Why do Chinese naval officers wear Han swords instead of Tang horizontal swords?

At present, the world, in addition to all the land countries do not have a formal navy, basically the coastal areas of the countries have formed their own navy.

The navy, as one of the three armies of the sea, land and air, occupies an important position, and the naval officers pay great attention to their words, deeds and instruments.

However, whenever our country's naval officers show up, always like to wear a Han sword, rather than wearing a Tang sword, do you know why?

The Chinese navy did not have the habit of wearing a sword before, and it only became popular in recent years.

The first time the navy conducted a sword awarding ceremony was in 2017. On a domestically produced destroyer that had already gone to sea, the state awarded swords to thirteen captains who had passed the test, and named them "Swords of the Deep Blue" to symbolize the high honor.

Since the ceremony was exposed to the network, many netizens have been talking about it, and then extended a question, why the captains awarded the sword rather than the knife?

In fact, it goes back to our ancient Chinese traditional culture, the ancient sword and knife are the common weapons of the Chinese people, especially the Han Dynasty Han sword, much favored by successive emperors and generals.

Wearing a sword has a long history, Qin Shi Huang had a sword with him to show his authority.

The custom is said to have existed as early as the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, when the monarchs of the seven countries often wore swords to protect their bodies, so also known as the sword of the gentleman, both elegant and deterrent effect.

And in ancient times, officials and ministers were not allowed to bring any weapons with them to see the monarch, so the monarch had a big advantage, and if they were not careful, they could pull out their swords and cut off the ministers.

So, the Han sword in traditional Chinese history, has an important meaning and status, compared to the Tang horizontal sword first originated in the Sui and Tang dynasties, after the emperor, generals rarely use the knife as a weapon to wear, the reason is that the knife has a certain function of combat, but the appearance of the unsightly, lack of temperament of the gentleman, the shape even looks a little clumsy.

Anciently known as "knife wear warrior, sword wear gentleman", through the traditional Chinese culture, generally are the scholar and above the noble class can wear the sword, most of the knife is subject to the Yamen officials and the neighborhood of the mountain thieves and heroes of the youth.

This habit has been passed down to the present day, and when it comes to the Chinese navy, wearing a sword on one's person creates a good image of a flamboyant gentleman.

If you wear a Tang sword, there will inevitably be a feeling of alienation, especially during World War II Japanese officers have always preferred to wear Japanese swords, the type of knife is a bit like the ancient Chinese Tang sword, which is not appropriate for our Navy.

Tang sword originated from China, in ancient times was brought back to their own country by the Japanese, after some improvement into the Japanese sword.

Ming and Qing Dynasties, this knife from Japan back to China, which makes it difficult for many people to distinguish whether it is a Tang sword or Japanese sword.

Compared to the Han sword is easier to recognize, it belongs to both sides of the open edge, the sword body is straight, unlike the Tang sword as curved, but also naturally exudes a gentleman style, Tang sword because of the shape of the reason, wear take up the man will appear more rugged some.

The document "Book of Han - Jun Buqi biography" has recorded: "the door wants to make the sword, Buqi said, "the sword, a gentleman's martial arts preparation, so the defense of the body, can not be unraveled, please retreat".

Here, the sword wearer is a gentleman, the sword is not for killing, but out of traditional etiquette, showing the poise of the weapon, the Han sword into the scabbard shows the owner's modesty and low-key, when the sword is sharp, it shows the gentleman first courtesy, inviolable authority.

It is said that men wearing Han swords was a popular habit during the Han Dynasty, when the Han court's weaponry system was relatively lax, making it possible for people to wear swords freely in and out of the streets.

This scenario also reveals that the Han Dynasty people were very fond of sword dancing. In addition, in ancient wars, many times the probability of the army to use the sword is higher than to use the knife, the sword can cut, stab, cut, cut, and most of the time the knife is only limited to cut, so the sword in the eyes of the ancient people than the status of the knife is higher.

So Chinese naval officers wearing the Han sword, not only to promote the great essence of Chinese culture, but also to symbolize the hand holding the sword, the spirit of defending the country.