The blade is one of the most commonly used weapons in martial arts and ranks at the top among the eighteen martial arts weapons. It is a bladed weapon with a short hilt and praised as the “gut of all weapons”.

A blade is composed of the blade point, body, edge, fuller, guard and grip. Point and edge, the sharpest of all parts, are responsible for attacks; fuller, the most solid and thickest part, is in charge of defense. In the subdivision of blade, there are long blade, cutlass, horse chopping blade, long-hilt blade, hook blade, eyebrow-shaped knife, dagger, triple-pointed and double-bladed saber and flying blade. It can also be classified into single blade, double blade and hidden blade.

The blade can split, chop, cut and stab, and its powerfulness renders it the name of a fierce tiger. In ancient times, most soldiers fighting with short weapons used blades. Based on the blades’ basic movements of splitting and chopping, blade practitioners have come up with numerous sets of blade techniques which have been coordinated with various footwork and steps to form routines. Current schools of blade techniques include Tai Chi Blade, Mei Hua (plum blossom) Blade, Ba Gua Blade, Ba Men Jin Suo (eight doors with gold locks) Blade, Ri Yue Qian Kun (the sun, moon, heaven and earth) Blade and Shaolin Shuang Dao Shi Ba Gun (Shaolin double blades with eighteen rolling techniques).