This is one of the paintings done by Han Qing-tang. I had no idea he was an artist. His brushwork is beaultiful.
The following is a story about a demo that Han did in which he showed that a samurai sword couldn’t cut him. Make of it what you will, the story is still entertaining. Thanks again to Curtis Adkins for the story and the wonderful pic of Han’s painting.
HQT did a live television demonstration of his martial arts and self defense techniques. This was in 1962 or 1963. He brought along Shen Mao Hui and a couple of other students as participants and assistants. HQT’s son and I were observers so we sat in an upper level observation booth which had several monitors.
As part of the demonstration, HQT produced his Japanese sword and first sliced a sheet of paper to demonstrate the sharpness of the blade.Then he grasped the blade about midpoint with one hand and had a student bind his hand around the sword with a cloth. Han then pulled the remaining length of the blade out of his hand. Untying the cloth he held his hand up to the camera to show a crease across the palm.He then laid the blade against his face and drew the blade in a slicing motion against his cheek. His face showed a crease where the blade had gone. As I recall, the blade was not at a ninety degree angle to his face, but rather was somewhat flattened, probably less than 45 degrees, though I can’t be all that sure. This was the only time I saw this demonstration, though it apparently was a standard part of his “demo package.”
I saw the sword up close only once long before the demonstration. I had collected Japanese swords and armor in Los Angeles in the late 1950s and had about 15 swords of various type and quality. When I saw the sword at his house I expressed an interest in it. He showed it to me and I saw that it was a WWII machine made blade, a type which I didn’t collect, and so didn’t examine it closely. As I recall, it was in fair condition. I can’t say how much of an edge it had, though it definitely did not have the edge of a hand forged katana in good condition.
5 responses so far ↓
1 Q // Mar 28, 2007 at 9:37 pm
That’s a kick ass painting. Don’t quite understand the demo based on the description. Is he saying his skin is impenetrable?
2 Casey // Mar 28, 2007 at 11:04 pm
Interesting how the stances all look exactly like Zhou’s, butt sticking out in horse stance, forward-leaning bow stance, etc.
Like I once told Dave, Zhou Laoshi once told me that a version of Xisui-jing used to exist which consisted of medicinal baths you soaked your whole body in. Apparently these could impart unusual abilities like toughening of the skin. Maybe there’s a chance Han had undergone this kind of training?
3 Casey // Mar 28, 2007 at 11:06 pm
Great painting and story, by the way. I’ve started saving all these historical pictures on a folder in my computer. Eventually I should back them up and print them out as well.
4 Al Peterson // Mar 30, 2007 at 9:39 pm
Were is this picture located?
5 chessman71 // Mar 30, 2007 at 10:34 pm
I believe that this was given to Curtis as a gift. He was kind enough to share a photo of this with us.
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