Sword Schools in wuxia

Jianghu
1

Hello, I have a quick question about ‘sword schools’ in Wuxia fiction. Are they just for learning the sword and only the sword? Or are they more ‘martial schools’ that practice with many weapons, and ‘sword school’ is just a useful shorthand when translating into English?

I started wondering after reading about Linghu Chong discovering the cave paintings depicting the use of different weapons in ‘The Smiling Proud Wanderer’. But, of course, they were drawn by Sun Moon Cult fighters, and I don’t think the Sun Moon Cult was ever described as being a sword school.

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Martial arts school are usually championing a style or an ideology. There are schools for fist fighting, sabres etc. Schools specialising in swords will be called sword schools. Some schools teach a style regardless of weapons. These would usually not be translated as sword schools.

The Sun Moon Holy Order, often mistakenly translated as a cult, is a religious order. It wasn’t a sword school.