Exposition of Original Shaolin Staff Fighting

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Originally Posted by RenDaHai

I am assuming for most of the techniques we will be discussing that we are using a staff fighting against a short spear in a small group or one to one. One on one I am sure the short light spear is a better weapon.

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I think ur confused. shaolin staff is a short spear.
<9 feet= staff
>9 feet= spear

Bawang is right about the spear lengths. and that its not really a flick of the wrist, as much as a rotation of the tendon/ligaments which reguires strength, both external and internal. The Yang spear was total battlefield movements where there is no time to waste, so its concepts were simple and its movements were brutal. The Yang family women were known to perfect it too.
Later the 6 Harmony spear masters started to explore applying internal ideas from qigong/neigong to spear play. But either way they had to really understand and have the physical ability to rotate the spear while someone is trying to kill you.

Saying a "flick" implies something different than a parry does.

...y'all read Dining Table Kung Fu and Yang Family Spear by me and Gigi in our July/August 2013, yes?

:cool:

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Originally Posted by Sal Canzonieri

The Yang family women were known to perfect it too.

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your Chinese google skills aren't good enough

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Originally Posted by bawang

I think ur confused. shaolin staff is a short spear.
<9 feet= staff
>9 feet= spear

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Well, this is a reasonable observation though at least nowadays the standard staff method is not the same as the short spear, the 'Shaolin' staff referred to in the text is. For one it has a small blade in the tip and a pommel on the base, but reading into the technique some of it is closer to modern Shaolins short spear forms than it is to staff forms. These days having gone through the old spear sets there is actually a lot of similarity to some of the forms presented in the book.

Reading the text itself Cheng says that Shaolins staff is 7/10th's spear methods and 3/10th's Staff methods because a thrust is much more powerful than a strike. Though this implies a clear division between what is staff method (striking) and what is spear method (thrusting).

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Originally Posted by RenDaHai

Well, this is a reasonable observation though at least nowadays the standard staff method is not the same as the short spear, the 'Shaolin' staff referred to in the text is. For one it has a small blade in the tip and a pommel on the base, but reading into the technique some of it is closer to modern Shaolins short spear forms than it is to staff forms. These days having gone through the old spear sets there is actually a lot of similarity to some of the forms presented in the book.

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because shaolin staff is so long its unwieldy for sword techniques. sword techniques were used for a powerful first strike, such as mountain crush egg, then switch to spear technique for prolonged fighting.

at 8 feet long the staff has leverage to penetrate armor and crush through blocks. because the momentum brings the staff to the ground, the fastest way to recover is to switch to spear stance.

I only know a little, but heres my 5 cents.
That lan na qiang technique seems like it would very effective in formation against spears, whether it is spear vs spear or staff vs spear. Very tight. many of the staff techniques in the yinshougun i have learned, especially towards the end of the form, can be trained in a straight line, even close to a wall for practice.

Can someone recommend an online text of this treatise?

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Originally Posted by rett

Can someone recommend an online text of this treatise?

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Also, has there been a proper English translation yet?