Shibabanwuyi
01 · Historical Records
Legend has it that Wuchang Eighteen Martial Arts was created by Hong Zhong, a shangshu (minister) of the Ming Dynasty, after he retired from office and returned to his hometown. Evolving from the training methods of the eighteen ancient weapons, it has been passed down for nearly five hundred years.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
Eighteen Martial Arts is a traditional sport that combines fitness, self-defense, competition, and spectacle. Wuchang Eighteen Martial Arts blends blade techniques, staff techniques, boxing, and battle formations, incorporating the distinctive unarmed and armed training methods of Hangzhou's Xixi (Wuchang) area, giving it a marked character of the Xixi water country. Its formations are varied and its routines are rich, including the Qundao Hui (Group Blade Assembly), Sun-Moon Formation, Wulian Formation, Weiwu Formation, Vajra Umbrella Formation, Great Split-Lock Formation, Jade-Hand Pen-Art Claw Formation, Great Wu-Rake Formation, and the Grand Drill. A characteristic of Wuchang Eighteen Martial Arts is that none of the weapons are real blades or spears; all are made of hardwood, and most of these wooden weapons were converted from production and daily-life tools of Wuchang villages, including the Dragon-Phoenix Blade, the Square-Heaven Halberd, the Jade-Hand Pen-Art Claw, the Yin-Yang Tang, the Golden Melon Mace, the Jujube-Inverted Mallet, the Wenwu Rake, the Dragon-Fish Axe, the Great Split-Lock, and the Vajra Umbrella.
Blade Gathering, Sun-Moon and Five-fold Formations
Part of the form's rich array of formations, where changes of order drive the weapon routines to the drum.
Majesty, Diamond Umbrella and Great Chop-Lock
Formations named for the wooden weapons they deploy, in which coordination and positioning are the drill's focus.
Jade Hand Claw and Great Rake Formations
Further formations alongside the Great Drill, in which the whole village turns out in the largest of the collective displays.
Dragon-phoenix sabre, halberd and jade claw
The weapons are all carved from hard wood, many adapted from the village's farming and household tools rather than made for combat.
Yin-yang truncheon, melon hammer and jujube mallet
Short and medium wooden weapons that pair with the long ones in formation, keeping the names of the classical eighteen arms.
Hong Zhong and Wuchang's eighteen arms
Tradition credits the Ming minister Hong Zhong with creating the form from ancient eighteen-arms drills, kept today not for war but for the culture of arms.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
Wuchang Eighteen Martial Arts circulates in the Wuchang area of Yuhang District, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province. Wuchang lies in the northwest of the Xixi Wetland, with crisscrossing rivers and channels and adjoining fields; villagers make their living mainly from farming and enjoy practicing with wooden weapons in the slack farming seasons. Legend has it that after the Ming minister Hong Zhong retired and returned to his hometown, he organized the training methods of the eighteen ancient weapons into routines and taught them in the countryside, and the tradition has been passed down for nearly five hundred years. The Yuhang District Cultural Center of Hangzhou City is the protecting unit, and the martial-arts teams of Wuchang's villages undertake daily practice and transmission, with practitioners mostly local villagers. During New Year festivals and temple fairs, village societies enter in formation and process around the villages with formations such as the Group Blade Assembly and the Grand Drill; the routines are organized around formations, changing patterns in time with drums and music, with numbers that can be large or small — from a dozen or so to more than a hundred people performing together. Wuchang Eighteen Martial Arts circulates in the Wuchang area of Yuhang District, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province. Wuchang lies in the northwest of the Xixi Wetland, with crisscrossing rivers and channels and adjoining fields; villagers make their living mainly from farming and enjoy practicing with wooden weapons in the slack farming seasons. Legend has it that after the Ming minister Hong Zhong retired and returned to his hometown, he organized the training methods of the eighteen ancient weapons into routines and taught them in the countryside, and the tradition has been passed down for nearly five hundred years. The Yuhang District Cultural Center of Hangzhou City is the protecting unit, and the martial-arts teams of Wuchang's villages undertake daily practice and transmission, with practitioners mostly local villagers. During New Year festivals and temple fairs, village societies enter in formation and process around the villages with formations such as the Group Blade Assembly and the Grand Drill; the routines are organized around formations, changing patterns in time with drums and music, with numbers that can be large or small — from a dozen or so to more than a hundred people performing together. The forms of Wuchang's wooden weapons are mostly taken from production and daily-life implements: the Great Wu-Rake was converted from a threshing-floor wooden rake, the Great Split-Lock is modeled on a lock, the Vajra Umbrella imitates an umbrella frame, and the Golden Melon Mace resembles the wooden mallet used in the threshing ground. During practice, positions are exchanged according to the formation; when one person changes a move, the whole formation follows; when the drumbeat quickens, the formation closes in, and when it slows, the group spreads out in a ring. The older-generation inheritors in the villages are accustomed to opening practice after the autumn harvest, reaching its height in the winter slack season and closing before the spring plowing of the following year — once a year, passed down from generation to generation.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Therefore, the purpose of practicing is not actual combat, but the transmission of martial arts culture. Wuchang Eighteen Martial Arts is rich in water-country character; its protection is of important value for research into the development history of folk sports in China and for the dissemination of traditional martial arts culture.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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