I have finally given in. After Benghui repeatedly asked for a wushu jian ( sword? ) I asked him to give me three reasons why I should buy him one. The following are his reasons.
1. He needs one.
2. He troubles every body by borrowing people’s jian. Their mummies and daddies are not happy about it.
3. He will take good care of it.
I went to see his coach. He gave me a medium-sized one. I don’t know what it is made of. It is soft and flexible and could hurt if one is not careful. His coach asks him to practice outside the house to avoid hitting stuff while he is geting used to it.
He has to wash it with water after every usage, wipe with a dry cloth and oil it occasionally. So much trouble for just one sword. But the price isn’t cheap. Not cheap at all 
but his happiness makes it worthwhile.
It all sounds so great on paper huh? A little kid happy with a new toy. Inwardly I was cursing when I heard Benghui opening the front door to practice EARLY in the morning with my dog, Oopi, barking excitedly at what it perceived to be a new game.
When will I ever have a good night’s sleep
Update:
The jian is a double-edged straight sword used during the last 2,500 years in China. The first Chinese sources that mention the jian date to the 7th century BC during the Spring and Autumn Period;[1] one of the earliest specimens being the Sword of Goujian. Historical one-handed versions have blades varying from 45 to 80 centimeters (17.7 to 31.5 inches) in length. The weight of an average sword of 70-centimeter (28-inch) blade-length would be in a range of approximately 700 to 900 grams (1.5 to 2 pounds). There are also larger two-handed versions used for training by many styles of Chinese martial arts.
In Chinese folklore, it is known as “The Gentleman of Weapons” and is considered one of the four major weapons, along with the Gun (staff), Qiang (spear), and the Dao (sabre).
A guard or hilt protects the hand from an opposing blade. The shape of the guard can be described as short wings pointing either forward or backward. A minority of jian featured the disc-shaped guards associated with dao. A handle behind the guard can accommodate the grip of both hands or one hand plus two or three fingers of the other hand. Two-handed jiàn of up to 1.6 meters (65″) in length, known as shuangshou jian, existed but were not as common as the one-handed version. The longer two-handed handle could be used as a lever to lock the opponent’s arm if necessary. Grips are usually of fluted wood or covered in rayskin, with a minority being wrapped with cord.
The end of the handle was finished with a pommel for balance, to prevent the handle from sliding through the hand if the hand’s grip should be loosened, and for striking or trapping the opponent as opportunity required — such as in “withdrawing” techniques. The pommel was historically peened onto the tang of the blade; thereby holding together as one solid unit the blade, guard, handle, and pommel. Most jian of the last century or so are assembled with a threaded tang onto which the pommel or pommel-nut is screwed.
Sometimes a tassel is attached to the hilt. During the Ming Dynasty these were usually passed through an openwork pommel, and in the Qing through a hole in the grip itself; modern swords usually attach the tassel to the end of the pommel. Historically these were likely used as lanyards, allowing the wielder to retain the sword in combat. There are some sword forms which utilize the tassel as an integral part of their swordsmanship style (sometimes offensively), while other schools dispense with sword tassels entirely. The movement of the tassel may have served to distract opponents, and some schools further claim that metal wires were once worked into the tassels for impairing vision and causing bleeding when swept across the face. The tassel’s use now is primarily decorative.
The blade itself is customarily divided into three sections for leverage in different offensive and defensive techniques. The tip of the blade is the jiànfeng, meant for stabbing, slashing, and quick percussive cuts. The jiànfeng typically curves smoothly to a point, though in the Ming period sharply angled points were common. Some antiques have rounded points, though these are likely the result of wear. The middle section is the zhongren or middle edge, and is used for a variety of offensive and defensive actions: cleaving cuts, draw cuts, and deflections. The section of blade closest to the guard is called the jiàngen or root, and is mainly used for defensive actions; on some late period jian, the base of the blade was made into an unsharpened ricasso. These sections are not necessarily of the same length, with the jiànfeng being only three or four inches long.
Jian blades generally feature subtle profile taper (decreasing width), but often have considerable distal taper (decreasing thickness), with blade thickness near the tip being only half the thickness of the root’s base. Jiàn may also feature differential sharpening, where the blade is made progressively sharper towards the tip, usually corresponding to the three sections of the blade. The cross-section of the blade is typically that of a flattened diamond with a visible central ridge, though some are lenticular (eye-shaped) instead; ancient bronze jian sometimes have a hexagonal cross-section.
Most Chinese martial arts, such as Taijiquan for one well-known example, still train extensively with jian, and expertise in its technique is said by many of them to be the highest physical expression of their martial skills. However, most jian today are flexible tai-chi or wushu jian used mainly for ceremonial purposes and not for actual combat.
What had every body been doing the whole morning? I saw a post laju envelope on the table.
