The chángdāo (or shuāngshǒu dāo) is a large, two handed curved sword used most famously in China during General Qi Jiguang's resistance against the wokou, Japanese pirates, during the 16th century. The blade heavily resembles the Japanese katana, both because of the cultural exchange between China and Japan through the centuries, but also because Chinese bladesmiths often copied Japanese blade designs because they either like them or found them particularly effective.
The techniques shown here are from the Dāndāo Fǎxuǎn, a martial arts manual written in 1621 by Chéng Zōngyóu, author of several manuals including one on the Shaolin staff method. For being such a large and hefty blade, several of the techniques shown in the manual use single-handed techniques, so I played with some of those today. The techniques are meant to be used against a spear, so imagine me using the lifting or hand swiping techniques against the head of an incoming spear.
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