Hui Zhongdao Martial Arts
01 · Historical Records
Since the Tang dynasty the zhongdao (heavy saber) weighing 160 jin has been the principal weapon in the examinations for martial champions. The Cao school saber forms absorb the skills trained in such subjects of the former military examinations as archery, the saber, the stone throw and the horse-stance shot, and blend the arts of the weight-stone, the stone lock and the held stone into the moves of the long saber.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Tianjin's Hui long saber rose to fame in the early years of the Yongle Emperor; it is said that a Hui general from Nanjing serving the Prince of Yan, Zhu Di, was accustomed to fighting with a long saber weighing 60 jin. He followed Zhu Di on the northern campaign that pacified Tianjin and later moved his whole family there, and thus arose the Cao family long saber of the Tianjin gate, handed down from generation to generation. By the late Qing and modern period, the long saber of the transmitter Cao Jinzcao, ahong, had grown heavier, to 160 jin, and become a kind of fitness apparatus. Cao Jinzcao also merged the long-form boxing, stance work and free-hand practice of the "Northern Shaolin" school with "Western boxing", "secret-teaching arts" and the ancestral "Ten-Hand Boxing", and created the "Seventy-Two-Form Linked Boxing Set", which integrates southern-style boxing, northern-style legwork, wrestling and qinna, with "Green Ox Sweeping the Tail", "Latent Dragon Emerging from the Abyss" and "Ghost-Pushing Turn" as its three most distinctive moves. Cao Jinzcao was outstanding in martial skill and lived as a chivalrous upright man, and was named together with Huo Yuanjia as the "twin heroes of the Hui and Han". The Cao school zhongdao has saber forms including cha (thrust), bei (back), ning (twist), yun (winding), pie (flipping), shuimo (water-grinding), yaochuan (waist skewering), shizi pihong (lion draped in red), wulong baiwei (black dragon swaying its tail), xuehua gaiding (snow flower capping the head), bibai heye (comparatively swaying the lotus leaf), zhangzhong hua (flower in the palm) and dieluo han (stacking of arhats); its characteristic is the meeting of hardness and softness, the union of movement and stillness, and the bringing together of strength and skill. When the long saber is waved it moves like the wind and stands still like a pine; lifted it is as heavy as a thousand jin, waved it is as light as a goose feather; when the saber flies it rings like a steel hoop, when it falls all is silent. It is at once thrilling and mighty, yet light and nimble, giving those who watch it an immense aesthetic enjoyment. The Cao school saber forms take as their aim the promotion of the national martial arts spirit, the strengthening of national unity and the practice of martial arts for fitness, and have won widespread praise from people of all walks of life at home and abroad.
Thrusting, back-carrying, twisting and clouding
The Cao school's blade forms run from thrusting and back-carrying to twisting, clouding and the lion draped in red, combining strength with technique.
The seventy-two-form linked set
Cao Jinzao fused northern Shaolin long boxing, stance work and free hand with Western boxing, Mizong and the family's ten-hand boxing into a seventy-two-form linked set.
The 160-catty blade and the military examinations
Since the Tang a 160-catty blade was a chief implement of the military examinations; the Cao school absorbed the bow, blade, stone and mounted archery tests and folded weightlifting into the blade forms.
The Hui big-blade weightlifting troupe
Cao Keming inherited his father's art, created the Cao school forms and founded Tianjin's first Hui martial hall, the troupe passing from clan inheritance to open teaching.
Dragonfly skimming water and pulling scallions on dry land
The first-batch national inheritor Cao Shijie added new moves such as the dragonfly skimming water and now leads the Tianjin Hui blade troupe, with over four hundred learners.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Zhongdao is the original name of the long saber. It is a traditional weapon of the Beijing-Tianjin area, and has had a history of several thousand years in China.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Cao Keming, son of Cao Jinzcao, carried on his father's trade, and on the basis of his school's saber, weight-stone, held-stone and fist-spade skills created the "Cao school saber forms" with the aim of "promoting martial arts, strengthening the body and loving the country". He founded the "Hui long saber patterned weightlifting team", the first Hui martial arts hall in Tianjin; the art has now been passed to the brothers Cao Shiwei and Cao Shijie, and the mode of transmission has changed from "hereditary family succession" to open teaching. At present this important martial skill has run into problems such as insufficient funding and a lack of premises in its development, which urgently need to be solved. Cao Shijie (official archival record of the associated inheritor): Male, Hui ethnicity, born in 1967, native of Tianjin. Zhongdao is the original name of the long saber. It is a traditional weapon of the Beijing-Tianjin area, with a history of several thousand years in China. Tianjin's Hui long saber rose to fame in the early years of the Yongle Emperor; it is said that a Hui general from Nanjing under Zhu Di was accustomed to wielding a long saber weighing 30 kilograms, and later moved his whole family to Tianjin, and thus arose the Cao family long saber of the Tianjin gate, handed down from generation to generation. The Cao school saber forms combine hardness and softness, join movement and stillness, and bring strength and skill together. As the saying goes: when the saber is waved it moves like the wind and is still like a pine; lifted it is as heavy as a thousand jin, waved it is as light as a goose feather; when the saber flies it rings like a steel hoop, when it falls all is silent. At present Cao Shijie still leads the "Tianjin Hui long saber team" and transmits Hui zhongdao martial arts, and more than four hundred people have already learnt skills such as the Hui long saber. Representative inheritor of Hui zhongdao martial arts, a national-level intangible cultural heritage project in the first national-level batch. On the basis of the ancestral martial arts he inherited, Cao Shijie also created new moves such as "Dragonfly Touching the Water" and "Uprooting a Scallion on Dry Ground", and has won prizes many times in various competitions.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Cao Shijie 01-0039
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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