Before starting the advanced lessons, make sure that you have made the sword handling skills your own. They should feel natural to you. Like you don't have to think about using a fork or a knife when you eat, you should not have to think when you practice the sword handling skills.
In Wudang swordsmanship, has eight fundamental grip and sword holding positions, forming the bedrock of both offense and defense.
These positions aren’t just static stances. Each one teaches:
How to hold the sword
How to respond to an opponent
How to deflect incoming strikes
How to launch your own attack
Why eight? Because no single grip or posture fits every scenario. Each position offers distinct advantages in balance, reach, and defense.
These grips represent rotational variations of the sword hand, flowing from full Yin to full Yang, often visualized on a clock face:
(looking at a clock with a sword in your hand)
Tài Yáng – Palm up (12:00)
Lǎo Yáng – Palm facing right up (1:30)
Zhōng Yáng – Palm facing right (3:00)
Shào Yīn – Palm facing right down (4:30)
Tài Yīn – Palm down (6:00)
Lǎo Yīn – Palm facing left down (7:30)
Zhōng Yīn – Palm facing left (9:00)
Shào Yáng – Palm facing left up (10:30)
These eight grips serve as foundational hand‑position variations, enabling practitioners to shift seamlessly between defensive and offensive techniques.
The Eight Positions trace their lineage back to Song Weiyi (1855–1927) — the legendary Wudang Grandmaster and author of the Wudang Jian Pu (1923), the earliest comprehensive manual on Wudang Sword.
Song Weiyi, himself a Daoist practitioner, was known not only for martial skill but also for deep knowledge of internal cultivation.
The Eight Positions are thought to have been part of Song’s personal method, designed to make the sword an extension of the body — seamlessly blending defense, attack, and adaptability.
His method synthesized Daoist internal principles (from the Elixir Sect, 丹派) and integrates physical forms, two-person drills, and philosophical training rooted in Daoist yin-yang theory, the Five Elements, and the Eight Trigrams.
with a complete curriculum:
Solo forms
Partner drills
Applications
Theory linking sword to Daoist "Theory" (Yin-Yang, Five Elements, Bagua)
This is why many modern teachers say the Dan Jian “comes from” Song Weiyi, he systematized it into the structured form we know today.
The Dan Jian you see in Wudang Shan today is essentially Song Weiyi’s structured form, filtered through several generations of transmission.
While Song himself may not have created the art on Wudang Shan, his system is now one of the most visible representations of “Wudang Sword” worldwide.
His martial teaching was passed to students like Li Jinglin, Fu Zhensong, and Guo Qifeng, who spread the art to military academies, martial associations, and later the public.