Chinese are prisoners of their history and culture more so than we are in the West. In Confucian tradition, social superiors such as teachers are only to be obeyed, not questioned, so there are many unspoken assumptions. This holds true of weapon training. In many Chinese styles where applications are taught it is on the basis of empty hands against empty hands, sword against sword, spear against spear, sabre/broadsword against staff or sabre/broadsword.
Furthermore, I recommend training weapon forms and applications in mirror and for applications doing them against left handed attacks also as you cannot choose your opponent. Firstly it is fun and you really have to relearn the form, secondly it develops both sides of the body, thirdly it is of real practical value if one hand is injured or trapped. Indeed one of my old students Aidan Cochrane, some years ago, for his own amusement and experience went into a combat escrima tournament, and was able in the second round of his contest to use his left hand and rest his right for the third round thus winning the contest.
When I taught self defence to security guards, in the final session I would match them for about 30 seconds against a colleague with a rubber knife, though some were experienced martial artists barely one in a hundred managed to go without being slashed or stabbed. My own master has a number of nasty scars on his face and body from knives and Dao, mainly from being attacked by more than one armed assailant.
Doctor Konstantin V. Asmolov from the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow told me that in the traditional Korean sword-fighting that he practices, weapons applications are practiced against unarmed as well as armed opponents and that in his art weapons are taught before hand techniques. This all makes a lot of sense, but problems arise when people lack the emotional maturity and moral qualities to judge whether or not to use a weapon. In many European cultures it is normal to carry a knife, in the Balkans, in Finland, in Scotland. The problem with carrying one is that there is the temptation to use it especially when faced with a stronger opponent or even multiple opponents.
One factor of crucial importance apart from the relative skill of two opponents was the actual quality of the weapons being used. As was the case in Europe with swordsmen seeking out blades of Toledo or Damascus steel, so in China swordsmen sought to acquire "precious" weapons. One of the highlights in the film "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" is the scene in a Wu Guan where Michelle Yeoh though the better martial artist sees one weapon after another broken by Zhang Zi-yaês magic sword. You should also understand that throughout Chinese history weapons could also have a ritual function and would not necessarily be designed for combat.
In addition even combat weapons of quality were often embellished with motifs such as the seven stars of Ursa Major, dragons and phoenixes and seal calligraphy (a highly stylized form of writing).
As the three most common Tai Chi weapons are Dao (sabre/broadsword), Jian (straight sword) and Qiang (spear), Iêll discuss these in turn in some detail. The traditional saying in Chinese martial arts about the degree of difficulty of these three is, "Qiang - one hundred days; Dao - one thousand days, Jian - ten thousand days". Personally, I think the Qiang is a lot more difficult than that. All three weapons share certain characteristics. All three weapons can have their applications adapted for use in everyday objects such as sticks, umbrellas or even (in the case of Dao and Jian) rolled up newspaper. In many Chinese martial arts there are names which are often literary allusions for each technique (one technique can be one movement such as a stab or a complex series of moves) this acts as a kind of shorthand for the initiated as well as being an interesting and amusing (if you understand the allusion ) way of remembering the technique.
There are particular techniques or tactics in using each of these weapons, but beyond this we combine applications with appropriate footwork, as with empty hand techniques we have the usual permutations of in & out, up & down, left & right, Yin & Yang, orthodox & reverse, closing & opening etc.. One great fault of many weapon practitioners is to only think of the weapon, whereas there are in fact many important movements in weapon forms with the free hand, the feet and body.
There are two-handed applications with the Dao and the Jian and this can be useful in giving greater control over the weapon particularly faced with a powerful opponent or one who has a heavy weapon such as a Guan Dao. However, in most applications one hand is used to grip the handle while the other is used to support the weapon, to grab the opponent or the opponent's weapon, to lock or disarm him, to push the opponent away or to pull him onto a technique. The feet and knees are used to kick the opponent as where our weapon is occupied in controlling the opponent's or where for example a Tan (upward slash) technique such as "Searching The Sea" is blocked and we follow up with an immediate kick. Additionally kicks to the opponent's weapon or weapon hand can make him lose control of his weapon. Also many weapon applications can be adapted to empty hand fighting and vice versa.
The grip of the weapon changes too; when in an on guard position, the grip should be light, but generally we tighten the grip whenever impacting our weapon with either the opponent or his weapon. For Dao and Jian you generally have a better control of the weapon if the hand is closer to the guard, however, you can extend the range of the weapon by gripping it nearer the butt.
There were also different approaches in weapon skills. For example there were widely available drill manuals written by military experts such as the famous General Qi Ji-guang's Classic of Boxing , which not only deals with empty hand techniques, but also training with long weapons such as spear and halberd and Dao and shield listing the techniques and strategies to be practiced. It should also be appreciated that weapons did not and do not exist in a vacuum and some were developed or altered to deal with likely opponents such as Japanese pirates or nomadic horsemen. As well as such military manuals there were the techniques and strategies peculiar to particular styles and schools of Chinese martial arts, which for obvious reasons were not always widely known outside that school,. Sometimes they might be included in manuals of a particular school available to only advanced students or only taught orally.
In Part 3 I will discuss the weapons individually