Originally Posted by
Syn7
We still use spades today for gardening and farming. You can find one at the hardware store and you can see the similarities. And given that most people believe that many of the "traditional" weapons were whatever they had at hand, it stands to reason that it started with the farm tool and evolved into all that ornamental stuff over time. First just beefing it up to make it a better weapon, since you already learned spade and all. Then adding all the features as time went on. No?
So wouldn't an "authentic" spade simply be that farm tool? And like all tools back then, I'm sure there were a few variations and innovations as well. I mean for actual farming.
I can appreciate using heavy things for strength, but in actual use, something you can move easily, smoothly, fast and with precision would be ideal, no?
Do you think monks had fighting spades and training spades? One strong but light and balanced perfectly and one big and klunky to work out with? You can build strength and condition yourself with the big one, and train speed and spar with the combat version? I'm just guessing here, but that would make sense to me.
Wasn't the first MA's in Shaolin imported from the people who came there? Teaching the techniques they used and fostered for actual defense? So why not a farmer joining up and being like "oh yeah and we have had success in using this tool for defense, here is how we use it"???