Traditional Weapons of the Yi People

Traditional Weapons of the Yi People

The Yi people, as a minority indigenous people who have survived for more than 3,000 years in the Southwest China region, have a tall physique, a high nose, deep eyes, and a bronze complexion. Its ethnic origin has also always been an unsolvable mystery. This point is omitted. Special introduction to the Yi ancestors armed as follows: Yi spear material is divided into wood spear, bamboo spear, metal spear three. Wooden spear is a solid and flexible fir wood, such as one end of the tip, and then in the fire on the fumigation quenching and hardening into, the longest 7 meters, the shortest 2 ~ 3 meters or so; bamboo spear by a kind of growth in the high mountains of the section of the bamboo, the material is very solid, flexible, one end of the tip, but also on the fire on the fumigation and baked into, the longest 7 meters, the shortest 2 ~ 3 meters or so.

The length of the metal spears used by the Yi people varies greatly, generally about 2 meters in length, with the longer ones up to 3.5 meters and the shorter ones only about 1.2 meters. The full length of the spear head is 15~65 centimeters, mostly about 30 centimeters. Spearhead can be divided into three parts: one is the sharp head, this part is only 10 cm short, long up to half a meter, or even longer. The shape of some of the four-angled; some flattened triangular, from the center line of the ridge (single-sided or double-sided), into no ridge; the second is the slender middle cylindrical, set with Japonica (protruding part), most of them made into a rounded or polygonal sphere. Some without Japonica. Three is a conical tube hollow spear sleeve, so that the spear head hooped in the spear handle, hoop more than one or two small holes, so that the spear head and spear handle with iron nails fixed. The method of use is stabbing or throwing.

The Yi people called the long knife "name out to Mo" (Yi language). Yi long knife for one-handed knife, handle length of 12 ~ 15 cm, handle for the diameter of 4 ~ 5 cm of hardwood or animal bone, animal horn, up and down the assembly of round metal cover piece, more burin engraved with a variety of patterns. Its single-handed grip of the full length of the stem 8 ~ 10 centimeters. Stem material used for wood, mostly leather wrapped, but also some also in the leather stem wrapped in silver leather or copper sheet or wrapped in silver wire. The stem of the knife has 3~4 bamboo-like undulations, in order to grip and increase the friction to avoid dislodging.

The blade length of the knife is mostly 55~75 centimeters (there are also short knives with a total length of nearly half a meter). The jaw of the knife is wrapped with a 4~5 cm copper sheet; or a 2~3 cm tongue-like copper sheet protruding from both sides of the knife body, mostly engraved with decorations. The width of the knife is 3~3.5 centimeters, and the surface of the knife mostly shows running water patterns. The blade is open on one or both sides, and the thickness of the back of the knife is usually about 0.5 centimeters. The sheaths are made of wood, leather and metal. The head of the sheath is made of silver, copper or animal skin for the mouth of the sheath hoop to prevent it from chipping. The body of the sheath is mostly long oval, lined with sturdy hardwoods, covered with leather or cow's intestines, and painted black or brown lacquer. The end of the sheath with leather or copper, to protect the sheath touch the ground to avoid chipping, the sheath also opened two holes, used to tie through the backstrap.

The Yi people use the knife alone or in conjunction with their shields when they are fighting against each other. Because of the heaviness of the knife, it is very powerful in chopping and the stabbing function is weak. The difference between Yi long knives and Han knives is: no handguard on the handle, shorter hilt, no blood groove, no sheath to carry the beam to two holes to tie the rope. The Yi dagger is a knife with a length of 35 centimeters from the tip of the blade to the tip of the head, which is called "Duo Mu Jia" in Yi language.

The dagger body is fish-belly shape, that is, in the middle of the knife body back and blade are curved convex arc, the back of the knife in the middle of the arc of the largest, slightly curved blade, the knife body is fat, the tip of the knife is extremely sharp, the knife edge is polished very sharp, the knife body on both sides of the burin engraved pattern. The handle of the knife is short, durable and durable. The head of the knife is mostly copper round hoop. Some are spherical or trapezoidal. Stem short enough to accommodate the whole hand grip, according to the shape of the handle, more hardwood, horn, animal bone, to thinly laminated, drilled and fixed with iron nails riveted on both sides of the handle. During the Republic of China knife stem more metal aluminum, and embedded red and green plastic decorations.

Yi dagger is used for self-defense, due to small and lightweight, suitable for carrying, for melee combat when the stabbing; two is used for prey rifling, dismemberment of bone; three is the life of the slaughter of livestock and cutting tools; four is a decorative item, adult men must, reflecting the wearer's martial arts; five is rumored to be a weapon to ward off the evil spirits of Kesha. Since ancient times, the Yi people worshiped copper, the legendary Yi hero Zhi Ge Al is to use copper to subdue demons and defeat the attack of lightning, so that the copper is thought to have lightning, to avoid evil. Therefore, the Yi dagger made of copper is used as an amulet to avoid disasters. When drinking water in the wild, the copper dagger is first put into the water and scratched down in order to drive away the harmful water ghosts.

The common Yi bow is about 1~1.4 meters long. There are two kinds of bows: one is a single bow, and the bow arm is bent from a single piece of tough wood or bamboo, i.e., the "string wood for the arc". The second is a composite bow, the bow arm is made of hardwood, bamboo, horn, silk, tendons and so on. The middle of the bow arm is mostly flat and round, with a width of 3 centimeters, tapering from the middle to the ends, and the tip of the bow has a carved groove, which is convenient for installing the bowstring of the cow's tendon. Some bows are also made of fine mulberry wood. After tying the bowstring, the bow is painted with black or brown lacquer.

The arrows are nearly half a meter long. Arrows are prismatic or flat. Some arrows have barbs, and the shafts are mostly made of bamboo, which is convenient and hollow to facilitate the insertion of arrows. The end of the arrow shaft slotted strings, slots under the hemp wire wrapped solid. Quiver length of about half a meter or so, mostly made of bamboo quiver, quiver above the opening of a hole for access to the arrow, some quiver has a small hole through the strap, or quiver outside the rope, in order to carry.

In addition, the Yi people were also skilled at throwing stones, often using fist-sized stones as their throwing weapons, and trained from a young age. Later, the black powder technology of the Central Plains was introduced to the Yi, and the stone throwing was upgraded to gourd flying thunder, i.e., the hollow gourd shell was filled with black powder, and stone metal fragments were added to increase the lethality. In the gourd neck, the fireweed is stuffed as the ignition material, which is the fuse. This fireweed is a local wild plant, people peeled off a layer of white skin on the back of the leaves and dried, kneaded into wool, then put into the charcoal hot ash, concocted to become a little bit of fireweed that ignites.

Three crosses boring is also a common weapon of the Yi people, the general length of about 2.3 meters, for three forks. In the fork is the most straight long with edge, sharp as a sword, full length of about 35 ~ 60 centimeters. Both sides of the fork forks for curved strands, such as half-moon, after the thick before the tip, boring set for hollow vertebrae-shaped iron hoop, set of wooden handle fork handle. Fork handle at the end of the prismatic iron drill about 15 centimeters long to protect the handle. Three fork boring because of the blade surface width and more fork, the defense surface is larger, can lock to take the enemy weapons, but also can resist the attack of the enemy's weapons, the long-handled heavy weapon long and heavy cause killing power, more powerful tall Yi people use.