Hi guys... these are a total of 14 scanned images making a total
of 27 pages of a Qing Imperial commissioned sabermanship
manual kept in the Forbidden City Historical Archives....
Hope some of you can diagnose the archaic and classical terms
with your good command of classical Chinese... FYI, there is
also a two person practice form in this manual.


1



2



3



4



5



6



7





8



9



10



11
[img]http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/8687/t119dj.jpg[/img]


12
[img]http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/75/t128if.jpg[/img]


13
[img]http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/5383/t134sq.jpg[/img]


14
[img]http://img519.imageshack.us/img519/1849/t149ph.jpg[/img]

NICE !!!!!

I recall reading them before. But you are certainly more patiant than I as I am pretty sure I won't scan them.

Tranditional Chinese Words rock!!!!

Dear Thomas!

Really great stuff!

But where are pics? As far as I know such manuals should have some pics and diagrams to explain things better. The quality of these pics could be very bad (as in some Korean manuals of XVII century) but they still present.

And what about lack pages of "Shenqi pu"?

Best regards,

Alexey.

That diagram made up of circles with words inside them is the traditional Chinese way of depicting swordsmanship or spearmanship moves - they show the positions that the person takes on the ground from a bird's-eye view, and the action that he makes in each position that he moves to, or when moving from one position to the next. So for example, if he moves to the left and thrusts, there will be a circle on the left of the earlier one, numbered accordingly, and with the move 'thrust' written inside.

However, most of the moves have a far more lyrical and allusive name than just 'sword thrust', 'parry', etc. For example, in the diagrams below there are moves like:

神刀出鞘 Divine sabre exits its scabbard

钟馗献剑 Zhong Kui offers up his sword

白猴献果 White monkey offers up his fruit

骑龙探海 Riding a dragon to explore the sea

I am attaching the diagram from "Muye dogo tongji" with some pics illustrating real position.

And a pics from Chen Chongdou's manual (I am sure you know it).

Are there any pics like these?

Best regards,

Alexey.

The next pictures:

The diagram (unfortunately I have no scanned images of sword-fencing diagram, but I think this one is good enough too).

The image from Chen's manual.

That's what I have meant.

Best regards,

Alexey.

Yes, I should clarify that the circle diagrams are for illustrating combinations or patterns of moves, not the individual moves per se. The individual moves and strokes, other than their fancy names, would still have to be depicted with realistic pictures or taught by actual demonstration by the instructor.

Are there any pics of this kind in the manual or completely no?

Best regards,

Alexey.

T/ Chen,

Applaud you for showing such superb pics of the sabre manual.

Q: Is there a English x'lation of this book ?