Now it seems that many versions actually overlap a lot.

Eighteen Wushu is a traditional term of China Wushu, which refers to many kinds of Wushu, and its contents are different in different periods.

The names of eighteen martial arts began to appear in Yuanqu. For example, there is a lyric in "Respecting Virtue and Refusing to Accept Old Age" included in "Ancient and Modern Zaju", which reads "He has learned all 18 martial arts, and he is familiar with all six books". At the end of the Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Shi Naian said in the second episode of Water Margin that Nine dragons entered the history of martial arts from Wang Jin. "What are the eighteen martial arts?" Spear, hammer, bow, crossbow, spear, whip, hammer, sword, chain, blade, axe, cymbal, halberd, card, stick, gun and pick. "He was referring to weapons. During the Wanli period in the late Ming Dynasty, Xie said in Volume V of Five Miscellaneous Articles: "Eighteen styles: one bow, two crossbows, three guns, four knives, five swords, six spears, seven shields, eight axes, nine cymbals, ten halberds, eleven whips, twelve maces, thirteen cangues and fourteen cangues. The so-called beating in vain, according to Zhu Guozhen (born in Wanli Apocalypse) in the Ming Dynasty, said in the book "Eighteen Things of Weapon Martial Arts" in volume 12: "Beating in vain is hand-to-hand combat ... commonly known as fist and fist, Suzhou people call it a thug." In Xiao Minji in the early Qing Dynasty, Zhou Lianggong said: "Fighting in vain means fighting with hands today, and those who are famous for fighting with short hands are also famous." He also said that "18 kinds of martial arts ended in vain, which shows that they are unarmed." Eighteen kinds of martial arts used to refer to weapons, but now they include fighting in vain.

Tang Shunzhi (1507 ~ 1560), a famous anti-Japanese soldier in Ming dynasty, said in Wu bian: "There are six soldiers in thirty, and the bow is the first. Nine times out of ten, martial arts is the first. " At the end of the Ming dynasty, firearms were not strong, and bows and crossbows were still used as sharp weapons in combat. Therefore, the bow is listed as 1 in thirty-six weapons and eighteen martial arts.

Since the Qing Dynasty, there have been four theories about the Eighteen Martial Arts:

1 sentence is considered as "knife, gun, sword, halberd, □, stick, fork, rake, whip, mace, hammer, axe, hook, sickle, rake, bow and arrow, rattan brand" (Figure 1 fork).

The second statement is the same as the above eighteen arrangements, except that the last three items are changed to: generation, trial, bow and arrow.

The third way of saying it is "nine long and nine short". Nine are guns, halberds, sticks, cymbals, forks, hooks, shackles and rings; Nine short ones are knives, swords, crutches, axes, whips, mallets, hammers, clubs and pestles. Bows and arrows of long-range weapons and cards or rattan cards of defensive weapons are not among the nine long and nine short, which is a reflection that modern military teachers generally do not learn bows and arrows, but only teach routines.

Fourth, some people in modern drama circles think it is 18 weapons, including knives, guns, swords, halberds, axes, cymbals, hooks, forks, whips, mallets, hammers, claws, sticks, crutches and meteor hammers.

The "eighteen weapons" often mentioned were called "eighteen martial arts" earlier. The word "Eighteen Martial Arts" is said to have originated from "Journey to the North in Cuiwei" compiled by Hua Yue, the top scholar in the Southern Song Dynasty. For example, The Water Margin says that Shi Jin learned eighteen kinds of martial arts: "spear, hammer, bow, crossbow, spear, whip, mace, sword, chain, axe, shovel, ge, halberd, card, stick, gun and fork." Other ancient books recorded: "One bow, two crossbows, three guns, four knives, five swords, six spears, seven shields, eight axes, nine cymbals, ten halberds, eleven whips, twelve slips, thirteen strokes, fourteen swallows, fifteen forks, sixteen handfuls, seventeen cotton ropes and eighteen white fights (that is, unarmed martial arts)." There are also nine long and nine short: "Nine short are knives, swords, whips, mallets, sticks, axes, sticks, thorns and pestles. Nine are knives, guns, sticks, cymbals, forks, clangs, hooks, shackles and halberds. " At present, the explanation of eighteen weapons is: knife, gun, sword, halberd, axe, shovel, hook, fork, whip, mace, hammer, grab, boring, stick, spear, crutch and meteor.

Knife is one of the earliest weapons in China, which can be divided into long knives and short knives. According to the function, there are machetes (long knives), horse-cutting knives, waist knives, shoulder-pole knives, bow knives, hook knives, eyebrow knives, dagger knives, three-pointed double-edged knives and flying knives. Knife appeared in the bronze age, because it was more practical than sword in large-scale riding, and gradually replaced the position of sword. In the Western Han Dynasty, a long iron knife with ring handle appeared, which was sharp on one side and thick on the other, and was not easy to break. By the time of the Three Kingdoms, knives had become short-handled fighting equipment commonly equipped in the army. Guan Yu's "Guan Dao" in the Three Kingdoms period, with a long and narrow blade shaped like a crescent moon and a dragon pattern on the back, is also called Qinglong Crescent Moon Blade, with a hook at the tip and a prominent serrated blade on the back, so it is also called "cold-eyed saw". After that, people paid more attention to the quality of steel knives and constantly improved them. The Song Dynasty's "Wu Jing Zong Yao" records that there were many kinds of knives at that time, including hand knives, curved knives, crescent knives, halberd knives, eyebrow knives and phoenix-billed knives. In the Ming Dynasty, it imitated the Japanese Dao style and made a long Dao with two hands holding the handle. Single knives include horse-chopping knives, The Lancet, ju knives, Yanling knives and big ring knives. They are brave and tenacious, known as "knives like tigers", while the double knives include mandarin duck knives and butterfly knives.

The early spear was mixed with spear, which was a long weapon used for stabbing and fighting. It consisted of a sharp spear head and a spear handle. It is divided into stable sitting and stable sitting. Early chariots were also equipped with spears as offensive weapons, which rose on a large scale in the late Han Dynasty. Spears are relatively long, generally about two meters, and some can reach more than four meters. The Zhang Ba snake spear used by Zhang Fei in Romance of the Three Kingdoms is a kind of spear. Its spear is more than two feet long, flat and curved like a snake, with blades on both sides, so it is called a snake spear. Spears used to be very effective in cavalry combat, but because they were very long, they were not easy to master without strict training, and later they began to be changed to guns.

Spears are inconvenient to use, and guns became popular in the Jin Dynasty. After the Tang Dynasty, spears were often called guns. After the Tang Dynasty, there were many good guns. "Biography of the Five Dynasties Kings" said: "Riding an iron gun, others are too excited to lift it. This army was named Wang Tie Gun. " It can be seen that an army with guns will appear soon. The Song and Ming Dynasties were the heyday of guns, and guns of various styles and uses were created, which were widely used in infantry and cavalry. There are pike, hook and sickle gun, nine-curved gun, pear flower gun, pen gun, Yanling gun, green heavy gun, muddy iron gun, dragon gun, tiger tooth gun, tiger head gun and so on. Pear flower gun is a special weapon, which is a combination of pike and firearm. It can be used to tie the flamethrower and pike together, ignite it with gunpowder and kill the enemy. You can also stab with a spear. This gun routine was created by Yang, the wife of Li Quan in the Song Dynasty, and is known as "Pear Flower Gun for 20 years, invincible in the world". The gun is the "king of hundreds of soldiers", long and sharp, flexible and subtle. Many famous soldiers use guns, such as Zhao Yun, Yang Jiajiang and Yue Fei. There are many kinds of marksmanship, but they are all good at clever and quick moves, and famous gun users often add their own ingenuity.

Sword, a short weapon, is known as the "king of a hundred blades", which was born out of spear-shaped stabbing soldiers and short daggers. It was once very popular. Whether fighting or just as an accessory of literati, there are swords. Swordsmanship and sword fighting in the Han Dynasty show the depth of martial arts attainments. Casting swords embodies the level of ancient metalworking technology. There are many famous swords in ancient legends, such as Ganjiang, Mo Xie, Longquan, Taiya, Chunjun, Zhan Lu, Yuchang and Juque. The sword is characterized by its combination of rigidity and softness, elegance and lightness. However, because it is not suitable for battlefield operations, the sword gradually withdrew from the battlefield, first as an auxiliary short weapon worn by generals, and later as a tool for cultivation, decoration, etiquette, fitness and even evil spirits.

Ji, evolved from Ge, is a combination of Ge and spear. Divided into halberd and short halberd, there are different usages such as horse halberd, foot halberd and double halberd. The trunk is gun-shaped, and there are two gears under the front tip, and a crescent-shaped sharp blade is embedded, which makes the halberd have various attack performances such as hooking, stabbing and chopping. Euphorbia Euphorbia is divided into Fang Tianji, Qinglong Euphorbia, Snake Euphorbia and Crescent Euphorbia. The halberd is the dragon among soldiers, with a magnificent and beautiful appearance. Ji was very popular in the Three Kingdoms period. The History of the Three Kingdoms records that "Sun Quan rode a horse to shoot a tiger and threw a double halberd", "Gan Ning danced with a double halberd" and "the Yunnan army carried a double halberd of 80 Jin". It can be seen that the halberd was not only popular at that time, but also very heavy. Lu Bu immediately used it, which was the best in the world. After the Jin Dynasty, long weapons attached importance to guns, and halberds began to become ceremonial weapons, which were rarely used on the battlefield in the Song Dynasty. However, I like this weapon very much. Magnificent and beautiful.

Cutting mountains, soaking in gold, crescent moon and scattering flowers are all nicknames of axes. Axe is a heavy weapon with thin blade and thick back, which is very lethal. Divided into long-handled axe and short-handled axe. The former is mostly used for immediate confrontation, while the latter is mostly used for foot warfare. It takes a lot of strength to use an axe, so most people who use an axe are majestic soldiers. People living in the north like to practice axe weapons. Huang Xu in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Jin Wushu, the general of the State of Jin in Yuefu Legend, and Li Kui jy in Water Margin are all experts with axes. In the Yuan Dynasty, the army often used axes, while soldiers in the Qing Dynasty liked to use double axes. The handle of the axe is more than a foot long, and the blade of the axe is very small. Both shafts can be inserted on the waist for flexible use.

The graupel is an axe, but it is bigger than it. Although it existed for a long time, it gradually lost its nature as a weapon after the Warring States period and became a ceremonial ornament and a ceremonial dance, which shows that it is not practical.

Hook is a multi-edged weapon, which evolved from the ancient weapon Ge. Yan Shigu's note: "Hook is also a weapon, bending like a sword, so it kills people." There are single hook, double hook, antler hook, tiger head hook, hand guard hook and so on. Ran Min, a general in the Jin Dynasty, was brave and invincible with an iron hook.

Fork is one of the ancient long-thorn weapons. It was originally a production tool. In ancient times, people used forks to hunt and fish. There are three forks, that is, the three-beard fork, also known as the triangular fork, which is shaped like a bull's head and is known as the three-legged heaven. There are two forks, also known as the dragon beard fork. There are also five forks, shaped like flames. Folk dance fork is also very distinctive: let the fork dance around the body, which is very ornamental.

Whip is also a short weapon, and its origin is roughly the same as mace. "General Introduction to Martial Arts" wrote: "iron whip has many knots, which were inherited by the Jin Dynasty. Julian's three-section whip is also in the shape of a savage. Iron whip was widely used in the Tang Dynasty. " There are several kinds of bamboo whips, tiger tail whips, water mill Strafe and so on. The generals who used whips after the Tang dynasty, the early Tang dynasty and the king of the back beam all used whips. There were many people who used whips in the Song Dynasty. Both Hu and Sun Li, Liangshan heroes, were good at using whips. The use of guns and whips was a popular way for ancient military commanders.

Mace is a short weapon, usually about four feet long, made of iron or copper. The scepter is quadrangular or circular. After weapons are forged, the mace body is often treated with trowel, plating and other processes to increase its beauty, so there are gold maces and bright silver maces. Mace is often used as an auxiliary weapon in the hands of generals. Mace is generally not only used, but also dual-purpose, so later generations have names such as male and female mace and mandarin duck mace. Qin Qiong, a general with double maces in Sui and Tang Dynasties, is famous for galloping across the Yellow River. He and Niu Hao, the general of Yue Fei in the Southern Song Dynasty, are both representatives of using mace in ancient times.

Hammer, also known as cone, is a short and heavy weapon, mostly spherical or melon-shaped. Because of its heavy weight, it is extremely lethal to use. The so-called "hammer will be invincible." Zhu Hai, a soldier in the Warring States Period, killed him with a hidden iron cone weighing 40 Jin in order to help Xin Lingjun steal the charm and save Zhao. Later, Li Bolang Shazhui hit Qin Shihuang with an early hammer. Hammer was widely used in Song Dynasty. According to legend, Yue Fei's famous "Eight Hammers" are four heroines wielding sledgehammers, and Yue Yun hammered out gold marbles, which are widely circulated. Mongolian cavalry in the Yuan Dynasty also made good use of hammers, and later the army in the early Qing Dynasty also liked to use hammers.

Yun is one of the heavy weapons among the eighteen weapons, which are mostly used in real-time combat. It evolved from spears and sticks, and its structure is complicated and bulky, which is mostly used by powerful generals. In ancient times, the handle was made of solid wood, about 2 meters long and about one thick. At the end of the handle, there is a rectangular hammer with six to eight rows of nails or iron teeth densely arranged on it, and a triangle iron is also installed at the end of the handle. Because its shape is similar to that of a spike, it is also called a spike. Early spears were mixed, and Cao Cao wrote poems horizontally, probably with weapons similar to spears. Zao Yang Yun, which was used by Dan in the early Tang Dynasty, has been formed independently.

It's always a weapon with complicated structure. There were two kinds of long weapons in the Song Dynasty. One was a gun, which was 20 feet long. A kind of grab bar, with no blade and iron claw, has the function of hitting and grabbing, which may be its embryonic form. The book "Wu Beizhi" shows a flying piece made of pure iron. If it is like an eagle claw, nail it with five fingers and tie it with a long rope. At first, you hit men, threw them away with great strength, put them together, and you can't take them off once you turn around. "The old five fingers have the ability of mechanical movement, and it is difficult to escape when they are caught. The later flying catch may have inherited Wu Beizhi's double flight.

Hua is a long and heavy musical instrument. It is shaped like a fork and heavy, with a sharp spear point in the middle, which is called "positive front". It is divided into two sides and bent upward into a crescent shape. It is connected to a handle and is about seven feet long. There are several styles, such as phoenix wing, wild goose wing, bull's head, skimming gold, sawtooth, meteor and so on. It is said that Yu Wencheng, the general of Sui Dynasty, used a phoenix-wing gilded boring, which was very powerful, second only to Li Yuanba.

In Wulin, the stick is regarded as the "king of martial arts". The big stick is more than eight feet long, and it requires great waist and leg strength and arm strength when dancing. In actual combat, it is often preemptive by its length, size and weight. Mei Qi's stick is flexible and changeable when dancing, and the sound of the stick is whistling, and the momentum is extremely brave. Shi Jin, a nine-wen dragon from Liangshan, Shui Bo, is a master of crutches. There are many schools of cudgel in China. In the Ming Dynasty, there were more than a dozen famous kinds of sticks, such as Shaolin, Bang, Zhangjiabang, Zhao Taizu's snake stick, Hetu hook stick, Niu Jiabang, Bang and Yu Bang. The monks in Shaolin Temple are famous all over the world. According to historical records, the stick technique of Shaolin monks was pointed out.

The stick belongs to the same kind of stick, slightly shorter. The length of the stick is generally about five feet, and the thickness of both ends of the stick body varies. One end is thick enough to hold the handle, and this end is the place to shake hands. The thinner you go up, the thicker the top. There are many kinds of sticks, including hook sticks, claw sticks, mace sticks, pestle sticks, stick sticks, big sticks and chain-clamping sticks. The sentry stick is about four feet long and shorter than Qi Mei's stick. It is made of hard rattan and was used by patrol sentries and night watchman in ancient military camps. The rod is like an eyebrow stick, but it is also short. As the saying goes, "Stick to your chest and stick to Qi Mei". According to folklore, at the end of Sui Dynasty, Wang Shan, a backer, made good use of double sticks. There is a saying that "one stick is equal in size, and all 400 military States are surnamed Zhao". As for the gold-banded cudgel made in The Journey to the West and the Monkey King, it seems that it should be closer to the gold-banded cudgel because of its infinite power to subdue demons and dispel monsters.

A meteor hammer is a hidden weapons tied with a rope, held in your hand, and hitting your opponent at a certain distance. It belongs to soft weapons. Also known as flying hammer, flying hammer and meteor hammer, users need high skills.

Shovel is an ancient weapon, a long weapon with thin body and wide blade. The shovel head is like a crescent moon, with the crescent moon facing upwards and a long handle, and the blade and handle are T-shaped. Shoveling originated from production activities, and later evolved into a military martial arts equipment, which was more widely spread among the people. For example, monks often use shovels, which can usually replace shoulder poles or open roads. The so-called convenient shovel is also.

Bow (crossbow) arrow was highly valued by the ancient army for its long-distance killing and was used in non-contact operations. The ancients used brawn to draw bows and shoot arrows. Excellent archers can draw strong bows weighing dozens of kilograms, and the effective range should be more than tens of meters. If you use stronger bows and crossbows, the distance can reach hundreds of meters or even more. Ancient famous soldiers took riding and shooting as a compulsory skill, and there were many good shooters. The range of crossbows is longer than that of bows, and various powerful machine crossbows have appeared in the Three Kingdoms and the Tang Dynasty. The crossbow developed greatly in the Song Dynasty. In the Song Dynasty, when infantry was emphasized, it was regarded as a weapon against the invasion of the northern riding country. With the appearance and development of firearms with longer range and greater lethality, the status of crossbows has gradually lost.

Shield is also called dry. Although it is also a weapon, it is rarely mentioned as an independent weapon. Shields are mainly used for defense, resisting the killing of offensive weapons, and sometimes as auxiliary weapons. Materials are wood, leather, rattan and metal. Generally wood and leather are used more. Before the Western Han Dynasty, the styles of shields were almost rectangular, which were divided into step shields and car shields. The step shield is used to prevent arrows and maintain formation, and the short and narrow vehicle shield is beneficial to vehicle defense. For a long time, it has been a necessary tool for personal protection and still plays an important role in riot police.

Finally, I want to talk about a weapon that once ruled China and then declined-Ge. Ge played a great role in the era of Volkswagen War. But Ge has many shortcomings, and his head is easy to fall off, so Ge tied his head with a rope, which looks crude, but it can be tied again. Ge's long handle needs to be waved, and the attack speed is slow and the attack action is single. Due to the limitation of using methods, with the decline of chariots, Ge also withdrew from the battlefield.