Great River Taoist Center Forums

Hi, This be the one: http://collections.royalarmouries.org/image.php?i=140211&r=2&t=4&x=1 It is best drooled over in the pages of this excellent book: LaRocca, Donald J., et. al., Warriors of the Himalayas: Rediscovering the Arms and Armor of Tibet (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2006). It fe...

Interesting indeed.. Some postures surely remind of Qi-Jiguang's work, especially one when stabbing over the shield. There's probably quite a few techniques in there that with some adjustments, could be quite usable again. Overall I am amazed how little time he spends behind the shield, and am wonde...

Here is my latest rattan shield, which I made for Graham Cave. Specs: Diameter 71.5 - 72 cm Dome height 13 cm Weight 2507 grams It contains about 70 meters of core and about a mile of wrapping band. Over 45 hours in the making. The decoration is rather atypical in style, and was based on an existing...

I think the most plausible explanation is that of maintenance. Weather conditions in Japan are not much different than of some coastal regions in China, but differences within China itself are vast. Items from the Tibetan plateau hardly age because of the dry climate and low levels of oxygen. Japane...

Hi Nik, For a normalized mass production weapon like an archers side (backup) weapon, or a cavalry saber, there should have been standards written on paper, no ? Surprisingly there are no mentions of blade thicknesses and / or weight on these in any texts I've seen so far. We only have descriptions ...

Hi Nik, Interesting how the parade weapons are measured to the height of the bearer, for display. I think this is also where it started in China, when the art became a display art, rather than a fighting art. In this area, it indeed makes a lot of sense. As for peidao weighted 450 grams, I tend to t...

Goishikawa, I'm afraid you're on the wrong forum for two reasons: 1. It is a historical Chinese arms forum, and " ninja " is the word for a type of Japanese mercenary that drew on effective strategies instead of Samurai honor code. 2. The straight "ninja swords" you link to are a modern invention, n...

Hi, At the height of the Qing military power the Qianlong emperor honored his best officers with portraits that were hung in the Pavilion of Purple Brightness, or Ziguangge to the west of the Forbidden City. The highest military exams were held at this place, as well as victory banquets and other fe...

For those interested in Chinese paper armour, I recently did an article for HAND PAPERMAKING, WINTER 2009, Volume 24, Number 2. It is a magazine on traditional and modern uses of paper published by the non-profit organization Hand Papermaking, Inc. The issue's theme is mimicry and my contribution is...

Indeed all antique Chinese swords, or anything with a sharp edge for that matter, be it tools, arrowheads or knives, that I have been able to check the construction of were forge folded. Poor reproductions, like Nik mentions, indeed can have artificial "folding lines" that are etched in or applied t...

Hi, welcome to the forum. With only this picture to go by it is hard to give a definitive answer. The blade looks as if it *could* be old, but replicas are crammed out today looking just like this as well. We would need to see some close-ups of the steel and preferably even the tang, to verify what ...

Hi, Thanks for your post and pictures. This is a rather late replica, commonly used for taiji practice. A friend gave me one just like it somewhere in the 90's, it was made new at the time. This exact shape has been in use for a while, but it's probably not older than a few decennia. The characters ...

Hi, I fully agree with the above. Oral information spread today is highly distorted because of a number of factors, like hearsay being altered generation after generation without checking the facts. The most important factor though may be the severe reforms of Chinese martial arts during Mao's age, ...

I agree with Scott. I would opt for a replica of an existing historical type rather than devising an in-between solution because their major length groups were established for a reason. The largest group of jian found are actually duanjian in the mid. range, of rather crude manufacture made for use ...

You don't find many of these old terms on the net, unfortunately. They only appear in period texts. The zhanmadao is a rather different weapon, it is more like an oversized saber with a relatively narrow curved blade and does not have a 1:1 blade-handle ratio. Zhanmadao appear to emerge during the M...