Taiji Sword by Wu Tunan (1936)
Presented here is a modified version of Paul Brennan’s translation of "Taiji Sword (太極劍)" published here with his permission. Be aware that Paul Brennan continously improves his translations with new updates, which means that the version presented here will diverge from the original as time passes.
The original up to date translation can always be found at Paul Brennans site:
https://brennantranslation.wordpress.com/2015/11/25/wu-style-taiji-sword-qiankun-jian/
The changes to this modified version include:
- Adapted to double sided printing.
- The Chinese characters and pinyin has been added directly to the English translation for key terms such as basic sword methods and technique names.
- Minor cosmetic changes to improve printing and readability, such as different colors for the Chinese and English text. I have added some linebreaks in the form technique descriptions to break up the "wall of text" and make it much more readable.
All changes, except purely typographic changes, has been marked with a separate color.
The modified version can be downloaded here:
The updated version from 2026:
PDF version
ODT version (for further editing)
The old modified version from 2016:
PDF version
ODT version (for further editing)
I have also written some comments on the book and on the modifications, and also added a list of the form techniques with references to the page numbers for easy access:
Comments on Taiji Sword (1936)
Some notes about this book
Wu Tunan’s book "Taiji Sword" from 1936 is the earliest documentation of our sword form - the Qian Kun Jian - so naturally this translation is of big interest to us. The sword form we practice is not identical with the one presented in the book, but it is quite close which indicates a common ancestor.
Also of interest is the last chapter which details the same eight basic sword methods that we still use (judging by the names), but with more detailed sub methods. The extent to which the actual interpretation of these sword methods are the same as ours is subject to further study.