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National Comics vol 1 No.39 (Quality Comics, February 1944) Art by Alex Kotzky

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Earlier this week, I posted some photos on FaceBook from my first visit to Huanuo Forge in Shanghai back in 2006. It turns out, I still have the video from that visit.

After a brief meeting in Fred Chen’s office, he suggested we go outside to cut. I followed him out to the little courtyard and he told one of the workers to set up a piece of bamboo in the stand as he drew a katana. He raised the blade, bring it back almost to touching his rear end and swung. His cut went about half way thru the stalk and got stuck. Pulling the katana free he turned to me and said, “Maybe you can’t cut this bamboo.” Note how small and unweighted the stand was. I looked to one of the workers and told him in Mandarin to give me a jian. This video records what happened next.

Chen remarked during my demonstration that he didn’t know you could cut with a jian. “Why not,” was my reply. Afterwards, he presented me with the jian I had been cutting with that day. I think that day was an important turning point for the renaissance of Chinese swordsmanship because the events of that day quickly got around.

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Some of the action from my recent seminars in Netherlands.

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My fall seminar series kicks off shortly with a

Miaodao Seminar September 5 & 6 9 to 5 at the Annandale Wuguan, Annandale, VA $125 for repeat students, $130 for first time students.

The training will cover form, form applications, drills and free swordplay.

For more info please call: 703-846-8222

http://www.grtc.org/seminars

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Dpa Dam Tibetan Straight Backed Saber 29 3/4” blade, 35 1/2 “overall

A type of sword peculiar to the Kham area of eastern Tibet, which borders China’s Sichuan province, it has a very good quality hairpin lamination, the being contours straight and even. The tip profile appears original, edge straight and sharp, clean with minor surface scratches and speckles of old corrosion that are negligible. The large flanged disc guard and expanded, flattened pommel are clearly inspired by Chinese sabers of the late imperial period. Iron fittings of better-than-average finish, heavy gauge and well-fitted, the forward surface of the guard under the flange is lacquered red, the anterior surface of the pommel precisely inlaid with alternating copper and brass lines.  Wood grip covered with leather with beaded brass bands on either end, adjacent to the iron fittings. The whole in very fine condition with no losses or looseness. In exceptional condition for the type, and of impressive size, this style of Tibetan sword is not common. The Kham area is a region of mountains and high grasslands inhabited by nomadic herders who were known as the most warlike segment of Tibet’s population.  Every man went armed with at least a long knife, and firearms of all types were common. The Khams resisted the Chinese incursions of the 1950s with great ferocity, and many areas were not fully pacified for years afterward. Even today, these tribesmen are practically the only minority people still permitted by the PRC government to wear blades in public, and allowed to keep the modern rifles which they had in their possession since pre-invasion times.

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Welcome to DC, Lucas! All the cool Wikipedians should come here.

Quick update: I'm alive! More stuff soon.

Hey, everyone! Sorry for the lack of updates, but I’m very much alive.

I recently arrived in the United States and will be studying at Georgetown University in Washington-DC for the next year. Expect new stuff from me soon. I just need to settle down on the new class schedule first. :)

Cheers!

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Yongle emperor’s sword (pictured above) is one of the many treasures to be displayed at the

Ming treasures at the British Museum

A forthcoming show at the British Museum, London will include precious Ming era artefacts leaving China for the first time.

For more information, see: http://www.britishmuseum.org/whats_on/exhibitions/ming.aspx

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When the King of the State of Yue was introduced to the famous jianke, Fan Li, he asked her:

"Of all the methods of fighting with the sword, which is the best?" Fan Li answered, ” I was born in the depth of the forests and I grew up in the wilds where no other people have ventured. So there was no “method” for me and I followed no course of instruction, for I never ventured into the feudal fiefs. Secretly, I yearned for a true method of fighting and I practiced endlessly. I never learned it from anyone: I just realized one day that I could do it.” “And what method do you practice now?” asked the King. “The method involves great subtlety and constant change [of movement]; its principles involve great mystery and depth. The method involves both “front doors and “back doors” as well as hard and soft aspects. Opening the “front door” and closing the “back door” closes off the soft aspect and bring the hard aspect to the fore. “Whenever you have hand-to-hand combat, you need to have nerves of steel on the inside, but be totally calm on the outside. I must look like a demure young lady but fight like a startled tiger. My profile changes with the action of my body, and both follow my subconscious. Overshadow your adversary like the sun; but scuttle like a flushed hare. Become a whirl of silhouettes and shadows; shimmer like a mirage. Inhaling, exhaling, moving in, moving back out, keeping yourself out of reach, using your strategy to block out the adversary, vertical, horizontal, resisting, following, straight, devious, and all without a sound. With a method like this, one can match a hundred; a hundred men can match ten thousand. If Your Majesty wants to try me out, you can have a demonstration right away.” The King of Yue was overjoyed and immediately gave her the title “Daughter of Yue”. Then he ordered the divisional commanders and crack troops to practice the new method so that they could pass on to the troops. From then on, the method was known as “The Daughter of Yue’s Swordsmanship”. This excerpt is from the Han Dynasty work, “The Spring and Autumn Annals of Wu and Yue”, and is found on pages 156-157 of the book “Chinese Archery”, by Stephen Selby

Image is of General Liang Hongyu for information about her please see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liang_Hongyu

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Looks like Northwest has more greenery. Lower population density, or something else?

Visualizing your city - read more at Sustainable Cities Collective 

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Who ever heard of a website with hours of operation? Do you think Google has scheduled downtime? Amazon? Facebook? Twitter? How is it that utilities, whose entire job is to provide reliable, 24/7 service, consistently have the slowest, most unreliable, most poorly designed websites?

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Zhu Rong Yunnan Black Tea

How could I resist a tea named after a Three Kingdoms character? I could not, is the answer. What's next, Zhang Fei-themed baijiu? Zhou Yu lighter fluid? Partake of Chancellor Cao Cao's premium green plums and you too can rate the heroes of the realm.

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I'd like to see the number of thefts in each area divided by the number of bikes in that area, which might be a bit trickier to get the data for. Otherwise the location data just reduces to "where the bikes are".

Where and when bikes are stolen in San Francisco.

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Nonsense! A proper city has at least 5 million people! Said the guy from China.

US States and Canadian Provinces by Number of City Propers with More Than 100,000 People

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This map seems kind of weaksauce to me. The headline sounds negative, but the data doesn't look so bad. After all, 4 of the top 5 most populous states are doing better than in 2008. The key question isn't answered: how much loss of revenue did the recession actually cause? To answer that, we'd need to project where each state's revenue would be today based on pre-recession trends. If a state's tax revenue today falls near the pre-recession trendline, then any loss of revenue it suffered is not a result of the recession. But if it falls far below the trendline, then it is -- even if its revenue grew relative to 2008. Comparing each state against its own trend might also remove some of the variation between states that we see here -- for example, the fact that IL did well and FL did poorly might have nothing to do with the recession, and a comparison with their pre-2008 trends might show that both have lost potential tax revenue. In this map they're opposite colors, but that's just noise.

State-level tax data shows the lingering impact of the recession 

Read more at Pew States 

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Give Me Per Capita or Give Me Death

How did my state do, MADD? I don't know, you didn't give me the fucking data to answer your question. But here, I fixed that for ya. Don't drive drunk in North Dakota or Montana I guess. Better yet, don't go there in the first place.