Where Is My Weapon?

槍扎一條線，棍掃一大片

The spear binds a line, the staff sweeps a large area¹.

劍走青，刀走黑

The sword goes green, the sabre black².

青龍偃月刀：劈、砍、撩、掛、斬、抹、截、攔、挑、刺

Green dragon crescent moon sabre: hack, slash, lift up, hang, chop, strike out, intercept, block, pick, stab.

Since pretty early in history, martial arts circles in China were linked to a lot of practices, from the pure battlefield ones to hunting (the bow), physical strength (weight lifting with the famous tripod cauldron), spiritual search (lots of martial arts have such a claim. Let’s also remember that among the six arts taught by Confucius two were the chariot and the bow), ceremonial (dance³ and the bow), competitive (tripod cauldron lifting, wrestling and, again, the bow), protection (militias and escorts) and so on… In times of constant war or great insecurity, almost everybody knew how to handle a weapon, in times of peace, some martial practices became pure entertainment⁴, in times of unrest some practices were constricted to the elite, in times of peace sometimes the establishment looked down on martial skills⁵.

It seems obvious that, as technology developed, changing forever ancient warfare and making old practices and their weapons totally obsolete, the more battlefield versions of old martial arts steadily withered⁶. Finding a last refuge in the civilian world, they changed into many practices that, slowly, forgot about their first aim, training with weapons, often concentrating on the empty hands practices. Some still remained based on weaponry, but either legally or practically unable to use them as frequently as before if not ever, it became hard to test their efficiency. Some, like the bow generations ago, evolved towards spiritual and competition practices or disappeared. The rest nowadays often follows some training centred a way or another around ‘empty hands’ fights.

It may be interesting to rediscover a bit how internal practices that emphasized around weapons worked, to try to rediscover some of their methods of training. After putting into perspective issues when the final goal is to handle a weapon, a brief description on how training would have been directed will be made.

I. Different Weapons, Other Realms

One cannot escape the various impacts on training and fighting weapons have. Furthermore, to each weapon its own set of rules, not to mention the difference between cavalry and infantry, or even chariot fighting. Of course, some practices may have been more versatile, training a bit of everything. Still, some of the questions people face today while training may be revisited when the final aim is to apply to the use of weapons and in which environment. Two examples can be given, strength and the heel issues.

1.1 Strength

Strength has to be seen as different from just pure physical one, hence the saying, ‘Without strength is the better strength’ can still apply for those who follow such practice. It is, after all, a paradox to be solved since an absence of strength is not what is looked for (otherwise ‘no strength is better’, or ‘ … is the better solution’ would have been used), but the search of another type of strength than the one coming from just muscle contraction.

During the Warrior States Period in China, tripod cauldron lifting was a very popular contest for martists to show their skills. It is, for the least, an indication that strength was considered as something useful in times of war. Wearing armours and wielding heavy weapons like the dagger axe with spear logically implies a certain degree of strength. For archers, it means the capacity to use stronger bows and shoot further or penetrate better⁷. In any case, more strength connoted more stamina, a skill very important when faced with hours long battle.

More often, the issue strength more for endurance versus strength more for performance depends on the type of weapons one is using. The first and apparent distinction is bladed or non-bladed weapons. For the first ones, the effectiveness owns more in general to the sharpness of the blade than to the force applied. For the second, staff, hammers … it seems obvious that power makes a difference. Still, even among blades, as the quotes are an example, some weapons may use strength more as an endurance skill than others. We can easily oppose the flexible sword, which lightly pokes, to the Chinese broadsword which powerfully hits (hence ‘binding’ against ‘sweeping’).

In conclusion, contrary to a lot of very strong statements about strength in martial arts being valuable or worthless, its utilization as a more or less power tool depends entirely on the sort of weapon one is wielding.

1.2 Feet or Footless?

Another issue which lingers nowadays is the use of the feet and more particularly pushing or not with the heel. One can address it in three ways at least, the type of corps, the kind of weapon and, in some case, the profession or specialisation.

a. Foot Soldier to Cavalry

If we take the famous horse stance, 馬步, it seems obvious that the role of the legs will totally change if one is on the ground, on a chariot or on a horse with no stirrups. In other words, lifting weights on the ground or shooting arrows on a horse, even in the same posture, have a deep impact on the involvement of the legs. Nowadays, one can make the experiment standing on the ground, on a vehicle (train, bus…), on the ice and on a chair with the feet not touching the floor. The legs will respond in a totally different way as far as power generation and moves are concerned.

b. Light or Heavy

Where strength is less needed, the necessity to have as light as possible feet will be emphasised. Oppositely, where it is, grounding will make the difference. Hence, as far as weapons are concerned, staves and Chinese broadswords may prefer pushing with the heel while flexible spears and swords not.

c. Profession

Specialisation can also lead to choosing one over the other. One can always oppose bandits and escorts, which specialised skills are quite linked to two kinds of capacities called 輕功, light skills, for the first ones and 地功, grounding skills, for the second. Hence, no push for brigands but a strong heel work for the escorts.

That is why it is more important to try to find the roots of one’s practice than to follow rules as mantras or forever supreme fantasised reality.

If, for the normal soldier, training was most of the time quite basic and centred around one weapon (the spear for the infantry at sometime in history for example or, of course, archery for cavalry), more elite training would require a more thorough training. 

II. Weapon(s) as a Core

To make it simple, the issue of which corps or specialised profession will be mostly left out. Unfortunately, archery, particularly on a horse, will also not be described. After all, what’s left of old practices is now mainly on foot⁸ and limited to the leisurely civilian world. From the famous 十八般武藝 (eighteen martial skills) to the 十八般武器 (eighteen martial weapons), the variety of weapons in China was great. Nevertheless, a lot of those weapons were not actually used by martists, even less on the battlefield, being more part of the entertainment than anything else. However, an elite martial artist could access quite a range of weapons, from which he could choose what best befitted him/her.

Even though, the first training was still without weapons, internal arts focused on first deeply transforming the body. Indeed, it was after this that weaponry would be studied.

2.1 Starting Empty-Handed

It usually started with what was referred as the basic skills, different types of stretching very similar to acrobatics ("Before studying skills one shall study acrobatics", 未學功夫，先學跌). This was mainly external training, aiming at improving fascia elasticity. Posture training was more the internal side, strengthening internal organs, harnessing vitality and preparing to the mental state needed to fight⁹.

At the end, martial arts cannot escape motion, hence 術. For this, before wielding a weapon, one had to learn to move correctly. For internal arts, this also meant that in a deeply transformed body the structure, bones and fascias, and the vitality through the organs, would produce most of the power while the flesh, the muscles, would concentrate on making the body move. So, motion was about how to learn to use one’s muscles with the new kind of body structure one had achieved. Therefore, and because holding a weapon for a beginner would make one move less naturally, whole routines of empty-hand training were devised. They were not really made to be utilized as any kind of empty-handed boxing, it was definitely not their aim. Some styles, even, had empty-handed routines so close to weapon wielding that one just could add the weapon after without changing much of the routine.

Only once those basis were mastered, one would start training weapons.

2.2 Weaponised

Once the body transformed, the basic motions mastered, the student would be confronted to weaponry in an original way, he/she would have to train with an oversized-overweighted weapon. The idea, apart from even more deeply modifying the body, was to train how to keep a natural and fluid motion while handling a quite heavy and hard to wield object. Then, more for less, it would feel easy and effortless to handle the real battlefield one. Swift and endurance, two goals of the practice.

Some styles had a fixed weapon as part of their basis, the best known maybe being the big spear and the big staff, counting for half of the basic training. In any case, an oversized-overweighted version of the chosen weapon would be used for training. 

Training weapons meant also customised postures and basic moves (a lot of weapons have a set of words describing their main characteristics, see the third quote). For the ones with a sheath, one would also train how to draw it as fast as possible. Finally, some specific exercises intended for each weapon were also devised.

When one had found his/her best fit, empty-hand training would also change. Indeed, the idea was to change the routines according to the new needs of the weapon, heel stomping the ground or not for instance, see the previous chapter. As well, particularly as far as motion is concerned, alternative exercises could be trained, swallow walk for the flexible spear, bear walk for the staff, for example.

Of course, what has been described is just a general idea, an avenue of research, not a standardised training method, the reality, especially over the long history, is much more complex.

As for a lot of things in ancient practices, it is a question of timing and method according to precise goals, not forever principles or truths to be blindly observed. Since old weapons are obsolete, it remains almost impossible nowadays to really train according to the old ways, even more to be able to find out the real efficiency of one’s weapon training. Furthermore, following their slow decline, more and more specific weapon training exercises tend to simply disappear, skills too.

1. This saying knows more than one version, but all point to the line for the spear and a surface for the staff. It is also interesting to notice that what applies to the spear and the staff, as far as their differences are indicated, can also be transposed to the sword and the sabre. Not only for this saying, but also reversely for the second one.

2. Green and black are puns on the colours and the characters. Hence, green for the sword points to the need to be spry, light, nimble, fast and supple. Black for the sabre to being fierce, violent, cruel and vigorous. One can also refer to another saying: ‘刀如猛虎，劍如飛鳳’, the sabre is like a fierce tiger, the sword a flying phenix.

3. Dance has a special place in martial arts, not only due to the homophony between the two characters designating them, 舞 and 武, but also because of the use of drums and gongs to direct military formations in the early days, making of warfare a giant dance. It was used too, from time to time, in a very similar way as is the Haka. The second emperor of the Song dynasty was known to bring along a band of soldiers trained in sword dancing to show his might: ‘First, this emperor selected hundreds of warriors from various armies and taught them how to dance with swords. They were all able to throw swords in the air and jump to their left and right to receive (catch) them. Everyone who saw them was frightened.’ The Comprehensive Mirror to Aid in Government, Volume 10 (先是帝選諸軍勇士數百人，教以劍舞，皆能擲劍於空中，躍其身左右承之，見者無不恐懼《續資治通鑑・第一十卷》)

4. Not to mention the links with the Chinese theatre, sword dancing was a classic entertainment through history in China. The attempt during such a performance in times of war to kill Liu Bang, the founder of the Han Dynasty, is what may first come to mind. Still, a more erotic version seems to have existed, in times of peace, during the Tang dynasty, which evolved into a more respectable form, praised by the poet Dufu (The Huntuo sword and Miss Gongsun, 劍器渾脫 and公孫大娘). Over their history, martial arts as entertainment have always existed in many and various forms, even if some considered it as 賣藝, which more than ‘making his/her living as a performer’ was to be taken in the sense of betraying one’s art.

5. During the Yuan dynasty, archery practice was mainly restricted to the Mongols and strictly forbidden for the southern Chinese. Oppositely, during the Song dynasty, martial art training, including archery, was despised by the literary upper class. 熟能生巧, the Chinese idiom meaning ‘Practice makes perfect’ comes actually from a story denigrating physical skills. And Chen Yaozi, the character in the tale who gets mocked upon for being proud for his archery skill, was also beaten up by his mother for being willing to accept a military post because of such skill, thus degrading his family position which came through civil merit…

6. This did not happen overnight as most people think. Firearms appeared as early as during the Song dynasty and were commonly used during the Ming dynasty. It is just that their technology was not so advanced they could totally replace old weapons and shift drastically warfare at that time. New weaponry, changes in battlefield terrain or rules of engagement had already rendered some weapons, if not obsolete, much less important. One can refer to the chariots, which was at the centre of martial arts when the battlefields were mainly nobles fighting on them during the Spring and Autumn period. After they became less essential as far as battlegrounds were concerned, the warring monopoly of aristocracy disappearing and the chariots becoming irrelevant against a large infantry and away from the plains. Chariots remained for some time as a self-perfection practice for the gentleman and then vanished altogether. Still, one can wonder if the horse stance, 馬步, is not actually partly a very remote leftover of times when this riding skill was a must for any noble.

7. For those, over the centuries, who practised bow as more spiritual and ritual activity, how deep the target was hit simply disappeared as a skill. For some, it became even more about the form than just hitting the target… In other words, for those who trained archery not for the battlefield but as a less martial practice, strength became a less important issue. This is illustrated, for example, in the Music Records of the Book of Rites: ‘After it is known that King Wu no longer took up arms. He disbanded his armies and practised archery in the suburbs*, left shooting to (the tune of) Lishou and right shooting to Zouyu, and the practice of shooting to pierce the hide was put to a stop.’(然後知武王之不復用兵也。散軍而郊射*，左射貍首，右射騶虞，而貫革之射息也。) *(郊射 also refers to heaven worshipping and choosing talents through archery contests).

8. Chariots are gone, but the horse archery from the steppes, which had such a long and profound impact on Chinese warfare, can still be found in Mongolia.

9. One early example, among others, of the difference between training as leisure and more professional could be observed in a story, both in the Zhuangzi and the Liezi, where a skilled archer is brought by someone on the top of a high cliff and asked to shoot in the same seasoned fashion. Not even able to move once next to the precipice, he is told: ‘The accomplished man gaze into the blue sky above, plunge into the Yellow Spring (the underworld) beneath, untrammeled in the eight confines of space, his spirit and breath unaltered. Now you fearfully want to blink your eyes and it would be perilous for you to take aim!" (夫至人者，上闚青天，下潛黃泉，揮斥八極，神氣不變。今汝怵然有恂目之志，爾於中也殆矣夫！)