Scholar's Martial Hall

Two-person practice of a Chinese sword modernly referred to as the Sprout Saber (苗 刀 - miáo dāo). Its older names include Long Saber and Single Saber, as its length prevented the wielder from using a shield or secondary weapon.

The sword is patterned after the Japanese Chōken, a long sword employed by Japanese pirates in coastal raids of China's southern shores during the late 16th century. These weapons with their superior metallurgy created significant problems for the Ming military defenders that certain generals innovated mutual support, small squad tactics to negate their effectiveness. After a victorious campaign against these pirate incursions General Qi Jiguang, impressed with the efficacy of these swords allegedly sought to learn these techniques from war prisoners and/or deserters, and put them to good use in his northern campaign against the Mongols. He armed musketeers with them to use as close support for wagon trains when the enemy engagement was too close for fi****ms to be of any use.

There are some who try to distance the miao dao from any Japanese influence, claiming long sabers are well recorded from older Chinese dynasties. There are even some that would suggest that Chinese swordsmanship influenced Japanese sword arts. If you grant these claims to be true, you can't easily dismiss that the Japanese, with a professional warrior aristocracy that engaged in non-stop fighting over two centuries of civil war, refined and elevated their sword art to an incredibly high level. That Chinese military leaders sought to leverage the same techniques and advantages for their own purposes only shows forward thinking and innovative strategy.

The form lacks the flair of what people expect from the Chinese arts. The movements are brutally simplistic. If you're an expert in Japanese kenjutsu you might even find the techniques rudimentary, and that would be fair. These techniques were meant to be easily learned and drilled by troops of the line, not professional warriors trained from childhood.

An interesting feature of this form is that it is a paired set. The first half matches the second in attack and defense and can be looped. The Ming military leveraged the length of these swords to counter spears, not dueling with like swords. It's interesting that this form reveals that alternate perspective.

A recap of a wonderful day. Cinematography by Patrick Gruss. For the full video please visit ctworldtaichi.org.

Teacher Shirley Ha Chock, Director of Tai Chi United demonstrating taijiquan at the Fairfield Museum and History Center's Third Annual Lunar New Year Celebration. Video courtesy of Sharon Hsu.