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It is in the beginning of the period of the white weapons that the sword appeared for the first time in China, but his use in the fights bodies to body was relatively short. Since the first years of the IIIe century, the sword had left the field of battle and had become an artistic theme importing. Thereafter, one considered it like an accessory denoting the social standing.

A star of the stage

After the sword, the supposed queen of all weapons, had fallen in obsolescence on the field of battle, it turned into tool of elimination of the individual attackers, in guard of the life of the one that possessed it and handled it, and in object of aesthetic appreciation. The sword forms since still an aspect important of the theater and the dance folk.

The most widespread two kinds of dance during the dynasty of the Tang (618-907) were she " civil dance", gracious and flowing, and her " martial dance", particularly animate. The handling of the sword with choreographic arrangement included the spectacular dance swirling Sword Huntuo of the western regions, as well as the dances folk daring and sensual Swords of Xihe of China of the Northwest.

Sun gong was the supreme champion of the handling of the sword during the dynasty of the Tang. Clothed of a costume of martial arts, she hypnotized the spectators by his clever dance and an exceptional artistic level. His admirers understood the scholars and people of letters respected;  the big poet Of the Fu of the Tang even wrote a poem renting his virtuosity.

In addition to intensify the dramatic effects of the representations of martial arts, the games of the sword often occupied a central position in the intrigue of the pieces, notably of the operas. The conqueror tells adieu to his favorite concubine, of the index of the opera of Peking, is a good example. This opera tells the history of Xiang Yu, a seriousness pretender to the throne, after the death of the emperor of the Qins. After have been undone and hunted of the state of Fallen, where he was born, Xiang Yu asks its concubine Yu Ji to join him to drown his pains in the alcohol, but the devotion to his Lord drives Yu Ji to elaborate an ultimate devotion strategy. She interprets the dance of the sword. that the big master of the opera of Peking Mei Lanfang will choreograph thereafter. dance that ends by his own death. While dying thus, Yu Ji forces Xiang Yu to free itself/themselves of the last chains that stopped it from tempting to recover his kingdom.

The dance of the sword of Yu Ji is part of the gracious and flowing style clean to the use of the sword in the tai-chi:  a hand of iron in a velvet glove. She reflects with emotion the heroine's hesitation to part with his lover and his unshakable determination to face the death courageously. This stage constitutes the point culminating of the opera and provides a good example of a dramatic handling of the sword.

Jian = épéeCalligraphier the handling of the sword

The masters in martial arts and the calligraphers agree that the calligraphy and the art of the game of the sword had similar origins. To the eyes of an accomplished artist, the clever handling of the sword looks like a calligraphy that dances and is source of inspiration, whereas for the master in martial arts, the calligraphy looks like the games of the sword, but on the paper.

It is Meng Tian, a general respected of the dynasty of the Qins (221 -206 J. ave - C.) that, the first, manufactured a head of brush in the shape of cone with the help of hairs of rabbit and that inserted it in a stem in bamboo;  he had just invented thus the first brush of calligraphy and painting. Two thousand years later, one looks for again how to improve this technique of manufacture.

Zhang Xu, a famous calligrapher of the dynasty of the Tang (618-907), especially excelled to the caoshu. This style of calligraphy defers the other misleadingly by his appearance simple, whereas actually, it is very difficult to execute. This style asks for a virtuosity similar to the one that is required for the abstract painting, in other words a good mastery of the classic art, previous condition to the creation of. abstract uvres. The writing of Zhang Xu, based on his kaishu or regular writing, was little current and obviously daring. His calligraphic art allowed him to be qualified of " sage of the cursive writing."

Zhang Xu and Gong Sun were contemporaries. The positions taken by this last as executing his daring jumps, his attacks-surprised and his abrupt, fatally precise movements, evoked, to the eyes of Zhang Xu, the contours of the Chinese characters, define in an exceptional manner. Zhang was inspired by the art of the games of the sword of Gong Sun and incorporated in his distinctive style of calligraphy everything that he found exciting in the performance of Gong Sun. The style of Zhang Xu will contribute to define the cannons of this art thereafter.

The general Pei Min, of the dynasty of the Tang, is another virtuoso celebrates the handling of the sword. Whereas the general invited Wu Daozi, a painter reputed of the Tang, to paint a fresco on a wall of the temple to exorcise the bad minds and to honor the memory of his deceased mother, the artist answered:  " I would consider this invitation like a honor, but I didn't paint since one moment. Could you inspire me by a number of dance of the sword? " Pei Min danced therefore for it. Thereafter, Wu Daozi made reference to l'. uvre that he had created thus, under the inspiration of the Pei Min talent, by the following words,:  " L'. most satisfactory uvre of my life."

Emperor Wenzong of the Tang (826-841) made publish an imperial edict declaring the calligraphy of Zhang Xu, the handling of the Pei Min sword and the poetry of Li Bai as them " three marvels of the big empire of the Tang."

Social range

The old Chinese believed that the sword was the only weapon to not to drag any bad omens. Numerous dynasties promulgated special laws on the port of the sword, which generally expressed that the workers of the common didn't have the right to possess a sword. Indeed, the possession of this weapon was the privilege of the rich and those that had power and influence. The sword was at a time the weapon of the scientists and warriors. Many carried it like fashionable accessory and to indicate their elevated social statute. Only the most favored civil servants could carry a sword once they had been called at the imperial court.

The emperor was the supreme leader of the feudal Chinese society. Within this society, life or a man's death could be decided according to the emperor's caprice. Since one considered that the emperor's sword was endowed with such a power, the one that carried it (rarely the emperor himself) was invested of discretionary powers as for his use. Consequently, whatever is the rank of a civil servant accused, the one that carried the emperor's sword had the power to execute or no this civil servant, because he had the right of it.

This weapon also had some applications within the taoism. A sword made of wood to fish was supposed to separate the demons and the malevolent minds, and one often suspended it at a wall to protect and to decorate a home.

Finally, one observed that even the literate Chinese of the antique smelled like a particular affinity with the sword. And among the literate, he would seem that the in love with the sword was not recruited not at all that among the Chinese. Thus, the big German poet Heinrich Heine he doesn't have says:  " After my death, deposit a sword, and no a brush, in my coffin.