剑-The Double-Edged Chinese Sword
The double-edged Chinese sword 剑 (pronounced as jian) is one of the most favourite weapons ancient Chinese like to carry around. It is depicted in movies and dramas that Chinese wear or carry their swords and walk around in the olden days. This is more common that the Japanese as practically everyone can bring a sword if they like. The sword is one of the 4 major weapons of Chinese.
The blade can be divided into three sections; The tip, the middle edges, and the root. The tip of the blade is used mainly for piercing. The Chinese aim to thrust the sword to the heart for a quick fight, so most of their strikes consists of thrusts.The middle edges is meant for cutting and defense, mainly to repel attacks. The root of the blade, the areas closest to the hilt is used for defense.
The different martial arts school in ancient China teaches their own style of swordplay. Experts can tell where a swordsman came from by judging his swordplay. Chinese believe that some martial arts and swordplay are designed to efficiently counter other schools’ arts. Swordplay is a higher level of martial arts in the world of Chinese martial arts, and thus the practitioner must have a certain level of foundation skills before proceeding to learn swordplay. Powerful swordsmen are also well versed in unarmed Wushu.
Chinese martial artists in cultivating both the body and the arts to achieve a strong body and powerful skills. Thus, heavy emphasis has been put on the basics. One example would be the horse-stance, where the practioner has to “sit” on nothing, keeping their back straight at the same time. The master requires the students to be in this stance for long periods of time. This trains the legs and thighs as well as personal self-control. How good a person is in the basic skills may be determined by how steady and long he or she can hold the horse-stance. As we can see from this, the Chinese believe in training the body and soul together. This is an efficient use of time!
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