Here's my teacher doing some traditional weapons forms. The first, San-cai Jian, is a famous form created at the Nanjing Central Martial Arts Institute established by the Republic of China. The second, Yanqing Sabre, is a traditional Praying Mantis weapons form. San-cai Jian: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-16-cfdThY"]YouTube[/ame] Yanqing Sabre: [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEMirBgcC0A"]YouTube[/ame]
Cool! Very neat and tidy form. Quite different from the darn dao forms we practice. I have a video of me performing a dao form but there's no way i'd post it here incase everybody thought it was crap!
Gorgeous! It seems like you've got a good gig going there in Taiwan. Tell me - aside from sabre, what other weapons are used in your style of gongfu?
My shifu's very good with staff, spear, dao and jian, but his favorite weapons are jian and spear. In addition to San-cai jian, he also knows a lot of Mantis jian, as that could be considered Mantis's signature weapon (Mantis being my teacher's primary style). He's also practiced western fencing and says a lot of jian can be applied, though the rules are restrictive. One of his favorite spear forms is called Yang Family Spear (not related to Yang Taiji). He's also very good with the rope dart, tiger head double hooks and a variety of other strange weapons. Here's the list of weapons forms he knows (you're a Chinese studies major, right?):http://www.kungfuloung.com.tw/chuen6.htm I really wanna see him do the Drunken Ground Broadsword form, but I'm a bit scared to learn it myself. I personally have only learned the basics of staff, jian and dao plus a smidgen of rope dart. I hope to go into all of them more once I feel I have a pretty good handle on the empty-handed stuff (in several years, most likely).
Good stuff onyomi. Do you have any vids of your master or someone good doing any of the main fist forms in Mantis.
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj9ygvXt4x0"]Beng Bu Quan - YouTube[/ame] [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFRIkjRd_VY"]Meihua-luo - YouTube[/ame] [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pcSerD0uGj4"]Meihua-quan - YouTube[/ame] [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVGCXHxiDHk"]Meihua-shou - YouTube[/ame]
My shifu's lineage is 7*, but he does all of the major traditional branches of Mantis (7*, 6 Harmony, Meihua, etc.). Most of the forms I've learned from him so far have been 7*, with the exception of one 6 Harmony and one Meihua.
I love the san cai jian set. That's one of those sets that the first half matches the second half and it can be done either solo or as a 2 man form.