Chinese broadsword -- myArmoury.com

Michael Bergeron · Posted: Thu 04 Jan, 2007 2:18 pm Post subject: Chinese broadsword

I have been looking around lately on google, altavista and yahoo but cannot seem to find what im looking for.

Can anyone tell me or show me with pictures the authentic ways of wearing a chinese broadsword either on the hip or strapped to the back?

Thanks for the help.

Richard Fay · Posted: Thu 04 Jan, 2007 3:04 pm Post subject:

Hello all!

I don't know if any of the statues wear swords, but a good resource for ancient Chinese armour is the terracotta army of Emperor Qin Shihuang. Qin Shihuang, First Emperor of China, died in 210 BC and was buried in a massive tomb amid sacrifices and many objects, including 8,000 life-size figures representing men and horse of his army. Some may has once held swords, but I don't know if they still have belts and scabbards. It might be worth trying to find some images of these statues, though.

I would take this source with a grain of salt, but in Warriors & Weapons 3000 BC to AD 1700 in Colour by Niels M. Saxtorph shows a colour plate by Stig Bramsen of Chinese warriors from 1 AD-1700 AD. One warrior is turned so you can see the scabbard fro his "machete-like" sword; it is attached to a waist belt with a looped strap. It hangs at an angle, similar in style to the way a European sword might be worn. Again, I don't know how accurate this depiction is, but it's something.

You might try to look at period Chinese art to give you an idea. In Time-Life's Time Frame AD 1300-1400 The Age of Calamity, I found a photo of a sculpture from the Spirit Road, the gently curving way guarded by colossal sculptures that led to the tombs of the emperors. The sculpture in question is clad in the garb of a senior Ming general. He holds a mace in his right hand, and his left hand is on the hilt of his sword. The sword appears to be attached to a waist belt by a strap (or straps) that connect to the scabbard via rings attached to lockets, or something similar (it's hard to tell exactly from a photo). Again, it is suspended at an angle, just like European swords. What was shown in the colour plate in Warriors & Weapons 3000 BC to AD 1700 may be a simplified depiction of just such a suspension.

I hope this little bit helped!

Stay safe!

Richard Fay · Posted: Thu 04 Jan, 2007 3:49 pm Post subject:

Hello again!

Since a picture's worth a thousand words, here's the photo from Time-Life's Time Frame AD 1300-1400 The Age of Calamity of the warrior sculpture from China's Spirit Road. (Of course, a picture's worth a thousand dirty looks in my house - I have to cut out pages to scan them in my scanner, and my wife's none too happy about me cutting up my books! I only do this to some books, not my more treasured volumes.)

Enjoy!

Richard Fay · Posted: Thu 04 Jan, 2007 4:03 pm Post subject:

Hello again!

I actually did some searching for Qin Shihuang's Terracotta Army. I found this interesting site, with a slideshow showing the excavations and many of the artifacts found there:

http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/dept/d10/asb/anthr...lide1.html

I didn't see any belts or scabbards depicted on the warriors, but it might be of interest to anyone interested in Chinese arms & armour.

I hope this wasn't too far off topic.

Torsten F.H. Wilke · Posted: Thu 04 Jan, 2007 5:38 pm Post subject:

Richard, you definately caught my attention with this snippet;

Chris Lampe · Posted: Thu 04 Jan, 2007 6:50 pm Post subject: Re: Chinese broadsword

Michael Bergeron · Posted: Thu 04 Jan, 2007 9:19 pm Post subject:

thanks for everyone's help with the information.

@ Chris L: The third picture is the style of saber i have.

I was confused because the scabbard is made like a taco that you just kind of lay the broadsword in because of the curving and thickening blade. There are 2 rings which is how it is attached to the hip i see from the picture