The historical origin of sharp stick

The flail stick is a very old weapon. When did it first appear? Opinions vary. According to Mozi's "Preparing the City Gate", "The two steps are a company, one long axe and one long vertebra, and twenty guns." Refers to a certain number of weapons scattered in the defense area, such as Lian Jia, Long Axe, etc. "Biography of Mozi Preparing Moths" records: "If the enemy borrows a ladder and is as dense as an ant, he will burn it with fire and attack it with a banquet." It can be seen that the flail stick was already an important weapon to defend the city against the enemy at that time (Spring and Autumn and Warring States). Du You recorded in Tong Dian in the Tang Dynasty: "The lotus pavilion is like a grain flail, hitting the enemy outside the female wall." "Female wall" refers to the low wall on the city wall, that is, the city butterfly. It means that when the enemy who attacked the city climbed the ladder and approached the city butterfly, the defenders were condescending and hit the enemy with flail.

In the Song Dynasty, flail was not only used to defend against urban enemies, but also became a very important weapon on horseback. According to the official revision of Wu Jing zong Yao in the northern song dynasty, "if there are many people, they will beat them with their teeth;" When your hand climbs the city, hit it with a flail stick. " Here, when the enemy climbs the city butterfly, he can hit the enemy's hands and head with flail. According to the "General Classics of Martial Arts", "the iron chain is clamped with sticks, originally from Xirong, which is ready to use. The infantry of the enemy Han, such as the flail of a farmer beating wheat, is decorated with iron pieces and hit it from top to bottom, so the Han soldiers make good use of it. " "Xirong" is a general term for nomadic people in northwest China in ancient China. Explain that the flail at that time was made of iron and was invented by Xirong people. Both military and Han soldiers use it as a weapon. Rong people are good at riding horses and attacking enemy infantry with flail. After seeing the advantages of the weapons for allowing people, the officers and men in the Song Dynasty used them for reference. Learning from "Xirong" is a good example. This shows that ancient wars and multi-ethnic exchanges have played an important role in promoting the development of ancient Wushu in China.

Flail can be divided into single and double immediately. The hand flail stick may be made by Xirong people who changed the whip tip of the whip into a short stick, and then connected the whip stick and the short stick with a chain (pimp). This improved weapon is short and light, suitable for cavalry to use quickly, flexibly and with one hand, and can also be used as a "whip" to drive away horses. This may be the prototype of the modern manual staff.

There are also historical records about the famous examples of using iron flail to break the enemy. "Ceng Gong Collection" in the Song Dynasty records: "First, (Di Qing) Qing has left 2,000 people behind the enemy. Yes, before and after the converging attack. The thief's signboard army clashed with Ma Jun and could not fight. The sergeant immediately hit it with an iron cangue, so they were all invincible and they were defeated. (Agriculture) Guo burned the city and fled. " This written record shows that Di Qing, who lived in the western regions for a long time, gave full play to the "top-down" strike power of the iron cangue when the cavalry attacked, which made Igor, who was mainly an infantry, judge that the army fled.

In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, flail sticks were introduced into Korea. The flail spectrum preserved in Korean ancient books consists of two parts. One is a "whip stick", that is, a long-handled flail made of hardwood. The second is the "whip stick at once", that is, the flail at once, made of "bamboo". There is an exercise of one person holding a flail and one holding a long stick in the Whipple Manual, including ten starting position maps, and a training roadmap called "Total Scoring of Whipple" and "General Drawing of Whipple". Whip stick, later flail, gradually spread widely among Korean people and became one of the three major folk weapons in North Korea.

In addition, it is said that the flail stick was created by Zhao Kuangyin in Song Dynasty. Judging from the above historical data, this statement is wrong.

With the change of combat forms and the improvement of weapons, the flail stick gradually lost its prominent position on the battlefield and withdrew from the stage of military campaigns. Today, competitive martial arts is dominant, flail stick has been excluded, but as an ancient martial arts equipment, it is still circulating among the people. Gai Jiaotian, a Peking Opera performer, performed a flail fight in the drama "Song Wu Noisy Yunfei". The film Shaolin Temple also used flail sticks in the war between the Shaolin Temple stick monk and Wang Renze. It can be seen that flail occupies a considerable position in military and artistic performances. Widely spread in rural areas of Gansu and Shaanxi.

Horses and others are the best.