Hunyuan jianjing 渾元劍經

Hunyuan jianjing 渾元劍經, also called Jiansui qianyan 劍髓千言, is a book on sword fighting written during the late Yuan period 元 (1279-1368) by Bi Kun 畢坤, courtesy name Yunlong 雲龍. He lived in seclusion as a private sword master.

The book is divided into two large chapters, namely an inner chapter (Neipian 內篇) and an outer chapter (Waipian 外篇). The inner chapter explains the principles of sword fighting and the training rules for sword masters (jianke 劍客). The outer chapter is dedicated to specific skills and movements. The writing is fluid and elegant, richly detailed, and stylistically refined, marking it as a classic text in the Daoist tradition of cultivation.

The book introduces foundational principles and training methods such as the three-step sleep technique (sanbushui 三步睡), the six-character formula (liuzi jue 六字訣), the three-character walking method (xingzou sanzi jue 行走三字訣), and guidance like "open the seven orifices before training with the sword" (lian jian xian kai qiqiao 練劍先開七竅) and "let qi circulate throughout the entire body" (qi guan zhou shen 氣貫周身). The author illustrates these techniques with many images and shows how to engage an opponent with a sword, a staff, and a spear. It teaches practices like footwork, technique, and presents the "Flying astral script" (feigangwen 飛罡文), the "Heavenly Clarity Incantation" (Tianqing zhou 天清咒), and the "Secret soaring talisman script" (Feiteng bizhuan 飛騰祕篆).

The book was not printed, but is only preserved as a late Qing-period 清 (1644-1911) manuscript owned by the Beijing Library (Beijing Tushuguan 北京圖書館). Unfortunately, the manuscript suffers from many clerical errors, which makes proofreading quite challenging.