I saw that a few days ago. Kind of interesting to see other reconstructionists at work. Best regards, -Mark
Using a sword against a spear is very difficult but not impossible. It's bad matchup, but it happened, so it would have been very important to know how to deal with a spear. Best regards, -Mark
Recreation of a 16th century Chinese interpretation of Japanese sword - excellent.... provides a different perspective on what we do in JSA. WRT spear - those are not drills in how to use a spear - detail of spear technique is irrelevant to learning basic movements in response to a spear thrust.
Seems interesting. Any idea which ryu of kenjutsu this would be? It doesn't remotely resemble any kenjutsu I've ever seen. I'm not familiar with Chinese swordsmanship; are these techniques typical of Chinese two-handed-saber methods?
No, no its not Here, you are learning to use a sword against someone who has no idea how to use a spear, no idea of distance, keeping the point infront of the target, timing etc?
Hello liokault, I'm more familiar with the sword than spear. When I'm done with this one, I'll be starting on an ancient manual either on the spear or halberd. Thank you everyone for your enthusiasm. I'll currently working on redrawing, enhancing and translating more ancient manuals, and I hope to share more videos and findings with you all soon. ;-)
Latest video: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZcj2WO-EwU"]YouTube- å–®åˆ€æ³•é¸ Chinese Longsword Ancient Techniques (17: Skyward, 18: Receive-Push)[/ame] Hope you guys enjoy it.
There is quite a story to be uncovered in the saga of the WA-KO incursions of the 16th Century. Most interesting was the effort made by the Ming General QI Ji-guang (1528 - 1587) to reconstruct the Ming Chinese Army into a fighting force capable of dealing with the predations of the mixed mercenary forces of the Chinese Coastal pirates. probably the most fearsome of the items one needed to encounter were the NO-TACHI ("field swords") of the various factions of the Japanese island of Honshu. To deal with the ardor and sheer aggression of these Japanese swordsmen, General Qi developed the "mandarin duck" formation in which a squad of men were organized to absorb the pirate on-slaught, hold and then re-buff the attack. Gen Qi-s definitve work, JIN XIAO SHIN SHU or "New Manual of Martial tactics" governed everything fron weapons methods to cooking recommendations all with the idea of organizing every aspect of the fighting force and whipping them into a bunch of fire-breathing pirate hunters. As far as the MIAO DAO ( lit: "barbarian sword") there was an initial effort to use the massive 72" weapon as part of a fighting approach in which wagons carried the massive weapons into battle, were then turned on their side to form breastworks, and the swords drawn from their sheaths mounted on the wagons for dealing with mounted attacks. There were also techniques in which individuals were intended to draw their weapons from the sheaths of an identified comrade. Needless to say none of these ideas were particular sucessful and though the SSANG SOO DO (lit "two-handed sabre") was included in the MUYE SHINBO (1758) and MUYE TOBO TONG JI (1795) there is nothing to support the idea that the weapon was ever a viable system used on the Chinese or Korean battlefields. The MIAO DAO is about 72" long with a grip of some 18 inches, leaving a blade of some 54", one foot of which---nearest the guard--- was shielded with copper or bronze. The SSANG SOO DO chapter of the MU YE TOBO TONG JI reflects the gross motor skills necessary for wielding such a weapon and is reasonably equivalent to the MIAO DAO material to be found in the encyclopedic work on Shaolin Temple practices (see: Shi De Qian; 2008). As far as using such a weapon against a spear, I suggest that had it been a particularly effective item, General Qi would have had no luck in defeating what were reputed to be masters with this item and driving them from the Chinese mainland. It was, for the most part, long-shafted weapons such as the spear that made up at least half of the aforementioned formations. FWIW. Best Wishes, Bruce
New video: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Youdl4yHUEQ"]YouTube- å–®åˆ€æ³•é¸ Chinese Longsword Ancient Techniques (Addendum: Single-Carry, Thrust, Shoulder)[/ame] Touches on: - Single-Carry Stance - Single-Thrust Stance - Shoulder Sword Stance
Eh......excuse me for saying so, but these sword methods are a.) NOT Chinese Longsword methods ( they are corrupted single-sabre methods) and b.) not combat worthy techniques given how the Chinese trained their infantry to use the spear. Not sure what is hoped to be gained by publishing this stuff. I think the MA community would be better served if folks did more research before trying to market their material. FWIW. Best Wishes, Bruce
Latest video: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ImdFkd47gQ"]YouTube - å–®åˆ€æ³•é¸ Chinese Longsword Ancient Techniques ("Bury-Head Stance" Variations)[/ame] Hope you guys enjoy it =)
Mmmmmm....... I still have a problem with the citations for these clips. Neither Chen nor Liu are mentioned in the Ming Biographies which would certainly be expected if they were involved in such a high-profile event such as the Ming campaigns against the WA-KO or the processing of materials proceeding from that campaign. OTOH the techniques in the clips bear a strong resemblance to the KATORI SHINTO RYU material (see: Otake) and leaves me wondering why material supposedly predicated on the power-based execution such as KAGE-RYU would be found to be using the sort of inside manipulations one finds with KS RYU practice. I wonder if its possible that someone trained a bit in Japanese sword and then relacated to a place where their practice might be represented in some other fashion. BTW: You may want to investigate the nature of the figues as they do not seem to be representative of the sorts of results one typically associates with wood block publishing of the Ming Dynasty. Just a thought. Best Wishes, Bruce
Why is the title ancient Chinese long sword techiques when it says right at the begining of your video that they come from a Japanese teacher?
Hello, I shall try my best to reply. To Bruce, a) I do not have an alternative opinion to whether is it Chinese or non-Chinese. For me, it's a real historical manual. Even though the author learnt Japanese sword techniques, it's still written, drawn and compiled in Chinese, so I regarded it as Chinese. b) Likewise, I do not judge the combat-effectiveness of the techniques. I'm just a messenger, bringing the historical manual to English-speakers who do not know Chinese. Last but not least, regarding your latest post. Cheng Zong You and Liu Yun Feng are historically-recorded people. I've done my research on Chinese websites. Cheng, was trained in the Shaolin Temple. The Longsword manual is just one of the manuals that he wrote. He also wrote a manual on the Spear, which I'm currently working on, and also manual on Archery. There is a Japanese book, written by 2 authors, Hirakami Nobuyuki (Japanese martial arts researcher) and Kasao Kyouji (Chinese martial arts researcher), which talks about the cross-learning of swordsmanship between China and Japan in the past, titled: Hiden Kenjutsu Gokui Toujutsu. Inside, it suggested that Liu Yun Feng might have been a Chinese pirate, which might explain why he got the chance and privilege to learn Kenjutsu from the Japanese pirates. To 19thlohan: As mentioned, this IS a Chinese sword manual, drawn by Chinese, practiced by Chinese, written in Chinese. Credit was given to the Japanese and mentioned in the manual that the author learnt Japanese Kenjutsu. Lastly my opinion, I care mainly about learning true skills, and I remain open to any style that offers effective techniques. =) Thanks, Jack Chen
