Was a Jian Historicity used for Cutting?

It really comes down to the teacher. You can learn forms, which contain all the building blocks of the style. However if all you are learning is the postures with no drills and instruction, then you will get nowhere.

What I would recommend if you have no background in CMA is San Cai Jian, it can be picked up from a vast majority of schools (it's a form that crossed over into a lot of styles due to a few factors). It's body mechanics independent, it's a two person form, so it splits neatly in half and acts a two person drill. While also being able to be practiced solo.

Most of the other Jian forms are style dependent, requiring rigorous body mechanics. I would also recommend Yang Jwing Ming's "Sword Training Fundamentals" DVD, it has an array of single person and two person training drills. However, it comes with a word of caution. Totally ignore his talk about anything historical. The man is a great martial artist, but his 'historical facts' about origins of weapons and their geographic distribution are pure dojo lore. Nothing based in actual reality or based up with anything more reliable than his Sifu told him so.

If you want to go out and learn the dao and spear, I'm not as sure, however, since I don't train in either very much. (Dao bores me and I've never learnt the spear.)

I completely agree with you Houshe, thanks for the very informative clarification. I'm certain there are plenty of good martial artsists in china and traditions that live on amongst the populace. I was just lamenting on the fact that modern wushu has been so heavily promoted to the point where younger generations and majority of uninformed international audience take it as THE chinese martial art. Most people I know have no idea what chinese martial arts really even looks like except for what they see in modern wushu. On some western tv shows I've seen that compares martial arts of different cultures, when it comes to china they are showcasing and analyzing modern wushu and thinking that's representative of chinese martial arts. It's like you don't have to be so interested or educated in martial arts to know what muy thai looks like, or kickboxing, or karate, taekwondo etc. But it seems like one really needs to look into it to be informed about what real chinese martial arts is. It's making a come back though I feel in recent years as more and more people are becoming more aware.

As for weapon styles. There's a saying I heard before that goes like this: Wudang jian, Shaolin gun, Bagua dao, xinyi qiang. Its not an absolute statement, just a saying for the styles that were famous for and historically associated with these weapons. Personally I feel it's pretty good reference.

Check out YMAA's DVD Wudang Tai Yi Xuan Men Jian

Wudang is the most famous and respected Jian style in Chinese Martial arts. It would probably be one of the best places to learn, but it is pretty touristy now... I suppose in ancient times it would have been awesome.

ANyway the dvd has a Wudang Priest who trained from childhood there. It's pretty good

Tai Yi Xuan Men Jian is a very good sword form. However I wouldn't recommend that as your first step into sword training because it has pretty high flexibility and strength requirements. Also, as Houshe said earlier, style specific forms require the body mechanics of that style. Wu Dang is an internal school that has unique methods of movement that may be difficult to grasp without prior training in the system.

Oh yeah for sure, get the dvd. They also have a wudang basics and wudang tai chi dvd. I think if you get those too and start with those it will develope some basics needed for their sword.

Honestly, the easiest way to probably learn especially if you're near a major population center is to do what I did. (And this is with many years of martial arts experience). I rang around. Specifically asking if they taught sword work. If they didn't, or said that the sword wasn't an actual fighting implement but used for "extending ones qi"*. Then essentially, I hung up, I thanked them for their time, wished them a nice day, but crossed their name off the list.

Learning from a dvd or book is a tricky subject. it really depends on whether or not you have a foundation in the movements or not. If, for example you do Xingyi (a very linear jian style) and wanted to pick up the more complicated (not necessarily better) Qi Men Jian from Yang Jwing Ming's Northern Shaolin style techniques to expand the array of things you could deal with, then it's possible. However, you must make sure that each movement corresponds to the principles within Xingyi, that your body alignment doesn't break etc, because if you don't have a systematic whole to your sword practice, there will be no easy interchange between the two sets of techniques. But also, don't go calling your new form a Shaolin Jian style, it's not, it's a Xingyi interpretation of it.

*Believe in this or not, I'm not going to judge, however it most certainly isn't the sole purpose of sword training.

I personally find long fist as a good foundation for chinese martial arts. It developes all the fundamental flexibility,postures, form, strength and movements of CMA and also builds stamina and athleticism. It trains every part of the body. After basic training in long fist going into other more specialized styles like chen taichi or xingyi, bagua, etc.. would be slightly easier in my opinion. Traditional long fist styles like shaolin longfist, hua quan, cha quan, etc. are good places to start if you've never done cma before.

Thanks, good point, and so true about damaging your joints with bad footwork, I was watching a class and heard a senior student saying he'sd messed up his knees from his earlier days of training, and I didn't quite understand how that would happen, now I know, so I'll watch out for that. I think I'll be looking into learning Chen taiji soon! Thanks heaps, everyone here!