Taijijian
Encyclopedia
Taijijian is a straight two-edged sword used in the training of the Chinese martial art Taijiquan. The straight sword, sometimes with a tassel and sometimes not, is used for upper body conditioning and martial training in traditional Taijiquan schools. The different family schools have various warmups, forms and fencing drills for training with the jian.
families were involved in Qing dynasty
military officer training, and taught jian technique to their students. Traditional Taijijian forms are rooted in martial application, and are thus originally designed to make use of the weapons available at the time of their development. As there was no historical jian type created specifically for taijiquan, the forms were designed around the use a functional jian of the day, being of appropriate weight, balance, sharpness and resilience to be effective in armed combat.
curriculum. The wushu sword is a narrow, double-edged Chinese jian
with a thin blade designed to make noise when it is shaken by the competitor during competition and a tassel is always attached to the pommel. The jian variants used for taijijian wushu display or as training tools in modern day martial arts schools often have properties that render them unsuitable for historically accurate combat. These properties, such as extreme blade thinness or a high degree of flexibility compared to historical battlefield quality jian, are intended to add auditory and visual appeal to a wushu performance.
Historical use of jian in Taijiquan
The Yang and WuWu style tai chi chuan
The Wu family-style t'ai chi ch'uan of Wu Ch'uan-yu and Wu Chien-ch'uan is the second most popular form of t'ai chi ch'uan in the world today, after the Yang style, and fourth in terms of family seniority. This style is different from the Wu style of t'ai chi ch'uan founded by Wu Yu-hsiang...
families were involved in Qing dynasty
Qing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....
military officer training, and taught jian technique to their students. Traditional Taijijian forms are rooted in martial application, and are thus originally designed to make use of the weapons available at the time of their development. As there was no historical jian type created specifically for taijiquan, the forms were designed around the use a functional jian of the day, being of appropriate weight, balance, sharpness and resilience to be effective in armed combat.
Modern Wushu
A lighter version of the traditional sword and theatrical versions of traditional sword forms are also used in the "taijiquan" routines of wushuWushu (sport)
The sport of wushu is both an exhibition and a full-contact sport derived from traditional Chinese martial arts. It was created in the People's Republic of China after 1949, in an attempt to nationalize the practice of traditional Chinese martial arts...
curriculum. The wushu sword is a narrow, double-edged Chinese jian
Jian
The jian is a double-edged straight sword used during the last 2,500 years in China. The first Chinese sources that mention the jian date to the 7th century BCE during the Spring and Autumn Period; one of the earliest specimens being the Sword of Goujian.Historical one-handed versions have blades...
with a thin blade designed to make noise when it is shaken by the competitor during competition and a tassel is always attached to the pommel. The jian variants used for taijijian wushu display or as training tools in modern day martial arts schools often have properties that render them unsuitable for historically accurate combat. These properties, such as extreme blade thinness or a high degree of flexibility compared to historical battlefield quality jian, are intended to add auditory and visual appeal to a wushu performance.
External links
- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urpVZC9kPho&mode=related&search Ma Yueliang Wu style 108 Taijijian form Youtube video