I sometimes imagine the bagua needle forms, AKA “Judge’s Pen” forms, as being ideal for use with a pair of stilettos, or commando knives (also created by William Fairbairn, who I mentioned a couple of posts ago).
Anyhow, I posted a clip from Blacktaoist a while ago that shows the Yin Fu form needle form, and I’ll include it here once more:
[Update November 2007: embedding has been disabled, so here's the link to the Yin style needles clip on YouTube]
The reason I show it again is that I’ve just found a clip of a Cheng style needle form:
Very interesting to compare the two!
What’s also very interesting indeed is that the Cheng needle form is apparently (going by the comments on YouTube) taught by Sun Zhijun – who of course is Madam Ge Chun Yan’s teacher and lineage ancestor…. I don’t know if Madam Ge knows this form; I’ve never heard her mention it, anyway. I’ll have to ask…
It would be interesting if you could ask and check for us
In general, it seems to me that the Cheng style normally has saber, sword, staff, spear, and the mandarin duck knives; there are some exceptions, but I have yet to hear of a lineage with the judge’s pens included.
I’ll definitely ask when I next see her. I’d like to learn this form! However… I do have Sun Zhijun’s book, which illustrates the forms he teaches (palm, sword, sabre, spear, and deerhook), and there’s no indication of a needles form AFAIK of course, I can’t actually read it as I can’t read Chinese, but there are no pictures of needles! Doesn’t mean he doesn’t know the form, of course. Well, let’s wait and see what Madam Ge says.
Well, there are a lot of forms to learn in the meantime, even if Sun doesn’t have that form
Anyway, if you do ask Madam Ge, please let us know how it goes!
Three or four weeks ago, Madam Ge showed Guo Liang and me a pair of her new bagua needles, which was stored inside a red velvet sachet. She also performed some basic bagua needle moves.
I suggest that you talk to Ge Laoshi about your interest on Thursday evening so that she can bring along her needles this Saturday for a demo session and also for her to gather some initial information on how many students who are interested to learn.
Cheers.
Wow, thanks for the comment, Jono! Now that you mention it, I think I remember her showing you the bag, but IIRC I was practicing some moves and didn’t see what was inside… I’d forgotten about that… I’m not sure whether I’ll be able to attend class tonight, but if I do, I’ll certainly ask her! Otherwise, on Saturday night..
[...] bit more compact and ‘purposeful’, rather than showy – in fact, something more like the Blacktaoist clip of ‘Yin’ style. Of course, I say this after only one introductory lesson, so [...]