Chapter 19 Section 5 Making swords and making pills

It seems that sword dancing and ball jumping are one of the unique skills of court acrobats.In "Youyang Zazu" by Duan Chengshi of the Tang Dynasty, it is described that there was an old chivalrous man who lived in seclusion in Lanling and was a master of sword and acrobatics.Once, he watched the prefect Li Gan begging for rain in Qujiang Pond. He was whipped by the prefect's subordinates because he did not avoid the prefect's car.Because of his qigong, the old man was "like hitting a leather bag" and "went away" without any damage.Li Gan felt very strange, knowing that he was a stranger, he hurriedly changed into casual clothes at night and went to Lanling to visit.The old man warmly received the prefect Li Gan and his entourage, and set up banquets everywhere, inviting everyone to drink together.It was late at night, and the old man put on purple clothes, tied his head with red silk, took out seven swords of different lengths, and danced in the court, jumping and flying, flying like lightning, sweeping like torn silk, circling and turning without any chaos.Among them, "there is a dagger more than two feet long, and it always reaches Li's lapel (clothes)", which made Li Gan "knock his head and tremble".After a while, the old man threw the seven swords on the ground, like the seven stars of the Big Dipper.Then, the old man explained to Prefect Li Gan that he was trying his "courage".After Li Gan returned home, his heart was still beating. He looked in the mirror and found that his beard had been cut off by a dagger by more than an inch.The old man's skill in wielding the flying sword is superb.In "Xinxi Ancient Music Picture", there are pictures such as "jumping pills on the rope", "playing the sword", "playing jade", "dancing on the sword" and "dancing with a knife", among which "dancing on the sword" is not only He is good at agility and technique, and even performed martial arts and qigong, which are similar to the golden bell jar and iron cloth shirt often mentioned in martial arts novels, or Yili Hunyuanqi, toad kung fu, turtle back kung fu, etc.It is a major feature of Chinese acrobatics to integrate real and profound martial arts, especially hard qigong and light qigong into acrobatics, and it is unique in the world.

The programs of jumping pills and playing swords are not popular today, mainly because they are dangerous, and accidents will happen if you are not careful, which makes people worry and frightened all the time, and destroys the atmosphere of entertainment, so they are replaced later. Content such as "playing flower sticks" is both good-looking and not dangerous.