Here are a few fun items I’ve run across. The first is a video from the National Geographic Channel about Chinese long swords. I’m kind of a sucker for documentaries about this sort of thing, even when they are a little simplistic. http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/the-link/videos/chinese-long-sword/
The second is a website I’ve liked for a while now, ChineseLongsword.com. I’m not sure how I found it, probably through an aikido-mate, but however I did, I’m glad. The website has a few pay items, but a number of freebies. It’s a great source for translations and demonstrations of old Chinese martial arts. Finding and studying such resources are a great benefit for any martial artist interested in his/her history of their art, whether ancient or modern.
Many martial arts today are more-or-less descendants of such older arts. Knowing how people used them back in their more military days is enlightening. Many weapons we know today were somewhat different in the past. Some weapons were more in vogue, but for one reason or another fell out of favor. One example being the Japanese battle sword which was replaced by the smaller and more familiar sword. Very few of these examples exist today. There’s an example in the video on this page.
Reading from the above website, this type of weapon came over from China and the fighting style was changed by the Japanese and was effective enough that the Chinese were developing styles to defend against it. In any case, fighting against someone who’s effective in using a 2+ meter blade would be pretty tough. In any case, this is some of the stuff that’s out there and frankly, pretty interesting. I think the history is often far more interesting than the myths, but that’s me. [reblogged from wordpress.com]
