Jianjing 劍經

Jianjing 劍經 is a book on sword fighting written during the late Ming period 明 (1368-1644) von Yu Dayou 俞大猷 (1503-1579), who also compiled the military book Xu wujing zongyao 續武經總要.

The text focuses on the skill of using a "staff" (gun 棍), i.e., a sword, and presents "secret formulas" (in the shape of poems or songs) or methods of performance. It constitutes a comprehensive collection of sword combat methods, both in battle and for martial arts in entertainment. It introduces, for instance, the techniques of "following the opponent's momentum and lending his strength" (shun ren zhi shi, jie ren zhi li 順人之勢，借人之力), and so lays the foundation for the theoretical framework of sword-fighting techniques. The General He Liangchen 何良臣, therefore, regarded the book highly. In addition, the book also discusses the use of the halberd, spear, and archery techniques. Various weapons are thus compared with the canonical Four Books (sishu 四書), the individual texts of which correspond to halberd (gou 鉤), sword (dao 刀), spear (qiang 槍), and rake (ba 鈀). When fully mastering these weapons, one could move on to more advanced techniques.

The text is found in Yu's collection Zhengqitang ji 正氣堂集 and is quoted in Qi Jiguang's 戚繼光 (1528-1588) book Jixiao xinshu 紀效新書.