.
The
Shaolin Weapons
Where
do the weapons sets taught at Nam Yang come from?
The founder of the Nam Yang
Pugilistic
Association, Master Ang Lian Huat, learnt our weapons sets from Master
Tan Kew
Long. At that time Master Tan Kew Long was the head of the Medicine
Peddler
Sect in Chiang Chew (Jiang Zhou) in Fujian
province.
He also taught the Tai Chor style. He had a Xiong di (younger training
brother)
Chan Kai Sun, who taught in Singapore.
The Eng Choon White Crane does
not have
many weapons sets. For example, my uncle Master Teo Chon Bee when I
trained
with him, only taught the Eng Choon White Crane freehand sets and a
staff set,
and Master Tan Heng Han, my second Master, only taught the staff and
the Tiger
fork.
At that time, in
colonial Singapore
it was also quite difficult to get hold of weapons. You had to go to a
Chinese
blacksmith to get them made. They made real weapons, ones you could
really use,
except that because we used them for training we did n’t sharpen them.
If you
sharpened them you could get in to trouble! (but they were made so we
could if
we needed to!)
All those
weapons were of very good quality.
The longer weapons were made of the heavy hardwood staff poles, and
were always
well balanced. The metal was strong enough to take an edge if you
sharpened it.
We used to say that when you sharpened a blade and it cut somebody, the
weapon
‘tastes blood’ and it becomes much more deadly, and hungry, like the
Japanese
Samurai swords which need to draw blood once they are drawn. This did
n’t make
them much good for training and demonstrations!
Why
do you still teach the weapons today?
If you have complete mastery of your hands,
any weapon is dangerous because it is just an extension of your hands,
and you
can do a lot of damage with it. This is why you start learning with
your hands
first. The hardest to start with is the staff. If you can manipulate it
properly you can see a lot of moves which you could also apply to the
sword and
other weapons as well. The moves one can do will be similar to an
extent. That
is why we call the staff the king of the weapons, and all students
start with
learning the staff first. Before there were really any weapons people
could
probably only get hold of a stick. This was sharpened at an end and
became a
spear, and so on.
But weapons,
especially the traditional
heavy weapons are still important for the training of students today.
These
heavy weapons work the wrists and forearms which get stronger. So it’s
almost
like doing a kind of martial weight training, and many of the moves are
similar
to freehand moves. Training with weapons also makes the martial artist
more
agile as it trains one’s coordination, so one learns to move all the
parts of
the body with the weapon. These body movements are very effective for
moving
and can be then applied even when one is not using a weapon.
But of course just because we train with
weapons doesn’t mean we have to use them, it’s the same like in kung
fu,
because people today just buy guns to fight, so you might say you can’t
then
use kung fu either. But we can use kung fu to achieve a more healthy
life, with
more vitality, and its character building as well.
Why
are there so many different weapons?
More weapons were
created as people became
more innovative and there were more wars. It has been said that there
are
basically 18 different types of weapons, for example the staff and the
spear
and basically a similar type of weapon, like the Monk’s Spade and the
Moon
Crescent, then you have weapons with single blades, and double blades,
bow and
arrows, there are many varieties in each of the 18 types.
Are
the weapons taught in a particular order?
There is no real fixed
order that must be
adhered to. However, in general we start by teaching the staff which is
the
most basic weapon and so its logical to start with that. Then we
normally teach
the Tan Dao or broadsword. But some people are generally suited to
using
heavier or lighter weapons because of their build. One has to suit the
weapon
to the individual. The Master then looks to see the students build,
ability and
agility, all of which helps him decide which weapons to learn.
