History is the memory of things that have been said and done. —Carl Baker
"What knives, guns and sticks I play like" A lyric comes from Jay Chou's "Double Stick", which is the mantra of many boys after the 80s and 90s when they were young, and the "knife" that ranks first is the first of the eighteen weapons in China.
As we all know, China is the world's cold weapon manufacturing power, what is "cold weapon", which means that does not use gunpowder, explosives and other thermal energy systems combat equipment, in a broad sense, all combat equipment in the era of cold weapons is called cold weapons. Ancient Chinese weapons spanned primitive society, slave society and feudal society for 100,000 years, and were well-deserved cold weapons powers.
China has always had the saying of "eighteen weapons", although the 18 kinds of weapons in it have their own explanations, but the "knife" always ranks first, which shows its high status, 9 short and 9 long weapons, 9 short first for the knife.
The earliest copper knives came from stone knives and were very small in shape. At present, the earliest bronze weapon found in China is the copper knife. The bronze knife of the Shang Dynasty is not mature in technology, the shape of the knife is wider, the blade end is more upward, and its production is like a stone knife, which is not used to fight, and it is usually used to cut things and slaughter cattle and sheep.
In the Zhou Dynasty, the nobles liked swords, and called it "the king of a hundred soldiers", in ancient times, it was often said that "the emperor came to the world", the sword was the emperor, the nobleman and the gentleman, who were qualified to wear it, and at that time, no one liked the sabre. In addition, the bronze knife at that time was very brittle, and it would break with force, and compared with the copper sword, it fell a few points of color, so it was not used on the battlefield for a long time.
During the Qin and Han dynasties, steel appeared, and the status of knives rose to a high level, resulting in specialized combat knives and sabers. The combat knife, paying attention to the texture and toughness, should be suitable for cutting the enemy when used; the sabre, paying attention to the beauty and chic, wear it with face.
According to historical records, during the Three Kingdoms period, Sun Quan ordered his men to build more than 1,000 knives, Liu Bei let craftsmen build more than 5,000 knives, and later Sima Yan built more than 8,000, which shows that the knife has gradually become the main weapon, and the sword has gradually become a reward for wearing. At that time, the most common was the "ring head knife", the ring head, narrow body, long blade, straight back, with these characteristics of the ring head knife in more than 1,000 years played the protagonist of the weapon.
Later, a kind of "big ring knife" appeared, what does it mean? That is, a ring appears every 3 inches or so on the back of the knife, the seven rings on the back of the knife are called the seven ring knives, and the nine rings on the back of the knife are called the nine ring knives. In fact, the fight on the battlefield lies in "fast", the knife is not light, but also to add so many iron rings on it, it will only lead to slower swinging of the knife, and it cannot be inserted into the sheath of the knife, what is the use?
First, it is easy to pull out. If during the battle, the knife cut into the opponent's bone, it is inconvenient to draw the handle of the knife, you can use your fingers to hook the small ring on the back of the knife to help the owner of the knife pull out the blade.
Second, increase the lethality of slashing. When the knife with the iron ring is chopped up, the iron ring on the back of the knife is thrown out due to the inertia of the owner's force, which greatly stabilizes the center of gravity of the knife, and the force is concentrated in the direction of the tip of the knife, increasing the lethality.
But the above 2 views are only the speculation of modern people, after all, with the medical conditions at that time, there was no need to chop so deeply, and the poor little soldiers would die, not to mention that not everyone had time to draw the knife, maybe you were just about to draw the knife, and the other enemy cut you.
At present, the most credible is the large ring knife used for martial arts training. When you really go to the battlefield, everyone fights for a "fast", so when you usually practice the sword technique, you have to choose a heavier and more difficult knife to operate to improve your martial arts, and the higher the martial arts, you will install more iron rings on the knife, and when you really reach the pure martial arts, you will be eligible to take the "nine-ring knife".
"Nine" in ancient China is considered to be the largest number, is a symbol of noble status, can use the nine ring sword, people, either superb martial arts, or extraordinary status, encounter such a person, must be careful, respectful and far away.