Scott M Rodell demonstrating the MiChuan Sword Form
Scott M. Rodell, director of Great River Taoist Center, presented two talks at Sword 2005: Ore to Sword in Hand. The first presentation focused on historical Chinese sword types. Rodell used 18th- and 19th-century examples of dao (sabers) and jian (straight swords) to explain the different types of bladed sidearms in use during the Ming (1368-1644 AD) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. Rodell also explained and demonstrated how each type was designed for a specialized use or style of swordsmanship. “Until rather recently, few people understood that Chinese swords were of such high quality. This is particularly curious when one considers how famous Japanese swords have become and that these swords were made by a method developed in China,” Rodell said.
Rodell also gave a presentation of Chinese historical swordsmanship at Sword 2005. He first explained the classic training regime of Chinese swordsmanship, from solo basic cuts and form work through two-person drills and free swordplay. He then demonstrated various cuts and their applications with the help of Wah Lee, miaodao student of David Chan in NYC.
Of the symposium as a whole, Rodell was quite impressed. “Swords are the tools of my trade,” commented Rodell. “I’ve been an antique arms dealer for 12 years now, so I’ve handled around 3000 Chinese swords. But this symposium gave me a new appreciation for how much time goes into creating a blade, as well as the many stages in the process. I would recommend any serious student of historical swordsmanship attend a future Ashokan Sword Seminar.”
Scott M. Rodell, Directory of Great River Taoist Center, and David Bond Chen enjoy some friendly fencing.
Scott M. Rodell, Directory of Great River Taoist Center,
and David Bond Chen enjoy some friendly fencing.
In November, students from Great River travel to New York for an invitation only sword tournament against David Bond Chen Internal Arts School. GRTC used their classical jian and David Bond Chen students used maio dao. Both schools enjoyed facing off against opponents using totally different styles. All in all, the day was a success with, hopefully, more to follow.
The first International Taiji Sword Festival (June-July 2002) was an outstanding success. Over 80 practitioners of taijiquan (tai chi chuan) from Western Europe, Russia & North America converged on Narva, Estonia to spend a week learning new skills & refining old ones. The core program was structured to be a thorough study of Chinese swordsmanship in the Yang Family Michuan Taijijian tradition. Everyone began the days training with practicing hundreds of basic cuts, then two person drills and free swordplay, while the afternoons were spent learning the form.
To add depth to the understanding of the jian art, four evenings were spent practicing Miaodao. The Miaodao, a form of Chinese two-handed swordsmanship, derives from Chinese tradition of military swordsmanship. As such it represented the type of swordplay likely encountered by the Yang Family during their Taiping Rebellion when they worked as military trainers. Two other evenings were devolved to lectures by Philip Tom, a noted scholar in the field of Asian & Islamic arms & armor. One focused on the Life & Times of the Yang Family, presenting a real life picture of Chinese life during the late nineteenth century & one focusing of the Qing battle field & the weapons in use at the time. Together these two talks provided everyone with a sense of the environment in which the arts being studied was developed & was practiced.
