Vietnamese swords
Moderators:Scott M. Rodell, Philip Tom
I recently have found an interest in Vietnamese swords and despite some searching I can only find a few pictures and a page written by Mr. Rodell. Are there anyother website around which has pictures of Vietnamese swords?
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Philip Tom
- Rank: Chang San feng
- Posts:153
- Joined:Mon Jun 28, 2004 8:47 am
- Location:Sunny Cailifornia
Formal study of the subject is still in its infancy (except for early firearms, and the much older Dong Son late bronze/early iron age blades, both fields having received some academic attention of late), so don't expect to find much reliable info on the internet. A group of us hope to have a book out on arms of the later imperial period (Tran and Nguyen Dynasties) out in several years, at least that's Scott's plan.
The internet is wonderful but has its limits. You need to search print resources to glean bits and pieces of info, the way the rest of us are doing it. And look at as much surviving material as you can (being aware that Vietnamese swords are invariably mis-classified as Chinese, and sometimes as Malayan or Indonesian).
A couple of us members will be glad to answer any specific questions you may have about particular topics or types of swords, but obviously a thread like this is not an efficient venue to put a "state of the art" summation of current research, even in a "Readers Digest" abridged format. The article on Scott's SevenStars site is a good start, so is the rather basic info in one chapter of Huard and Durand's CONNAISSANCE DU VIET-NAM (Hanoi, 1954).
The internet is wonderful but has its limits. You need to search print resources to glean bits and pieces of info, the way the rest of us are doing it. And look at as much surviving material as you can (being aware that Vietnamese swords are invariably mis-classified as Chinese, and sometimes as Malayan or Indonesian).
A couple of us members will be glad to answer any specific questions you may have about particular topics or types of swords, but obviously a thread like this is not an efficient venue to put a "state of the art" summation of current research, even in a "Readers Digest" abridged format. The article on Scott's SevenStars site is a good start, so is the rather basic info in one chapter of Huard and Durand's CONNAISSANCE DU VIET-NAM (Hanoi, 1954).
Phil