Jian (sword breaker)

The jian (simplified Chinese: 锏; traditional Chinese: 鐧; pinyin: jiǎn) or tie tian (鐵鐧 or 鐵簡, lit.

'iron slip'), also known as Chinese swordbreaker or Chinese truncheon,[1] is a type of quad-edged straight mace or club specifically designed to break weapons with sharp edges.

The traditional Chinese weapon has a rectangular (occasionally hollow ground) cross section with sharp corners, making it ideal to focus on damaging other weapons with brutal impact.

It was occasionally used as a throwing weapon, which gave rise to the idiom "sa shou jian (撒手鐧, lit.

[4] Jian is functionally similar to Chinese whip, a type of blunt weapons in tubular shapes.