The word Miao Dao is derived from the Republic of China. This Miao is not the Miao of the Miao, so the Miao knife is not the knife used by the Miao people, but the knife used by the authentic Han people to learn martial arts. Because this knife is longer than the general knife in terms of size and shape, it looks slim, so we call it a miao knife. ”
Mr. Guo Tieliang, a descendant of the Miao Dao, said that in addition to the name is easy to cause people to misunderstand, another misunderstanding of the Miao Dao is to confuse the Miao Dao with the Japanese sword, because the two are indeed very similar in appearance, which is for historical reasons.
During the Spring and Autumn Period, most of the battles between the two armies in the land of China were mainly vehicle battles, and the weapons used were mainly long weapons such as ge, spears, and halberds. The short sword could not pose a threat to the armored soldiers on the chariot, and could only be used for self-defense and short engagement after abandoning the car, so the sword did not become the mainstream weapon of this period.
After the Western Han Dynasty, according to the needs of actual combat, the long knife was continuously improved and developed a knife type with a slender body, a hand guard, and a handle that could be held with both hands. In the heyday of the role of the long knife, it flowed into Japan with the development of Sino-Japanese cultural exchanges. Japan made many improvements in the production process and structure of the Chinese long knife, and then the Japanese long knife was transmitted back to China.
The long knife evolved through the dynasties to the late Qing Dynasty and the early Ming Dynasty, and the title of "Miao Dao" began to appear. The great warlord Cao Kun formed a martial arts battalion Miao Dao Company in his direct subordinate governor Yamen, and selected Liu Yuchun, who was then known as Zhen Wulin, as the Miao Dao instructor, and used the Miao Dao team as his honor guard when he went out on tour, which was very imposing.
In 1928, zhang Zhijiang, a former patriotic general of the Northwest Army, in order to revitalize Chinese martial arts, prepared to establish the Central Guoshu Museum in Nanjing and served as the curator, he first proposed that the Miao Dao handed down from history should be listed as a compulsory course, and Guo Changsheng was hired as a first-class Miao Dao instructor with a high salary, and the Miao Dao was further promoted and developed during this period.
Miao knife technique
Guo Tieliang, a descendant of the Miao knife, said that another feature of the Miao knife in the technique is fast, flexible footwork, Miao Dao gram Japanese knife, the root cause is actually in the footwork, "Japanese knife footwork is very dead, lack of change, Miao knife footwork is fast, brush the ground will pass." Faster you have the advantage of being able to generate explosive power. Therefore, people who practice miao knives are desperate to work footwork.