The Tai Chi solo sword form is the first step in learning to fight with a sword. If you have read my series on the Sword of Li Jinglin, you will be familiar with the process. After acquiring a basic competence in taijiquan (bare-hand Tai Chi), you incorporate the sword in your practice by adding the jianfa—swordfighting techniques.

The sword form is not a pantomime of a swordfight. It is the practice of one form of swordplay after another. The form is designed so these moves flow from one to the next. So, for example, in 32-sword, I practice the jianfa called 带 Dài, first to the right, then to the left.

Dai is a technique for countering a stab by an opponent directly in front of me. [Dai translates as “carry” but the English word is neither descriptive nor helpful.] To start, I am shifted left, so I first practice Dai to the right. Now my weight is on my right. I again practice what I could do in response to a stab from an opponent directly in front of me: I do Dai to the left.

At a comparable point in the sequence, Traditional Yang sword uses 拦扫 Lán Sǎo (block and sweep) to the right and then to the left. Lan Sao and Dai are two quite different movements, different jianfa altogether, but either one could answer a stab, and the principle is the same: you practice the move first on one side, then on the other.

There are some basic assumptions that I make when practicing sword. One, I assume that I am facing a single opponent who is also wielding a sword. That is not to say that you cannot fight multiple attackers (good luck with that!) or that a sword cannot counter a different weapon, like a staff. These are interesting and valid variations on the basic moves. But these are advanced variations. As a default, when practicing a sword form, I assume I am fighting one other swordsman.

Another assumption: My opponent is in front of me. At a number of points in any sword form, I practice what to do in response to an attack from the side, the back, an angle, etc. That is, I practice what to do if my opponent is *not* in front of me. The answer is, in every case, that I first turn, so that he is front of me. Then I answer.

For example, consider a move common to both Yang Sword (Qing Long Ch Shui—the Bluegreen Dragon Emerges from the Water) and 32-sword (Gong Bu Ping Ci—Bow Stance, Level Stab). In both forms, from the previous move, I am facing due East, and I am attacked from the left corner (NE). I first turn, then fall back and send out my own sword in front of me to contact my opponent’s weapon. Then I draw his sword to my right and counterattack.

In any case where you are attacked from anywhere but head-on, you never just throw your sword out toward your apponent. You first turn your body. Then answer.

This is corollary to a more basic principle in swordfighting, that my first priority is defense. Don’t let my opponent cut me! Then, if I can cut him, that’s good. But first and foremost, I want to stay alive.

In practice, this means that I keep my sword in front of me at all times. It could be the blade, it could be the tip, it could even be the hilt. But I need to at all times use my sword first to defend myself.

A good illustration of this principle is Ti Xi Peng Jian (Lift the Knee and Cup the Sword) in 32-sword. A comparable move in Yang sword is Ye Ma Tiao Jian (Wild Horse Jumps over the Stream). These two moves are quite different in the two forms, but the point here applies to both.

Sitting back in preparation to start these moves, you do not open up. Pei Yi taught me this. The tip of the sword should be in front of you, on the centerline of your body. Compare the two pictures (above and below): correct vs. incorrect position.

With the tip of the sword on the line from my center to that of the opponent in front of me, I am doing two things at once: I am defending myself and I am aiming my sword at my target. In the second picture, I am doing neither.

I should probably repeat my usual disclaimer: I am not a Tai Chi master! I am a diligent student who has been fortunate to study with more than one excellent Chinese master. I’m just lately doing sword quite a bit after a long-ish spell of not doing sword much at all, so I am thinking a lot about what I have learned, or at least come to think I know, over the years.

Go to Home and scroll down to the Sword section for links to previous posts on sword.