Autumn water goose plume sword is the civilian ministers with or military generals with the sword

Of course it is the military generals, civil servants almost do not carry swords. This knife is from the poem of Ming Shizong, from his poem is the generals carry, traditionally served as the Secretary of the Ministry of War are generally military ministers, able to civil and military.

Ming Jiajing wuxu years, Annan civil unrest, Ming Shizong Zhu Houqin point of the Ministry of War Secretary Mao Bowen went south to Annan to quell the chaos. When Mao Bo Wen went to war, Ming Shizong gave a poem: "The general was born with great courage, waist across the autumn water Yan Ling sword, wind blowing gongs and drums, the mountains and rivers move, lightning flashes flags, the sun and the moon are high. The wind blows the gongs and drums, the mountains and rivers move, the lightning flashes the flags, the sun and the moon are high. The unicorn in the sky is the original species, the mole cricket in the snow can't escape. This poem is in the same rhyme, the momentum is magnificent, quite a few sweeping the world a open six ambitions. This imperial poem was also included in the "Thousand Poems", which was widely circulated. However, one of the mentioned like the autumn water general "Yan Ling waist knife" in the end for what type of weapon, I am afraid that most modern people do not know, so the author reluctantly for the text to introduce the "waist knife" this Chinese people unique ancient weapon of origin, type and about its legend.

Historical origin

The waist knife's name is first seen in the "Wei book - Fu Jian eye biography" in a paragraph of the record: "Xiao Bin sent Qian Ai to call, to the waist knife for the letter." But here the narrative of the "waist knife" and the Ming and Qing dynasties popular "waist knife" is not the same, refers to the entire Eastern Han Dynasty, Wei Jin, the North and South Dynasties period of China's popularity of a known as "ring head knife "This type of sword was usually 90 to 12 inches long. This knife is usually 90 ~ 128cm long, the knife body width of 3 ~ 4cm, the thickest part of about 1cm, the blade is narrow and straight, no blood groove, no tsuba, the end of the knife stem decorated with a round, oblate or oval iron ring, wear to the sheath on the "swine" or double lugs hanging at the waist. The popularity and use of the ring-shaped sword almost throughout the history of nearly 800 years from the middle of the Western Han Dynasty to the end of the Sui Dynasty and the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, can be regarded as the originator of the Chinese short-handled sword.

The historical evolution of the Ming and Qing waist knives can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty. Tang dynasty painting master Wu Daozi (680 ~ 760 AD) in Changan Jingyun Temple painted in the famous mural "hell in disguise" figure appeared in a new different from the ring head knife knife type, from the painting, the knife using the rope and sheath on the double lugs hanging at the waist, the handle plus the tsuba, the blade has been curved by the straight, and the width is also increased. By coincidence, a terracotta figurine unearthed in the tomb of castor Yang Si in the village of Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, with two scimitars in its hands and body, very similar to the kind of scimitar depicted in ancient paintings. The overall shape of this type of knife has been with the ring head knife and Tang Dazhi very different, but close to the popular waist knife of the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

When the Northern Song Dynasty, Liao and Jin war between the development of white-hot, a more close to the Ming and Qing waist knife knife knife weapon appeared. People's Revolutionary Military Museum of China has a collection of Heilongjiang Zhaodong Bali City excavated iron sword, this knife with an inscription: "Dading twenty-nine years of Dafu made". "Dading" is the Jin Shizong Wanyan Yong's year, Dading twenty-nine years for the year 1189 AD. This iron knife 87cm long, the knife body width 3.7cm, the blade near the tip of the upturned, the hilt for the flattened straight, which is set with an oval piece of tsuba, the head of the knife has been lost, loaded with the hilt of the wood and wrapped around the hilt of the rope has also decayed and does not exist.

Unlike the Jin Dynasty swords, most of the short-handled fighting swords equipped by the Song government army were "hand swords" with short backs and long upward slanting blades, but there were also some hand swords with rounded upward pointing tips like the Jin Iron Sword mentioned above. In Li Gonglin's ancient paintings, there are knives with the same type of blade as the Jin Tie Dao, but none of them has a formal name. Jingkang shame more than thirty years after the first year of the Qian Dao (1165 AD), the Southern Song military weapons supervision began to make a new knife weapons, because of its shape as the plume of the goose, so named "wild goose plume knife", since then, this belt knife finally has a formal name. To the end of the Yuan Dynasty, "waist knife" began as a general term for all the knives hanging from the waist with a beam and rope, from the establishment of the Ming Dynasty and the subsequent centuries began to appear frequently in the official submissions and folk novels

Goose plume waist knife in the Ming and Qing dynasties, the basic type of goose plume waist knife system is characterized by the body of the knife is relatively straight, the tip of the knife is the "goose plume knife". Straight, the tip of the knife is slightly upward curved arc, the tip of the knife to the back of the knife 15 ~ 20cm more open edge, now generally known as the reverse edge (part of the early Ming Yan Ling waist knife without a reverse edge, the form of a more similar to the style of the Golden Sword, and some of the Yan Ling waist knife of the Qing Dynasty, and the reverse edge of the Yan Ling waist knife and even through the entire back of the knife). The width of the blade is 4~5cm, the thickness of the ridge is 0.6~0.7cm (the thickest place reaches 1cm), the section of the blade is isosceles triangular (this section of the blade is called "flat made"), the length of the whole length of 90cm or so, the blade length of 70~80cm, the hilt length of 15~20cm, the knife weighs 1~1.5kg. yanling waist sword of the Ming dynasty The blood groove is mostly one, but most of the Qing Dynasty Yan Ling belt knives have several blood grooves, and the shape of the blood grooves is very complicated. Now heirloom waist knife in the Yan Ling waist knife a lot of people, for example: Shenyang Palace Museum now exists in the Qing dynasty Taizong Huang taiji's imperial Yan Ling waist knife, the knife is 94.5cm long, the widest blade 4.5cm, ridge thickness of 0.7cm, the reverse edge of the length of about 10cm, both sides of the **** 4 blood grooves, straight wooden rope handle, the head of the knife for the double curved, tsuba for the oval, forging fine, the edge of the knife so far is still very sharp. The blade is still sharp. In addition, the National Museum of China also has another collection of wild goose plume belt knife, knife length of 70 ~ 80cm, knife body width of 3.5 ~ 4cm, "flat made" knife body on both sides of the blood grooves 4, the knife is engraved with "ten years of the Wanli Dengzhou Qi's" inscription, so the museum Recognized that the belt knife is a famous anti-Japanese Qi Jiguang's sword, but this belt knife on the engraving of the words rough and light, no integration of the gas, may be after the engraving of the pseudo-inscription, and according to the details of its type system, you can determine that the Ministry of Public Works in the middle of the Qing Dynasty or the Ministry of the Army to produce the "official sword", rather than the Ming Dynasty belt knife, so the author has doubts about the age of the knife.

Chijia knife Ming dynasty Hongwu, Yongle dynasty, after the Japanese sword began through the tribute and smuggling trade and other ways of large quantities into China, according to historical records, rough statistics, the number may be in the 500,000 or so, of which high-quality is quite popular. At that time, the Japanese ronin often harassed the coastal areas of China, and their Japanese swords had an advantage over the waist swords of the Ming army. Therefore, the Ming government began to imitate the Japanese sword and equipped its troops with it. However, since the long hilt of the Japanese sword was not suitable for cavalrymen to wield on the horse, and it was not suitable for combining with the cane, Qi Jiguang created his own waist sword according to the actual needs, combining the forged body of the Japanese sword and the short hilt of the waist sword, which was called the "Qi Family Sword". Observation of the current Qi family sword can be found, Qi family sword is mostly 70 ~ 80cm long forged blade (blade section for the more complex geometry), no reverse edge and blood groove, hilt straight or slightly downward curved, the tip of the sword for the Japanese style Tanto shape, good for chopping heavy and thick armor. After the Jiajing Ming army began to be equipped with a large number of these belt swords.

Chijia knife, can be seen in its forged body, with the style of the Japanese sword, the black geometric figure in the upper right corner of the picture is the section of the forged body; the lower part of the picture is a close-up of the stems of the chijia belt knife, can be seen at the end of the stems and stems of the hole

"Kobo made" belt knife this belt knife is generally considered to be a development of the Song Dynasty hand knife, using the hand knife style upward slanting tip, the use of a hand knife. Hand knife style upward slanting tip, the Ming dynasty painting novels in the hands of the jianghu heroes of the waist knife is mostly so shaped.

Willow Leaf Waist Knife After the Qing Dynasty came to dominate the Central Plains, there was a new development of the waist knife, there is a new type of system, due to the body of this knife is shaped like a willow leaf, so it is known as the Willow Leaf Waist Knife. This waist knife seems to be the end of the Ming Dynasty from the Yan Ling waist knife differentiation, its specific type and Yan Ling waist knife similar, but the willow leaf waist knife blade arc is bigger.

The ox-tailed belt knife is the common single knife in today's martial arts, movies and television. Qing Dynasty, a large number of Arab, Iranian and Indian swords into China, its unique type of sword and decorative style, affecting the development of the Qing Dynasty sword, part of the waist knife and the back of the reverse edge of the knife at the transition, such as the Kilici machete as the upward protrusion (now known as the collection of swords for the shark's head). At the latest, during the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, on the basis of the folk development of the ox-tail waist knife.

Observation of the extant specimens of the ox-tail waist knife can be found, its type of characteristics based on the needs of the actual combat, the relatively straight body and the downward curved hilt for the waist knife provides a very strong ability to cut, can cut the thicker armor, at the same time with a strong stabbing power, in the chopping can not be effective when you can use the stabbing to eliminate the enemy with a heavy armored body protection. With the same one-handed knife Arab, Indian sword (part of the sword has lost the ability to stab) compared to its design is more scientific and flexible.

Manufacturing technology

Qi Jiguang in the "Jixing Xinshu" in the "waist knife system" has this record: "waist knife manufacturing method: iron to be more refined, the edge of pure steel, from the back of the flat shovel flat cut to the edge, the edge of the flat grinding, no shoulder is sharp, the beauty of especially in the tip, the knife should be with the hand and the hand of the light, the knife should be with the hand of the light. ...... knife should be light with the hand, handle should be short, shape should be curved, Shu Wan turn under the card, not to be hindered." Ming Dynasty, another popular science book, "Tian Gong Kaifu" also has on the waist knife manufacturing process description: "Swords and knives are absolutely beautiful to Hundred Refined Steel wrapped around the outside, which is still no steel for the bone, ...... followed by the unusual knife and axe, only embedded steel in its surface." These two ancient books mentioned in the sword forging method is the traditional Chinese folder steel process, that is, the low carbon content of cooked iron or fried steel heated by fire, with a sledgehammer repeatedly folding forging, in the process, the impurities in the iron will gradually precipitate, but also to make the metal of the organization density, after several times or even dozens of times of folding, and then clamped into a section of the "steel filling "(also known as "lodging iron", mostly carbon content of 0.8% to 1.0% or so of high-carbon steel), as the edge of the steel, and then the knife body as a whole forging molding, quenching of the knife body is completed. In terms of the technical level at that time, this process can make the sword rigid and flexible, to achieve a high level. Because the folding forging will make the knife body appear carbon content of different levels of layering phenomenon, carbon content of different multi-layer organization and between the layers of the inclusions demarcation material in the knife body after polishing and grinding, will appear on the surface of the knife beautiful pattern (also known as forging pattern) and the folder steel line, the pattern can be seen but not touched, or such as running between the valley of the brook, or such as the brilliant star river, or such as the sunshine rises like a beautiful and mysterious smoke, this is the so-called "welded pattern". The so-called "welded patterned steel" phenomenon.

In addition, in the Ming and Qing literature, there are some noteworthy chemical heat treatment process, for example, Tang Shunzhi "martial arts - the former editorial" recorded with "goat's horn calcined ash, powdered heart of the water proposed, acid mouth grass ash, nitrate, sauce up knife flower"; "Physical Knowledge" recorded that "after quenching the steel knife, with the Tiger Bone Park nitrate sauce or goat horn, milk hair coated with the knife body, after burning red quenching". Now it seems that this kind of process may be a kind of surface hardening technology similar to the quenching technology of Japanese swords. In the Qing Dynasty, according to Chen Keshu's "Seal Carving Needles", pig's teeth, hair, and nitrate were burned into ash, mixed with canned vinegar, and applied to the blade in a jagged pattern before being quenched by heat, which was called "horse-tooth steel" or "horse-tooth inlaid steel" because the blade of a sword treated this way would become extremely hard, and then quenched. After sharpening, the serrated pattern on the edge of the blade will become abrupt. In recent years, some sword collectors in the hands of "horse teeth steel", "horse teeth embedded steel" sword proved the existence of this unique Chinese sword heat treatment.

Chinese ancient sword unique "horse teeth steel" or "horse teeth embedded steel" sword close-up. Can be seen in the shape of its serrated hardened layer is very regular, with the folder steel forging line is different

Outfit

According to the heirloom in kind observation, Ming and Qing dynasty belt knife fittings with the master and the popular aesthetic interest of the community (which is also to determine the age of the belt knife manufacturing one of the basis). First of all the waist knife tsuba is square, round, oval or melon shape, part of the plane body, part with a small folded edge. The texture of the tsuba copper and iron, copper is common, the surface of the tsuba or seal engraving or wrong gold, silver and other precious metals into a variety of patterns, the more common is the volume of grass, orchids, lotuses, bamboo and other flowers and grasses, knife and horse figures, gourds, money, dragons and so on; a few special high-level waist knife tsuba pattern for the skeletonization, and then the whole gilded gold, silver and other precious metals, a very small number of embedded gemstones. With the tsuba supporting the head of the sword (the head of the sword is more rounded, double arc, trapezoidal and horseshoe) and the sheath on the beam, sheath head, sheath mouth, etc. are also similar to the tsuba in decorative style and texture. The sheaths are mostly made of sturdy hardwood, and the sheaths are either wrapped in polished sharkskin or lacquered with black or red lacquer, and the hilts are wrapped in silk, linen, or cotton rope for grip, and some of the hilts are wrapped in sharkskin.

Waist knife is a short-handled fighting weapon, in the lance, bow and arrow dominated the infantry battlefield as close combat duties, if used as the main combat weapon, must be used with a shield cover. Jixingxinshu" in: "no card knife short can not enter the battlefield, but the horse can be used", "each soldier holds a card, a waist knife, the cabinet knife wrist, a hand holding a dart gun", and the enemy encounter, the javelin will be thrown to the enemy, whether or not to hit the enemy is bound to dodge, then "can be used in close combat, if used as the main combat weapon, must be covered with a shield to use. At this time the waist knife hand "can take the knife in the hand, with the card to kill into the ...... one into the body of the gun, then the gun for the abandoned", its method of warfare and the Roman heavy shield infantry use of the method of warfare is consistent, very powerful. Ming Dynasty martial arts master Cheng Zongyou also think: "waist knife rattan card potential low, split difficult to add, but lure its knife before the card after the party can win." This shows the power of the infantry to use the belt knife with the rattan tags. However, for some reason, in Qi Jiguang organized the Qi family army in the rattan card hand number is the least, each team (the establishment of 12 soldiers) only 2 people, usually lined up in the forefront of the queue, its task is to cover the back of the lancers, at the same time need to rely on the Wolf Brush (the whole big bamboo made of one zhang five feet long, branches and leaves, dense, and can prevent the Japanese sword and the lance of the poke and stab) the protection of the hand. But this also shows that coordination and formation were always the most important in the ancient Chinese army.

The cavalry of the Ming and Qing dynasties used the waist sword as their main fighting weapon. After Nurhachu vowed to rise against the Ming, Manchurian cavalry rose in the white mountains and black waters, the Ming army began to fight with a group of brand new enemies in the Liaodong battlefield where blood and fire mingled, and the belt knife became the main weapon to kill the enemy in addition to bows and arrows. Even Nurhachu after occupying Shenyang had ordered the Liaodong Han people are strictly prohibited to hold the waist knife and bow and arrow two weapons, in order to prevent the Han people revolt against his rule.

The end of the Qing dynasty in Guangxi Governor Su Yuanchun photo, it can be seen at that time is still in addition to the bow and arrow in addition to the main weapon of the end of the Qing dynasty in Guangxi Governor Su Yuanchun photo, it can be seen at that time is still in addition to the bow and arrow in addition to the main weapon of the waist knife

The Qing people into the Customs, to the Kang, Yong, Qian dynasty three dynasties of the most outstanding martial arts, in particular, in the Qianlong period of the most flourishing, and the Emperor Qianlong himself is particularly fond of swords, a lifetime of personal design by the Ministry of the Interior supervised the manufacture of the waist knife. The Interior Ministry to supervise the manufacture of the waist knife and sword up to more than 90, the material and decoration are extremely fine, and with the "God Feng", "Chopping rhinoceros", "Tai Ah" and other names. According to the data, most of the belt knives are "about three feet long", "weight between twenty-three and thirty-one taels" of the wild goose plume belt knives and willow leaf belt knives. Qianlong twenty-seventh year (1762) compilation of the "dynasty rituals pattern" included in the official system of the emperor's parade saber, guards saber, the king's saber, officers and soldiers saber and so on, most of them are also wild goose plume and willow leaf belt knife. Qing dynasty after the Qianlong emperor, the rapid decline of the Qing dynasty, so that the western powers opened the door, the tragedy of cession and reparations over and over again, even the Yuanmingyuan was looted, collected in the Yuanmingyuan in the Qianlong imperial sword of course can not be spared, most of them scattered overseas. With the enhancement of China's national strength, patriots began through various ways to these national treasures back to their homeland. 2006, the Qianlong emperor's imperial belt knife in the "Tianzhi seventeenth" ("Bao Teng" number) belt knife in the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center auction, a mainland buyers At a price of 46.04 million yuan, the loss of overseas treasures for many years, creating a Chinese collection of an unprecedented record.