Amsterdam Netherlands, Rodell on left employs an upward beat to disarm his duifang in free swordplay.
Chinese historical swordsmanship is growing year by year. Since the publication of Chinese Swordsmanship – The Yang Family Taiji Jian Tradition by Center Director Scott M. Rodell, the number of workshops and places hosting training has steadily increased. This year, Rodell added Amsterdam to the list of places he has led seminars (Toronto has been added to next year’s schedule). “Everyone who knows me knows how much I enjoy swordsmanship, so it was a real joy for me to find such an enthusiastic crowd at my Amsterdam seminar,” said Rodell.
As more practitioners of classical taijiquan take up this training, there is a growing realization that historical swordsmanship is something quite different from either the “push hands” kind of taiji fencing some groups practice or swordplay with foam-padded weapons.? By using real-weight weapons, historical swordsmanship contains an element of fear and danger that is lacking from sports or exercises that employ weapons considerably lighter than their historical counterparts. As learning to let go of fear and how to remain calm under real pressure is a common goal of all martial training, this is an elemental difference between sports and martial arts. In short, there is a renewed understanding that the practice of swordsmanship, i.e. martial arts, is quite different from sports or role playing. Overall, the move toward historically based swordsmanship can be seen as part of a general movement back to taijiquan’s martial roots, following in the footsteps of Yang Luchan and his sons, who worked as militia trainers.