I will now deal with the 3 classical Chinese martial arts weapons individually.
THE DAO Dao is often translated as sabre or broadsword, but in fact any single-edged cutting weapon of whatever length can be classified as a Dao. I will confine my discussion of Dao to the single dao, which is the most common version used in Chinese martial arts. The length depends on the size of the practitioner, but when the handle is gripped, it should be possible to touch the ground with the tip. The Dao was the weapon of choice for the foot soldier, convoy escort and bandit, because it was cheap to make, comparatively easy to use and extremely versatile, particularly at close quarters. The techniques can be adapted for use with a stick or rolled up newspaper or even with bare hands.
Supposedly the Dao was invented by either the legendary emperor Sui Ren Shi (he is supposed to have made it by melting gold) or the Yellow Emperor (traditionally c.2698-2598 BC) who also is credited with writing a Classic on medicine. The god of the Dao is Cang Er and it is identified with the tiger so stances are long and low and there is a lot of crouching, leaping and slashing. The particular Dao form that I practice is called Xuan Xuan Dao. Xuan means dark, mysterious or profound and Xuan Xuan was the Taoist name for Chang San-feng, who is credited with being the founder of Tai Chi Chuan. The famous Tai Chi historian, Wu Tu-nan published a book on this form round about 1930 though his version of the form differs from mine in some details.
For the single Dao there are two main types in Tai Chi Chuan; the more common one broadens out from the handle and is leaf or fish-shaped when placed flat, while the other is more like the Japanese katana and so can be more easily used to stab though it is not so easy to support it with the free hand. In both cases there is usually coloured ribbon or cloth tied to the butt of the weapon. There are various debates about what this was used for; I believe it was simply to wipe off sweat or blood from the hands or possibly to wrap round the hand as a safety measure so you wouldnęt lose the weapon when you impacted with something or someone.
There are 8 major ways of using the Dao. These are:-
These are essentially the orthodox techniques. In addition the butt of the Dao could be used for striking vital points at close quarters; the blunt edge could be used where it was inappropriate to cause permanent injury with the sharpened edge; the flat of the blade could be used to bounce or slap the opponentęs weapon or arm out of the way and so on. There are techniques which are or can be precautionary as where we entwine the Dao round the body as in "Turn Around Hiding The Sabre" to protect the neck back and legs when we turn.
The dao is a close to medium range weapon and thus most versatile, because only one edge is sharp, the other one can be supported by the free hand or the blunt edge can be wrapped round the body while slashing in different directions. This range also means that there are many Qinna (seizing and holding) and kicking techniques in Tai Chi Dao; indeed many practitioners neglect the use of the free hand whether in attack or defence and become fixated on their and their opponentsę weapon hands.
When I was in the Royal Hong Kong Police Training School were taught to use the long baton and rattan shield for riot control. As with a Dao we would advance with baton and forehand strike, backhand strike, thrust and hit with the shield; repeat till thereęs no one left to hit. This is crude but effective against a crowd, but is unlikely to trouble a skilled swordsman when it comes to one on one. As was the case with European swordsmanship, a convoy escort or common soldier was unlikely to be a match for a trained you xia (errant knight) who theoretically at least had spent years perfecting his skills under top level masters.
How effective was the Dao as a weapon? The leaf or fish-shaped Dao is not very effective for stabbing as its very design prevents effective penetration. The guard too of the Dao is purely functional, and not suitable for trapping an opponentęs blade. Even in chopping there are drawbacks. On a number of occasions, while working as a detective inspector in the Criminal Investigation Department of the Royal Hong Kong Police, I saw victims of gangland choppings who had been attacked with either kung fu Dao or with butchersę cleavers. While in some cases, fingers or limbs were at least partially severed, some "victims" had received multiple chop wounds to the head and back, but were still able to walk around and function more or less normally. The best targets for the Dao would seem to be against sensitive areas such as the face, joints and bones.
I will continue this theme with the other weapons in Part 4