The sabre set transmitted to Mr Moy contains a move called The Beauty Runs to the Moon which is not present in the 13 line poem which describes the Yang Family sabre set. What is this strange name?
The name itself is surely a reference to the Chinese legend of 嫦娥 Cháng’é, the wife of the mythical archer 后羿 Hou yi. Her name means “Beautiful Cháng”.
In Chinese mythology it is told that there were originally ten suns, whose great heat was burning up the earth. Hou yi shot down nine of these with his arrows and as a reward was given an elixir of immortality by Xiwangmu, the Queen Mother of the West, but did not wish to drink it himself. There are different versions of what happened next, but in all of them, Cháng’é takes the elixir and drinks it, becoming an immortal. In an early version she simply steals the elixir. In a later version, Hou yi’s apprentice Feng-meng attempts to steal the elixir so she drinks it to prevent it from falling into the wrong hands.
Chang’é’s journey to the moon is described by the phrase 嫦娥奔月 (), Beautiful Chang Runs to the Moon. In Cantonese her hame is pronounced Sheung Ngoi. Today she is considered a moon goddess and is often depicted (as above) with a rabbit – whilst in the West we see a man in the moon, the Chinese see a rabbit.
I found a Tai Chi club in Quebec that lists the move Queen Sheung Ngoi Flies to the Moon in its sabre list. They trace their lineage through Master Dong Yingjie (Tung Ying-chieh) 董英杰 (1898-1961), a top disciple of Yang Chengfu.
And what is the move The Beauty Runs to the Moon? Flying to the Moon means ascending: the rising of the blade. The move is the transition into Fair Lady Works Shuttles. After ‘Push Sabre Left and Right we square up and express the sabre in front of the body. Then comes a a clockwise turn combined with a rolling of the sabre. The weapon rises and effectively we turn underneath it. This movement, which leads into Fair Lady Works Shuttles, appears to be The Beauty Runs to the Moon.