Three-section staff

The weapon is also known as the coiling dragon staff, originally panlong gun (Chinese: 蟠龍棍; pinyin: pánlónggùn; Jyutping: faan4 lung4 gwan3).

Although there is no historical evidence to support it, a popular modern-day legend states the weapon was made famous by Zhao Kuangyin, the first emperor of the Song dynasty (960 AD).

[1] Historically made of white oak, waxwood, or Chinese red maple, modern staves are constructed from rattan, bamboo, various hardwoods or aluminum.

While some martial artists have held that the three-section staff was used on the battlefield to entangle horses' legs or to strike around shields, the complexity of the weapon and the length, difficulty of use, lack of sharp tips or edges and other advantages of such traditional battlefield weapons as spears, polearms (such as the yan yue dao), swords and so forth meant that the triple staff was more likely restricted to personal self-defense.

At long and intermediate ranges, the strike of one ends not upon impact but on recoil; even the greatest martial arts masters must use valuable time regaining control of their weapon.

Foam covered versions are now sold to aid in training, but the blows received from the ends on recoil are a relatively rare risk.

To experience the versatility of both single-staff and three-section staff, some manufactures have created a combination weapon made out of metal.