I've been doing a bit of research on the Chinese jian, as I think it seems like a nice little sword. I recall seeing something posted here not too long ago about a 'contemporary sword' someone had made, styled after the jian, but I was wondering: does anybody happen to know anything interesting about jians (if that's the correct plural ;) ), or have any personal experience with them? Just asking.

Thanks!

http://thomaschen.freewebspace.com/

I have always found Thomas Chen's page to be enormously informative, regarding historical development of jian and other Chinese blades.

Yeah that is a really good page, it's too bad he can't get on a better hosting site somewhere. It's a little hard to navigate around but there is some really well researched information there and some beautiful photos, particularly of some of the dao.


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"Jian" is simply the Mandarin word for "sword" (Gim is the Cantonese word) and it always refers to a double-edged weapon. Most of the jian available for study are from the Qing dynasty period (1644-1911) but there are a few from the Ming dynasty
(1368-1644) still around. Scott Rodell, THE source for antique Chinese weapons, has stated that there is no appreciable difference in size, weight, handling, etc... in the Qing and Ming jian. There are some differences in styles of fittings and possibly in the shape of the tip. Other than that, the Chinese jian changed very little over the course of some 650 years.

The jian seems to have fallen out of military issue sometime in the Ming dynasty and after that period was solely a sidearm primarily for nobility, high ranking officers and daoist priests. The jian has a significant importance in daoism.

All of this information has been learned from various sources including Scott Rodell, Philip Tom, SFI, GRTC and a few other people/locations.

I owned an antique jian and it was very sweet sword. The blade was flattened-diamond in cross-section and extremely stiff. The blade length was a bit shy of 28", the point of balance was 7.5" down the blade and the whole sword weighed 1.75 lbs with a 6.5" handle. This is very representative of Chinese jian.

The modern interpretation you mentioned was by Peter Johnson who designs all of Albion's swords. His version was quite beautiful and seemed to me to combine a blade form of the Ming/Qing dynasty era with the hilt fittings of earlier dynasties.

Here is a photo of the antique I owned:


and another:

Very ineresting and informative, as always.

Many thanks! :)

My apologies if this is seen as boosting a 'rival' forum but this is where I turn for chinese sword info
http://forums.swordforum.com/forumdisplay.php?forumid=17

Moderators, feel free to kill this post if it offends.