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Weapons
Once the empty hand (weaponless arts) have shaped the body and mind to the required level of martial skill, weapons are introduced. Weapons extend bodily awareness; the student not only has to control the body with softness and internal power, but also has to consider the space a dagger-, staff- or whip's-length away from the hand. Each fighting system has its characteristic weapons, from the straight sword of taiji, to the enormous sabres of bagua and xingyi.
Unique Daoist Weapons
The Wudang armory is extensive (dagger, straight sword, saber, spear, halberd, hooks, moon hooks, whip, nine-segment chain and so on) and includes two unique treasures: Wudang Sword and the horse whisk. Wudang Sword uses an extra-long, straight sword in a combination of fast and slow movements; qi is expressed in coiled potential in slow motions and unleashed in full at speed. The horse whisk is an exclusively Daoist weapon. Traditionally made of a horses tail, it embodies the idea of the soft overcoming the hard, as anybody who has felt the sting of a horse whisk used at full power will agree!
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