Chinese sword
A Jian is a straight, double-edged sword mainly used for stabbing; the term has been commonly translated into the English language as a longsword.
Meanwhile, a dao is a single-edged sword (mostly curved from the Song dynasty forward) mainly used for cutting, and the term has been translated as a saber or a "knife".
He also made three swords for King Goujian of Yue, named Longyuan (龍淵), Tai’e (泰阿) and Gongbu (工布).
If one takes a fish, bakes it, and strips off the ribs to reveal the guts, it resembles the pattern on a modern pan gang sword.
[15]According to the Spring and Autumn Annals of Wu and Yue, Ou Yezi was also the teacher of Gan Jiang, who was married to Mo Ye.
King Helü of Wu ordered Gan Jiang and Mo Ye to forge a pair of swords for him in three months.
Mo Ye suggested that there was insufficient human qi in the stove, so the couple cut their hair and nails and cast them into the furnace, while 300 children helped to blow air into the bellows.
Gan Jiang had already predicted the King's reaction, so he left behind a message for Mo Ye and their unborn son, telling them where he had hidden the Ganjiang Sword.
Several months later, Mo Ye gave birth to Gan Jiang's son, Chi (赤), and years later, she told him his father's story.
The King bent over the cauldron, and the assassin seized the opportunity to decapitate him, his head falling into the pot alongside Chi's.
The three heads were eventually buried together at Yichun County, Runan, Henan, and the grave is called "Tomb of Three Kings".
According to the Spring and Autumn Annals of Wu and Yue, King Goujian met a female sword fighter called Nanlin (Yuenü) who demonstrated mastery over the art.
[19] The woman was going to travel north to have an audience with King [Goujian of Yue] when she met an older man on the road, and he introduced himself as Lord Yuan.
[20]The Zhan Guo Ce mentions the high quality of southern swords and their ability to cleave through oxen, horses, bowls, and basins.
[21] The Yuejue shu (Record of Precious Swords) mentions several named swords: Zhanlu (Black), Haocao (Bravery), Juque (Great Destroyer), Lutan (Dew Platform), Chunjun (Purity), Shengxie (Victor over Evil), Yuchang (Fish-belly), Longyuan (Dragon Gulf), Taie (Great Riverbank), and Gongbu (Artisanal Display).
This reflects both the development of sophisticated sword-making technology in this region of China and the importance of these blades within the culture of the ancient south.
They introduced the characters of legendary swordsmiths such as Gan Jiang 干將 and Mo Ye 莫耶 to new audiences in stories that would be popular for millennia.
These tales would keep the fame of Wu and Yue sword-craft alive, many centuries after these kingdoms had vanished, and indeed into a time when swords had been rendered completely obsolete for other than ceremonial purposes by developments in military technology.
During the Han dynasty, Liu Pi King of Wu (195–154 BC) had a sword named Wujian to honour the history of metalworking in his kingdom.
[26] The jian was a popular personal weapon during the Han era, and a class of swordsmen emerged who made their living through fencing.
It seems clear enough that a competent smith could make a wrought-iron or steel sword of any reasonable length the customer desired or could pay for.
[31] An account of Duan Jiong's tactical formation in 167 AD specifies that he arranged "…three ranks of halberds (長鏃 changzu), swordsmen (利刃 liren) and spearmen (長矛 changmao), supported by crossbows (強弩 qiangnu), with light cavalry (輕騎 jingji) on each wing.
[36] In the 6th century, Qimu Huaiwen introduced to Northern Qi the process of 'co-fusion' steelmaking, which used metals of different carbon contents to create steel.
[29]Some warriors and bandits duel wielded daos to break deadlocks in confined terrain during the late Song dynasty.
[40] Many of the Song dynasty's soldiers wielded 2 handed long swords as their weapon to fight against the incoming nomadic cavalry of the North.
It's speculated that the Swede Frederick Coyett was talking about this weapon when he described Zheng Chenggong's troops wielding "with both hands a formidable battle-sword fixed to a stick half the length of a man".
Everyone was protected over the upper part of the body with a coat of iron scales, fitting below one another like the slates of a roof, the arms and legs bare.
This afforded complete protection from rifle bullets (mistranslation: should read "small arms") and yet left ample freedom to move, as those coats only reached down to the knees and were very flexible at all the joints.
They continually press onwards, notwithstanding many are shot down; not stopping to consider, but ever rushing forward like mad dogs, not even looking round to see whether their comrades follow them or not.
[45]Qi Jiguang deployed his soldiers in a 12-man 'mandarin duck' formation, which consisted of four pikemen, two men carrying daos with a great and small shield, two 'wolf brush' wielders, a rearguard officer, and a porter.
