Martial Arts From Ancient Manuals
Masters from hundreds of years ago in China wrote martial arts manuals to pass on their knowledge and skills. This website was created to share these manuals with all serious martial artists, so that we can pass on the legacy.
Access 9 historical Chinese martial arts manuals:
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Long Saber (known as Dandao or Miaodao)
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Long Spear
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Crossbow (construction blueprint and shooting)
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Shaolin Staff
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Chinese War Sword (WWII weapon Dadao)
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and others
Gain access to our library to download all for FREE.
《耕余剩技》
"Martial Arts Practiced After Farmwork"
Published in 1621, 耕余剩技 (geng yu sheng ji) was written by martial arts master Cheng Zong You, and consists of four books, according to sequence:
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《少林棍法闡宗》 Shaolin Staff
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《蹶張心法》 Foot-Drawn Crossbow
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《長鎗法選》 Long Spear
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《單刀法選》Long Saber
Beautifully illustrated for a work of its time, the drawings are elaborate and shows the finer details, such as other accessories that a soldier carries.
《纪效新书》
"New Treatise on Military Efficiency"
Published in 1560, 纪效新书 (ji xiao xin shu) was written by the famous Ming Dynasty General Qi Ji-Guang, who defended Chinese against the invading Japanese pirates.
It is a colossal & comprehensive publication, which touched on topics ranging from military formation, explosives, siege defense, and of course, martial arts.
Parts of this manual that have been translated into English on this website includes:
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《拳經捷要》 Essentials of the Fist
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《牌與狼筅》 Shield & Wolf-Brush
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《劍經》 Sword Treatise
Note however, that Sword Treatise was actually written by General Yu Da-You, who fought alongside General Qi during the war, and it was included inside General Qi's book.
I look forward to work on and translate more chapters from this manual in the future.
About This Website
ChineseLongsword.com is a research project of ancient Chinese martial arts manuals, supported by the people from Historical Combat Association (Singapore). Our goal is to preserve and spread the rich ancient wisdoms to the future generation.
Launched in July 2010, the first manual we worked on was "Dan Dao Fa Xuan", a Chinese swordsmanship manual, written and drawn by 程宗猷 (Cheng Zong You) during the Ming Dynasty, when the Japanese pirates fought with the Ming soldiers. He was taught by 刘雲峰 (Liu Yun Feng), who learnt Japanese swordsmanship (Kenjutsu) directly from the Japanese.
As support from everyone grew, we branched out into various weapons such as Spears, Shield etc... We really appreciate the support given by you. We hope this website can bring these ancient wisdoms to everyone, allow martial arts practitioners to learn the roots of their arts, and increase appreciation of martial arts and its history.
This project was started by Jack Chen, President of the Historical Combat Association (Singapore), in memory of his grandparents.
Please contact us using the form below, or at: ChineseLongsword@gmail.com
