang sword" form, this is a movie invention. A lot of what you find today is just some wushu / taiji / elsewhere stuff modified in some way for aesthetic appearance. However, from what I saw on various documentations, there seem to be at least some surviving branches whose movements I spotted as similar to what I saw 30 years ago with taoist folks "playing around" in the park. Yet again, according to folks who were there end of the 90s before the run on Wudang as a tourist trap cash spot, back then there were still some handful of surviving original schools which thankfully did not look like a 99.9% carbon copy of some Taiji variation. Unfortunately, all those old articles from the 90s on the net are gone, so I can't give a list of those styles. They had old names, not something like "Taiji sword - bagua sword - xingyi sword", nor where the internal styles on those lists "Taiji / Bagua / Xingyi".

Some not so recent performances, from a well known person (2 right hand side links, "Wudang sword"): http://wn.com/Taiping_Mountain#

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Linda Heenan
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Re: Wudang and Kunling sword form

Post by Linda Heenan » Tue Nov 23, 2010 5:03 am

David, a book I recently bought on the Major Methods of Wudang Sword, describes what we know as the Public Yang style. I'm using it to brush up on the basic cuts of the Public style. There is a video clip entitled Michuan Kunlun Taiji Jian on the main GRTC school website. It shows what we usually describe as Michuan. So I've been thinking of Wudang as Public and Kunlun as Michuan. I'd be interested to hear if that is correct, and why or why not.
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Re: Wudang and Kunling sword form

Post by Aidan O'Brien » Mon Nov 29, 2010 6:02 am

I was always under the impression that 'Wudang' was more a banner and influence on the form. The thing about Wudang is that it is a Taoist sect and their native martial arts reflect their patron deities. Zhang San Feng is an immortal, not a god. The deity of Wudang mountain is Xuan Wu (amongst other titles). And the little known styles that you occasionally see on the list of styles/forms taught reflect the older styles.

They're also not as 'popular' to the general public, who don't generally do the research and miss them. Of course, there are some schools that teach them for wushu tournaments, but with 72 different temples, that was inevitable. However they are vastly different to the standard Taiji forms (still jianfa, but about as related as San Cai Jian is to Taiji Jian) including different stances and power generation. Of course, ever since Wudang became linked to Taiji, it's just muddied the waters further.

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Re: Wudang and Kunling sword form

Post by Scott M. Rodell » Fri Dec 10, 2010 2:24 pm

David Mcleary wrote:I have read ... of Yang Michuan websites referring to the Wudang and Kunlun sword forms. What exactly are these forms and are they different form the Michuan sword form or just another name for it?...
Within the Yangjia Michuan Taijiquan system, there are two jian forms. One is the original Michuan Jian from creaeted by Yang Luchan. The old is a Michuan interpretation of the public Yangshi Taiji Jian form that Wang Yen-nien created.* When I was in Taiwan, they were often refered to as the Old & New Sword forms, the Old Form being the one created by Yang Luchan. These two forms are also called the Kunlun and Wudang sword forms within the Michuan systems as sort of nick names to differential them, the Kulun being the older one.

*see the thread: Master Wang and the Public Sword Form in this forum: viewtopic.php?t=172

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