Rope dart is a dark horse of ?SPAN lang=EN-US>cold weapons?SPAN lang=EN-US>. There have few people who know it well among the people practising Chinese kongfu at this time. About its history, it was said that:  long long ago, there was a kongfu master whose surname was ?SPAN lang=EN-US>Yang?SPAN lang=EN-US>, he was righthearted and was a good helper. One day, a local spalpeen rided roughshod over a husbandman, the Yang master gave him a lesson. The spalpeen hated him and employed a killer to plot against the Yang master to death. Many years later, Yang?SPAN lang=EN-US>s daughter grew up and learned Wushu from a good master. Laterly, she skilled well in Chinese kongfu and was especially excellent at red-tasseled spear. She came back to revenge for his father, but as a girl, it was very hard for her to near the spalpeen taking with a long red-tasseled spear. She removed the top of the spear and tied it with a rope to hide it in her clothes. She practiced the new weapon with the practicing methods of red-tasseled spear. Finally, she tried her best to revenge for her father with the new weapon. At that time, a new weapon-----Rope dart came into being.

Now, rope dart is a kind of flexible weapon in Chinese Kongfu, and also is named ?SPAN lang=EN-US>zou-xian-dart?SPAN lang=EN-US>, ?SPAN lang=EN-US>shuai-tou?SPAN lang=EN-US>. Its weight is about 1/2 kg, the length of its rope is double of the practiser?SPAN lang=EN-US>s height. There are three connecting circles linking the rope and the dart, and two circles connecting the middle one of the three circles, which is named ?SPAN lang=EN-US>sound circles?SPAN lang=EN-US>. The five circles connecting to each other liking the petal of a club, so it is called ?SPAN lang=EN-US>flower circles?SPAN lang=EN-US>.A red silk is tied on the dart, called ?SPAN lang=EN-US>waving silk?SPAN lang=EN-US>, it is used for decoration and also to keep the dart to be balanced and exact when the dart is threw out. The end of the rope is knotted to be a liveknot as a handle. 

The dart is the only part of the weapon where can be used to attack. When practicing, use the arthrosis of our body as the fulcrum to do the twisting, retracting and emitting actions, and also to change the center of the moving circles of the dart. So, the moving direction is changed skillfully. If it is moved quickly to some degree, its execution is great. The practicing of rope dart is full of skills, so before learning it, the basic skill of Chinese kongfu must be learned firstly.

It is hard for a person to practice it well, but it is the most attractive weapon for me. I love it very much.

If you have known about the special and charming weapon, let come together to talk about it and learn from each other.
   If ok, welcome to China to exchange our experiences on learning about rope dart.

Yours lovely

  Jadery

 27th,Nov, 2005.

Note: Before getting the allowance of the auther---Jadery, please don't transfer this artical.