Hey,

Can anyone point me in the direction of either:

1) A full size sword, made entirely out of peachwood

2) A source of peachwood boards, etc.

I've been reading articles about these and apparently, they're good for protection against evil spirits and ghosts. Now I'm not being attacked by any bad spirit, or whatever. But I am fascinated by these things, and the only one I can find is from www.fenshuibestbuy.com and it's tiny. I'm looking for something that I could potentially practise tai chi jian with also (just a real size sword made of peachwood). I would plant a peach tree, wait for it to grow, and harvest the wood myself. But frankly, I don't want to wait that long! If anyone has any other info on these swords feel free to post it!

Thanks.

There are full sized ones out here in Xi'an, China. They come from Northeastern China, I forget which town, I think not too far from Qingdao. The store in Xi'an is by the Big Wild Goose Pagoda, and being so close to a tourist spot, the swords are probably more expensive than they should be. Ball park around $100 but don't quote me on that. They are handmade of peach wood and have Taiji symbols, dragons, characters, etc on the handle and sheath.

However this one on ebay right now looks better I think because it is painted, the swords in this shop are original wood color.
http://cgi.ebay.com/CHINESE-OLD-PEACH-WOOD...7QQcmdZViewItem

If this one doesn't work for you, PM me if you're desperate, maybe we can work something out.

Those swords are the Zhong Kui (Ghost Killer) swords. I had a couple earlier this year but have given them away. Sorry. If I come across anymore I'll let you know and can arrange to get you one.

Tao Bless,

Wudangspirit

Thanks to both of you guys.

I'd appreciate your help, wudangspirit. Let me know if you come across anything. Where are you located?

And guy from Xi'an (I can't read Chinese; don't know your name) I'll keep an eye out for the ebay one, but I usually like to get items from other places if I can. I'm terrified of giving my credit card number away on ebay What did you have in mind to work out?

Anyway, thanks again for your help. Let me know of any more info about these (why peach is so good, how they combat the ghosts, etc.)

http://www.chineseswordsocietyuk.com/forum...hread.php?t=135

These are the best wooden swords I have seen so far.

I own a Raven Studios jian and it is fantastic. It is very solid and heavy (not overly so but much more so than most wooden pratice swords) yet well balanced. It's designed for heavy contact. You may be able to custom order one out of peach wood although it won't be as durable if you plan to spar with it.
Here is there link
http://little-raven.com/RS/MA/index.html
Good luck

So is it just the peach swords that are esoterically important to Taoists? Or is it any Jian, wood or otherwise, that has been used by the dedicated student in practice of his arts? It's always been my view that the right intention and the right frame of mind is much more important than the traditional material things (robes, dzi beads, whatever.) I have no teacher, so anything you guys know would be helpful.

Thanks.

Daoists uses the jian for a number of rituals - exorcism, a variety of blessings, and so on... and I believe that what is important is that the jian used for these purposes usually has been transformed into a talisman of sorts using inscriptions and perhaps other rituals.

Ok, thanks. So do these rituals happen while the sword is being forged? Or any time?

It's my understanding that it's the making of the sword that bestows it's ritual significance. However, maybe the sword is not dissimilar to us. You have the original, inborn, yuan qi and then you have the qi you acquire throughout life. Obviously having great yuan qi is quite an advantage. Yet, it seems that many masters out there became so because of early constitutional problems (childhood illnesses), early problem, early cultivation. And there are people who live a great long life, drinking, smoking, otherwise defying all health guidelines, but they never experience the feeling of qi or stillness. Different paths for different people. But I'm getting sidetracked.

I guess what I'm hypothesizing is there is inborn significance and then there is significance that gets imbued through use. Best have both, but as the first is hard to come by, I'd readily pursue the second. Of course, you could make make your own sword and have the best of both worlds.

By the way, those Raven Studio swords look great!

I dont know about the wooden swords though can give you another example to give you an idea.

Im a collector of authentic antique keris from Indonesia. These ritual weapons are very powerfull, oh yes. The most powerfull one i have is over 400 years old and is ritually cleansed and empowerd over this whole period.

Inside the keris is put a Fu (a talisman) while he is being forged, often its a little piece of paper with symbols written down on it. On the keris itself on the outside of the blade there are symbols engraved wich are called pamor.

Besides the fu and the pamor wich strenghten the keris i also know of a special procedure conducted by the empu. Its somekind of ritual where the empu solitudes himself with the keris (often in a forest) and charges it with yinlike energy. This process can take a whole night.

With other words there are several ways to give a weapon its characteristics.

In the case of the wooden sword i can easily believe its good for extending bodyenergy.

Thanks guys,

So now I guess I want to know about these rituals. Does the maker/user of the sword (wood or metal) sort of pray to the cosmos to imbue some of its energy into the sword? Or does he impart some of his own energy to it? I don't want to do any ritual just for the sake of doing it. I'm interested in what's really behind the ritual; what the real intent and state of mind should be.

Thanks

In the example of a keris a meteor (stone from the heavens) is used in the forging (not entirely, think its about 100 or 200 grams on 9 to 12kg of total earthly metal). This is a symbol for the mating of heaven and earth and wich is my guess .. to keep the yinlike energy trapped.

Also the cover should be over the keris for its optimal strenght to symbolise the union between female and male. Yust as the hilt (wich is removable) and the blade of the keris symbolise this union.

Im no empu so i dont know the exact ritual. I do know that the empu puts a part of he's own energy (although energy starts to get hard to define by this, consciousness or intent maybe ?) in the keris and gives it a specific purpose good or bad.

It seems that for every metal used there is also an energetic counterpart incorporated (hard to explain certainly when english isnt mainlanguage)

I know it may sound a bit strange but it can go even more weird hehe.

Ok, now we've talked a little about the metal swords. Why are peach swords considered so special? What I mean is, if I can put the same amount of devotion, power and (in non-alchemical terms) spirit into any sword, why bother with peach specifically?

Peach wood is, according to Chinese tradition, able to ward off evil spirits.

Zhuang Zi wrote that evil ghosts and spirits would not dare enter a house with a branch of peach wood hanging across the top of the doorway. Li Shizhen, author of the Bencao Gangmu (Compendium of Materia Medica) suggested that ghosts were afraid of the smell of peach wood.
China's first geographical tract, the Shanhai Jing (Classic of the Mountains and Seas), even goes so far as to remark of certain areas that they are 'rich in peach trees' (“多桃”); this is probably because they were considered auspicious.

One suspects that if you are looking to use your sword to exorcise ghosts and spirits (or when performing the Big Dipper stepping patterns), then peach wood would be a good choice, but if you want to fight corrupt officials or subdue thieves and villains in real life (!), peach wood probably won't do you much good.

If you do get a peach wood sword, I would also suggest enchanting it by getting the Flying Sword Fu 飞剑符 carved into it, ya' know, just to get the full force of the Taoist deities behind it.

The peach tree was transformed into Eden's apple tree in the Judeo-Christian tradition, and its ability to bestow immortality, into the "knowledge of good and evil," but it's the same tree, which early proto-Christian mystics (the Essenes? -- I recall reading that the Dead Sea Scrolls seem to prove Jesus was a member) had adopted and adapted to their own interpretation. Like its later apple tree offshot, the peach tree of immortality is guarded by gods and is off limits to mere mortals -- with a few notable historic exceptions. A mortal can get a peach off that tree as a crowning gift of cultivation, once in a blue moon -- the peaches ripen only once in ten thousand years -- or get it by accident, as two unremarkable boys once did simply because they got exceptionally lucky. They met a guy who had worked on his gong for ten thousand years to get to that tree, and as he was carrying his peaches in a very nice mood, he gave one to the boys. This is one of my favorite legends because it phases in the probabilistic nature of taoist cosmology which, apart from things written in the stars and things left to free will, has room for things left to pure chance ("luck" in taoist astrology's terms, "good" or "bad" or even "dumb" in human terms). When the two boys ate the peach and immediately showed up at the palace of the Celestial Immortals, the Jade Emperor goes, who the hell are they? One of his assistant gods checks up on the boys in the book of destiny and, indeed, it predicts that around this day, two unremarkable boys chance upon an immortal who might, on a whim, give them one of the divine peaches and so they are destined to become Celestial Immortals. The Jade Emperor then shrugs his shoulders: you lucky bastards, no cultivation, no quest, no merits, not even any money to buy a peach, the old man just gave it to you? What has he been smoking? Now even I can't overrule the book of destiny, for even my own destiny is left to its chances, to an extent. OK then, make yourselves at home, you've got an eternity to idle away...

And that's how I chanced upon my peach sword too. The day I decided I needed it, I went to an antique store and it was just sitting there waiting for me, in a bucket full of antique canes and umbrellas and suchlike. I guess it was written in the book of destiny that I was supposed to get it the moment I wanted it. Its handle is carved as one of those immortals' heads with the egg-shaped cranium; the ritual I follow calls for writing my own talismans on it, with special ink (which I also have to make myself), and then doing a few more things, depending on what I want to use it for.