T T Liang and Li Jin Fei

During his years in Taipei T T Liang heard of a sword master who was reputed to be not only of a very high skill level but one of a handful of sword masters that still knew the art of Sword Tassel.

Whenever he told me this story Master Liang emphasized that it took him several years to arrange an introduction to this master. His first meeting went like this.

T. T. Liang already had a reputation of being a sword master himself. Through many years of study that included Shaolin arts as well as Tai Chi, Liang had practised and mastered several sword forms, sword fencing sets and many different two person drills.

When he arrived at Li Jin Fei's compound Master Li asked Liang to show him some of what he knew. After a brief demonstration Master Li said that he didn't think Liang could even hold on to his sword very well. T T was surprised by this statement and replied that of course he could hold on to his sword as he had just demonstrated. Master Li then asked him to raise his sword and they would see if this was true.

As soon as T T raised his sword Master Li made a movement with his sword and tassel that took Liangs sword out of his hand. T T asked to try again and they repeated the scenario several times. Each time the result was the same, ending with T T being disarmed.

Liang told us that, as taught by Master Li Jin-Fei,  the swords tassel had three purposes;

1. to distract the opponent
2. to cut the opponent
3. to disarm the opponent

To this end the tassel would have been made of a very strong but thin material, usually either silk or wire. The cuts were made by swiping the sharp ends of the tassel along an opponents arms, hands or face. This would produce many small cuts that would bleed profusely. The facial cuts would bleed into the eyes, rendering the opponent blind. The hand and arm cuts would bleed into the opponents hands making them slippery with the result that they would not be able to use their sword.

After this demonstration T T was even more sure that Li Jin Fei had something worth learning and asked to become a student. The main set (among others and many sword drills) that T T Liang learned from Li Jin Fei was a relatively short sword form called Ta Mo Sword. It is not a Taiji set but a Wu Dang Sword Form. I have a film of Master Liang training with Li Jin Fei and several other students as well as a video of Li Jin Fei performing Ta Mo Sword but I cannot release them publicly due to copyright and ownership issues.

The video that is included with this Note is not one of those taught by Li Jin Fei. This video showsTsun Tsai Sword Fencing from the Chin Woo School founded in Shanghai in 1915 by the real life Gong Fu master Huo Yuan Jia (played by Jet Li in the movie Fearless). This set is also not a Taiji set but a Shaolin set.

The Chin Woo School was founded by Huo Yuan Jia but had input from many different masters and many different Gong Fu styles. The curriculum of the school was made up of the best all around forms from each master. Something that all the masters agreed would be beneficial to all students no matter their style.

Master T. T. Liang kept this set in his own canon of teachings because he felt it was a truly outstanding example of sword basics in application.

Master Liang told me that when he and Enoch Yu would demonstrate this set they would finish normally, bow to each other, bow to the crowd and then both of them would pull a concealed knife from their sleeves and throw them at each other. Of course having practised this beforehand they would be able to catch the knife but it would have been a very impressive end to an already impressive Sword (with Tassel) performance.

When Master Liang taught his North American students Tsun Tsai it included tassel work making both ends of the sword into a useful weapon.

Gordon Muir

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