The deified "Tang Dao" looks like this.

The deified "Tangdao" actually looks like this

When it comes to weapons of the Tang Dynasty, the most famous one is "tangdao". Of course, today, due to the hype of merchants, this concept has already become the same artifact as the "Daqin samurai star crossbow" and has almost been blown to the sky. Apart from these additional factors of later generations, it is still worth exploring the original features of tangdao. Because the term "Tang Dao" is too complicated to say, the author borrowed the word "Tang Dao" here.

Tang Island in Cultural Relics

According to the funeral custom of the Tang Dynasty, weapons are generally not used for burial, but in the ruins, it is difficult to keep the ironware intact, so few tangdao can be seen. The author often finds iron swords in the excavated Han tombs, because it is very common for men to wear swords in the Han Dynasty, and there is no strict management method. Therefore, compared with the weapons of the pre-Qin and Han Dynasties, tangdao is really rare.

Among the extant Tang Dynasty, the most famous one is the Tang Jinyin broadsword hidden in Masakura, Japan. It is also well preserved, and the blade and fittings are brand-new.

Whether this knife is imported from Datang or made in Japan is controversial. A: The Lord has specially looked through the donation account of Dongda Temple, which records the collection catalogue of Dongda Temple. In this ledger, there are both Tang broadsword and imitation Tang broadsword. Obviously, these are two different concepts, and there is also a big knife similar to North Korea in the account book. Here, the author agrees with some scholars that the "Tang-like broadsword" and "Koryo-like broadsword" here are Japanese swords made by imitating the styles of the Tang Dynasty and the Korean Peninsula, while the "Tang-like broadsword" was handed down from China.

Strictly speaking, tangdao, which has been officially discovered in China, has only one handle, that is, the iron knife unearthed from the sinus knot tomb in the southern suburbs of Xi 'an. This knife is 83cm long and relatively complete, and it is a ring head type. There are two gold hoops on the hilt, and there is a line of gold characters on the back of the knife, with the words "A hundred folds and a hundred tempering" on it, indicating that its material is probably a hundred steelmaking made by repeated stamping. In addition, a lifelike crystal pig was found near the handle when unearthed, which may have been an ornament on the knife rope.

In addition, there is an archaeological knife (or sword), which is either a practical weapon or unearthed from the tomb of Li Ji, a famous minister in the early Tang Dynasty. Li Ji was Xu Maogong in the traditional storytelling of Sui and Tang Dynasties, and was buried with Zhaoling of Emperor Taizong after his death. Although this cultural relic is probably a knife, archaeologists named it wood blade, with a gold-plated sheath and a copper handle, so I also call it a sword here. This sword is 100 cm long and its body is made of wood, so it should be a weapon model specially used for burial. It can be seen that the sword head is not annular like the iron knife in Dou Fu's tomb, but like tangdao in Zhengcang Courtyard, it is guitou-shaped.

According to the style of the handle, it can be simply divided into two categories:

Ring handle

Acyclic handle

In addition to the above objects, the rest can only be found in images or sculptures. Fortunately, these materials are quite rich. In many murals, pottery figurines and stone carvings, there are samurai images with swords. Looking back, in fact, at least in the Northern Dynasties, the Dao was similar to that in tangdao. For example, in the murals of Lou Rui's tomb in Dong 'an, Northern Qi Dynasty, there is a travel map, in which most guards wear swords. You can see that these knives hang obliquely at the waist, and the ends of the handles are flat heads, not ring heads.

However, the ring sword has always existed. In the tomb of Sui Dynasty in Shuicun, Tongguan, Shaanxi Province (the owner of the tomb is supposed to be Yong Yang, the abandoned prince of Sui Dynasty), there are also murals of swordsmen with swords, and they obviously wear ring knives.

In the murals of the Tang Dynasty, there are two kinds of knives. For example, in the murals of Princess Changle's tomb in the Tang Dynasty, all soldiers wore ring-headed knives, while in the murals of Tang tomb in Taiyuan Coking Factory, the knives worn by guards were ringless.

Friends who have a little knowledge of the development history of ancient weapons in China will know that in ancient China, knives as actual combat weapons began in the Han Dynasty. At that time, the most popular style was the ring knife, which was always the case until the Three Kingdoms, Wei and Jin Dynasties. It was not until the Northern Dynasty that the new knife without ring handle became popular. As for the origin of this new type of knife, we think it is probably related to foreign countries.

For example, in the Sassanian Persian Empire in Central Asia and West Asia, there was a kind of knife with horizontal scabbard and loop-free handle in the 5th and 6th centuries, which was very similar to some "tangdao" and "North Korean Knives" in wearing mode and appearance. As we know, during the Northern Dynasties, there were extensive exchanges between the northern region and the western regions, and cultural relics such as glassware and Sassanian gold coins with strong extraterritorial style were found in many tombs. In this context, it is not surprising that weapons are exchanged.