RobP3 wrote:I was told that YLC's main weapon was the spear, though maybe the spear blade was removed after that accident. There's at least one Yang line that still has the halberd
I guess you mean kwandao and not halberd? Halberd is not the same as the kwan dao/guandao. What is usually referred to as halberd is "ji" type of pole weapons. This is the most common one:
I actually do have a book on Tai Chi weapons that have a chapter on the halberd with both solo and partner exercises. But it's not a traditional Tai Chi weapon.
YLC's favourite weapon was indeed the spear. Why people say that Yang Tai Chi focus on staff is because staff and spear is the same thing. It's the same use but the spear is limited to one side. I don't believe he learned the spear in the Chen village, but probably earlier as a part of his Shaolin training and then integrated it into his Tai Chi.
The Guandao is said to have been Chen Wangting's favourite weapon, but the common claim that his art was based on this weapon is a bit far stretched as he studied and collected many different things. Also, the original small frame doesn't have the large movements from the large fram that people claim symbolising the use of the kwan dao, so from this perspective, it has very little use for the kwandao.