156 Fist Fighting and Self-Cultivation
I hold my precious sword, whose name is Dragon Source;
Flashing as I unsheathe it, it illumines the Nine Heavens.
With the roar of a tiger, it comes through space;
It mounts on high to the Great Void.
Sun and moon, wind and clouds emerge on either side;
Auspicious clouds of energy carry the Eight Immortals.
When ordinary mortals see it, calamities disappear;
When perverse demons hear it, they go down to the Nine Springs.
The Most High gave me these secret instructions:
Walking the constellation, I circumambulate the altar.
Heavenly Worthy Who Responds as Shadow to Light.^62That the sword can substitute for the priest in his grave is the clearest indi-
cation of their intimate relationship. The seeker of eternal life may feign death
by transforming his sword into a replica of his body. Whereas the weapon re-
mains entombed, he is liberated to immortality. Detailed guidelines for the
performance of the metamorphosis are provided by Daoist scriptures, in which
the adept addresses his sword: “with you I replace my person so that my body
may be inv isible; I am going to hide myself, you w ill enter my tomb.”^63 Hence, if
the staff was the symbol of the Buddhist priest, the sword was the emblem of
his Daoist counterpart. (In Japan, however, the situation was different, for
swordsmanship did flourish there in a Buddhist (Zen) ideological context).^64
The centrality of the sword in Daoist religious practice might have con-
tributed to the incorporation of daoyin gymnastics into fencing. It is likely
that as early as the first centuries CE, breathing methods, and possibly even
qi-circulation techniques, figured in sword training. A hint is provided by a
short story that is anthologized in The Annals of Wu and Yue (Wu Yue chunqiu)
(ca. second century). Its protagonist is an outstanding swordswoman who is
invited by the king of Yue to instruct him in fencing. The swordswoman’s ex-
position of the art is replete with the daoyin vocabulary of breathing, qi, and
spirit (shen), as well as the cosmological terminology of yin and yang:
The art of swordsmanship is extremely subtle and elusive; its principles
are most secret and profound. The Dao has its gate and door, its yin and
yang. Open the gate and close the door; yin declines and yang rises.
When practicing the art of face-to-face combat, concentrate your spirit
internally and give the impression of relaxation externally. You should
look like a modest woman and strike like a ferocious tiger. As you
assume various postures, regulate your qi, moving always with the spirit
(shen). Your skill should be as obvious as the sun and as startling as a
bolting hare. Your opponent endeavors to pursue your form and chase
your shadow, yet your image hovers between existence and nonexis-
tence. The breath moves in and out and should never be held. Whether
you close with the opponent vertically or horizontally, with or against