During the reign of Ming Jiajing, there was civil unrest in Annam, and Emperor Ming Shizong Zhu Hou appointed The Soldier Shangshu Mao Bowen to go south to Annam to quell the rebellion. When Mao Bowen went out on the expedition, Emperor Ming Shizong gave him a poem: "The great general was born with courage and pride, waist and autumn water, goose feathers, wind blowing gongs and drums, mountains and rivers, lightning and flags, high sun and moon." The original species of unicorns in the sky, how can the ants in the snow escape, and the day of return of the edict is brought back in peace, and the general and the general are disarmed. "This poem rhymes with the rhyme, the momentum is magnificent, and there is a bit of ambition to sweep away the world. As a result, this imperial poem was included in the "Thousand Family Poems" and widely circulated. However, I am afraid that most modern people do not know what kind of weapon the "Goose Plume Waist Knife" mentioned in it is, so the author strives to introduce the source, type system and legend of the "Waist Knife", an ancient weapon unique to the Chinese nation.
The Ming Dynasty drew a picture of the police entering the foot, which shows the waist knife worn by the knight in the picture
Historical Origin:
The title of the waist knife was first mentioned in a passage in the "Book of Wei and the Biography of Fu Jian's Eyes": "Xiao Bin sent Qian Qian to love and seduce him, and took the waist knife as a letter." However, the "waist knife" mentioned here is not the same as the "waist knife" popular in the Ming and Qing dynasties, referring to a kind of sabre called "ring head knife" popular in China during the entire Eastern Han, Wei and Jin Dynasties, and southern and northern dynasties. This kind of sabre is usually 90 to 128 cm long, the body of the knife is 3 to 4 cm wide, the thickest part is about 1 cm, the knife body is narrow and straight, no blood groove, no knife shackles, the end of the knife stem is decorated with round, flat or oval iron rings, and when worn, it is hung at the waist with a "yan" or double hanging lug on the sheath. The popularity and use of the ring head knife almost runs through the history of nearly 800 years from the middle of the Western Han Dynasty to the end of the Sui and early Tang Dynasties, and can be described as the originator of the Chinese short-handled combat knife.
The historical evolution of the Ming and Qing waist knives can be pushed up to the Sheng Tang Dynasty. Tang Dynasty painting master Wu Daozi (680 ~ 760 AD) in the Chang'an Jingyun Temple painted the famous mural "Hell Disguise" in the picture appeared a new different from the ring head knife type, from the painting, this knife using rope and knife sheath on the double hanging ear hanging at the waist, the handle of the knife with a knife shackle, the body of the knife has been bent from straight, while the width has also increased. Coincidentally, a pottery figurine excavated from the tomb of Yang Sixun in Xi'an City, Shaanxi Province, carried two machetes in his hands and on his body, which is very similar to the kind of machete depicted in ancient paintings. The overall type of this type of knife has been very different from the ring head knife and the Tang da knife, and it is close to the waist knife popular in the Ming and Qing dynasties.
When the war between the Northern Song Dynasty, the Liao Dynasty, and the Jin Dynasty developed to a fever pitch, a knife-type weapon that was closer to the Ming and Qing waist knives appeared. Chinese The Military Museum of the People's Revolution has an iron battle knife excavated from Bali City in Zhaodong, Heilongjiang, with the inscription on it: "Made by Dafu in the Twenty-Ninth Year of Dading". "Dading" is the era name of Kim Sejong's complete Yan Yong, and the twenty-ninth year of Dading is 1189 AD. The iron knife is 87 cm long, 3.7 cm wide, the blade is upturned near the tip, the handle is flat and straight, and it is covered with oval flake blades, the head of the knife has disappeared, and the wood for the handle and the rope that wraps around the handle have rotted.
Different from the Jin Dynasty combat knives, the short-handled fighting knives equipped by the Song Dynasty government at that time were mostly "hand knives", and their swords were mostly long upward oblique blades with short backs, but there were also some hand knives whose tips were as circular and curved as the gold and iron knives mentioned above. In Li Gonglin's ancient paintings, there are also knives and weapons like golden iron knives, but none of them have an official name. More than thirty years after the shame of Jing Kang, in the first year of Qiandao (1165 AD), the Southern Song Dynasty Military Weapons Inspector began to create a new type of knife weapon, because it was shaped like the feathers of a goose, so it was named "Goose Feather Knife", and since then, this waist knife finally has an official name. By the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the "waist knife" began to be used as a general term for all knife weapons hanging from the waist with lifting beams and ropes, and began to appear frequently in official submissions and folk interpretation novels in the centuries after the establishment of the Ming Dynasty.
Ming Dynasty waist knife
The night fork in the mural of Chang'an Jingyun Temple, notice the saber around its waist
The type system of the Ming and Qing waist knives can be subdivided into the following categories:
The basic type characteristics of the Yanling waist knife in the Ming and Qing dynasties are that the body of the knife is relatively straight, the tip of the knife is slightly upturned circular arc, and the tip of the knife is more open to the back of the knife 15 to 20cm, which is now generally called the counter-blade (some of the Early Ming and early Yanling waist knives have no counter-edge, and the form is closer to the style of the golden war knife, while the counter-blade of the Yanling waist knife in the Qing Dynasty even runs through the entire back of the knife). The width of the knife body is 4 to 5 cm, the ridge thickness is 0.6 to 0.7 cm (the thickest part is up to 1 cm), the knife body section is isosceles triangle (this knife body section is called "flat manufacturing"), the total length is mostly about 90 cm, the blade length is 70 to 80 cm, the handle length is 15 to 20 cm, and the total weight of the knife is 1 to 1.5 kg.
In the Ming Dynasty, most of the blood grooves of the Yanling waist knife were one, and most of the Qing Dynasty Yanling waist knives had several blood grooves, and the shape of the blood grooves was very complicated. For example, the Palace Museum in Shenyang has a royal Goose Ling waist knife of Emperor Taiji of the Qing Dynasty, the total length of the knife is 94.5cm, the maximum width of the knife is 4.5cm, the thickness of the spine is 0.7cm, the length of the counter-blade is about 10cm, the double-sided total of 4 blood grooves, the straight wooden rope handle, the head of the knife is double-curved, the knife is oval, the forging is fine, and the blade is still very sharp.
In addition, the National Museum of China also has another kind of Yanling waist knife, the length of the knife is 70 ~ 80cm, the width of the knife body is 3.5 ~ 4cm, the "flat" knife body has 4 blood grooves on both sides, and the knife body is engraved with the words "Wanli Decade Dengzhou Qi", so the museum believes that this waist knife is a sabre against the famous general Qi Jiguang, but the inscription on this waist knife is rough and shallow, there is no sense of integration, it may be a pseudo-inscription of the later carving, and according to its type system details, it can be judged that it is the "official knife" produced by the Ministry of Works or the Military Department in the middle of the Qing Dynasty. It is not a Ming Dynasty waist knife, so the author has doubts about the age of this knife.
After the Hongwu and Yongle dynasties of the Qijia knife in the Ming Dynasty, the Japanese knife began to flow into China in large quantities through tribute and smuggling trade, and according to rough statistics from historical records, the number may be about 500,000, of which the high-quality ones are quite popular. At that time, the Japanese Ronin often harassed the coastal areas of the mainland, and their swords had the advantage in the confrontation with the waist knives of the Ming dynasty army. Therefore, the Ming government began to imitate the knife and equip its own troops.
However, because the long handle of the knife is not conducive to the cavalry wielding on the horse, nor is it conducive to cooperating with the rattan card, Qi Jiguang created a kind of waist knife according to actual needs, combining the forged body of the knife with the short handle of the waist knife, which is the so-called "Qi family knife". Observing the Qijia knife that has been handed down now, it can be found that the Qijia knife is mostly a forged knife body of 70 to 80cm long (the knife body section is a more complex geometric facet), there is no reverse blade and blood groove, the handle is straight or slightly bent, and the tip of the knife is a TANTO shape of the knife, which is conducive to cutting heavy and thick armor. The Ming army after Jiajing began to equip a large number of such waist knives.
Qijia knife, can be seen in its forging body, with the style of the knife, the black geometry in the upper right corner of the figure is the section of the forging knife body; the bottom of the figure is a close-up of the stem of the Qijia waist knife, which can be seen at the end of the stem and the stem hole.
After the Lancet Waist Knife Qingren entered the Central Plains, the waist knife has a new development, a new type system has emerged, because this knife is shaped like a willow leaf, it is called a lancet waist knife. This kind of waist knife seems to be differentiated from the Yanling waist knife at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and its specific type is similar to the Yanling waist knife, but the body of the lancet waist knife is more curved.
The oxtail waist knife is a common single knife in today's martial arts, film and television. In the Qing Dynasty, a large number of Arab, Iranian and Indian swords were introduced into China, and its unique sword type system and decorative style influenced the development of Qing Dynasty swords, and some waist knives appeared upward protrusions like Kilici machetes at the counter-edge and back transitions. At the latest in the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, on this basis, the folk development produced the oxtail waist knife.
Observing the existing oxtail waist knife specimens, it can be found that its type characteristics are completely based on the needs of actual combat, the relatively straight body of the knife and the lower bend of the handle provide a very powerful slashing ability for the waist knife, which can cut thicker armor, and at the same time has a strong assassination power, when the slashing can not work, you can use the stab to eliminate the enemy with heavy armor protection. Compared with the Same One-Handed Arabian and Indian Swords (some of which have lost the ability to assassinate), its design is more scientific and flexible.
The picture above is the Qing Dynasty lancet waist knife, and the picture below is the Qing Dynasty oxtail waist knife
Manufacturing technology:
Qi Jiguang has such a record in the "Waist Knife System" in the "New Book of Ji Xiao": "The waist knife is made: iron should be refined, the blade should be made of pure steel, from the back to the flattening to the blade, the blade is flat and sharpened, the shoulderless is sharp, and the magic is in the sharp ,...... The knife should be light with the hand, the handle should be short, the shape should be bent, and the card should be turned, and it should not be hindered. ”
Another popular science book of the Ming Dynasty, "Tiangong Kaiwu", also has an explanation of the manufacturing process of the waist knife: "The most beautiful sword wrapped it in hundreds of steels, which still uses no steel as a bone,...... Secondly, the common knife and axe, only embedded in the steel on its face. ”
The sword forging method mentioned in these two ancient books is the traditional Chinese sandwich steel process, that is, the wrought iron with low carbon content or fried steel is heated with fire, and the sledgehammer is repeatedly folded and forged, in this process, the impurities in the iron will gradually precipitate, but also the microstructure density of the metal is increased, after several or even dozens of folds, and then clamped into a section of "steel pouring" (also known as "Su iron", mostly high carbon steel with a carbon content of about 0.8% to 1.0%), as a blade steel, and then the overall forging of the knife body, After quenching, the knife body is completed.
As far as the technical level at that time was concerned, this process could make the sword rigid and soft, reaching a higher level. Because the folding forging will make the knife body appear different levels of carbon content of the layering phenomenon, the multi-layered structure with different carbon content and the interspersed demarcation between the layers in the knife body polishing and grinding, will appear on the surface of the knife beautiful pattern (also known as forging pattern) and sandwich steel wire, the pattern is considerable and untouchable, or like the valley between the streams, or like the brilliant galaxy, or like the smoke rising under the sun as beautiful and mysterious, this is the so-called "welded pattern steel" phenomenon.
In addition, in the Ming and Qing literature miscellaneous records, there are also some noteworthy chemical heat treatment processes, such as Tang Shunzhi's "Wubei Preliminary Edition" recorded that "sheep's horn calcination ash, powder heart water proposed, sour grass ash, nitrate, sauce knife flower"; "Physical Knowledge" records that "after the steel knife is quenched, the knife body is smeared with tiger bone plain nitrate sauce or sheep's horn and nipple hair, and then quenched after burning red.". Now it seems that this type of process may be a surface hardening technique similar to the knife quenching technology. Chen Keshu of the Qing Dynasty recorded in the "Seal Engraving Needle", with pig teeth, hair and nitrate burned into ash, mixed with vinegar, smeared on the blade into a jagged pattern and then heated and quenched, known as "horse tooth steel" or "horsetooth inlay steel", because the blade of the sword after such treatment will become extremely hard, after grinding, the serrated pattern on the blade will become abrupt. In recent years, the "horsetooth steel" and "horsetooth inlaid steel" swords in the hands of some sword collectors have proved the existence of this unique sword heat treatment method of the Chinese nation.
The forged pattern and steel grain of the ancient swords of the Ming and Qing dynasties are close-up
Close-up of the "horsetooth steel" or "horsetooth inlaid steel" sword unique to ancient Chinese swords. It can be seen that the hardened layer of its serrated shape is very regular, which is different from the clamped steel forging wiring
Exterior process:
According to the observation of the physical objects passed down from generation to generation, the equipment of the Ming and Qing waist knives is mostly consistent with the owner and the popular aesthetic tastes of society (this is also one of the bases for judging the age of the waist knife manufacturing). First of all, the knife blade of the waist knife is mostly square, round, oval or melon-shaped, partly flat, and partly with small folding edges. (Interested in swords, locked: woaimi87)
The texture of the knife hammer has copper and iron, copper is more common, the surface of the knife hammer has or seal engraving or gold, silver and other precious metals made of various patterns, more common is the curly grass, orchid, lotus, bamboo and other flowers and grass, knife and horse figures, gourds, money, dragon patterns, etc.; A few particularly high-grade waist knives are engraved with engravings, followed by gold, silver and other precious metals, and a few are inlaid with precious stones. The knife head (the knife head is mostly spherical, double-curved, trapezoidal and horseshoe-shaped) and the lifting beam, sheath head, and sheath on the sheath are also similar to the style and texture of the knife hammer in the ornamentation. The sheath is mostly made of strong hardwood, the sheath or bag of polished shark skin, or black, red and other colors of lacquer, the handle of the knife is more entangled with silk, hemp, cotton rope to facilitate the hand, there are also some handles wrapped in shark skin.
Battle Legends: Excellent defensive weapons in the hands of infantry
The waist knife is a short-handled fighting weapon, which is mostly used in close combat on the infantry battlefield dominated by long guns and bows, and if used as the main battle weapon, it must be used with shield cover. In the "New Book of Ji Xiao", it is written: "The unlicensed knife is short and cannot enter the battle, but it can be used immediately", "Each soldier holds a card, a waist knife, a knife wrist, and a dart gun in one hand", encounters the enemy, throws the javelin at the enemy, whether it hits or not, the enemy will inevitably dodge, then the waist knife hand "can take the knife in his hand and enter the ,...... Once inside the gun, the gun is discarded", and its tactics are consistent with the tactics used by the Roman heavy shield infantry, which is very powerful.
Cheng Zongyou, a martial arts master of the Ming Dynasty, also believed: "The waist knife rattan card is low, and it is difficult to add splitting, but only by luring its sword front card can it be won." "It can be seen that the infantry uses the waist knife with the power of the rattan card. However, somehow, the number of rattan players in the Qi family army trained by Qi Jiguang was the smallest, with only 2 people per team (12 soldiers), usually at the front of the queue, whose task was to cover the spearmen behind them, and at the same time needed to rely on the protection of the wolf's hand (made of a whole large moso bamboo, one and a half feet long, dense branches, able to prevent the slashing of the knife and the stabbing of the spear). However, this also shows from the side that coordination and formation in the ancient Chinese army have always been the most important.
An important melee weapon in the hands of cavalry
The cavalry of the Ming and Qing dynasties completely used the waist knife as the main fighting weapon. After Nurhaci swore an oath to rebel against the Ming, the Manchurian cavalry rose between the White Mountains and the Black Water, and the Ming army outside Guanwai began to engage a new group of enemies in the Liaodong battlefield where blood and fire were mixed, and the waist knife became the main weapon besides the bow and arrow. Even after Nurhaci occupied Shenyang, he once ordered that the Liaodong Han people were strictly forbidden to carry two weapons, waist knives and bows and arrows, to prevent the Han people from revolting against his rule.
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the guangxi admiral Su Yuanchun photographed, it can be seen that the waist knife was still the main weapon in addition to the bow and arrow at that time, the late Qing Dynasty Guangxi admiral Su Yuanchun photograph, it can be seen that the waist knife was still the main weapon in addition to the bow and arrow at that time
Unfinished business
After the Qing dynasty entered the customs, the martial arts of the Kang, Yong and Qian dynasties were the most outstanding, especially in the Qianlong period, and the Qianlong Emperor himself was particularly fond of swords, and personally designed more than 90 waist knives and swords made by the Ministry of Internal Affairs in his lifetime, with extremely sophisticated materials and decorations, and named after "Shenfeng", "Chopping Rhinoceros", "Tai'a" and so on. According to the data, most of its waist knives are "about three feet long" and "weigh between twenty-three and thirty-one" Yanling waist knives and lancet waist knives.
In the "Imperial Ceremonial Instrument Schema" compiled by Qianlong in the twenty-seventh year (1762), most of the waist knives such as the official emperor's great parade sabre, the bodyguard sabre, the prince's sabre, and the officer and soldier Ding sabre were also yanling and willow leaf waist knives. After the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, the national strength of the Qing Dynasty declined rapidly, so that it was attacked by the Western powers to open the country' doors, and the tragedy of cutting off the land and paying reparations was repeatedly staged, even the Yuanmingyuan was looted, and the Qianlong imperial sword stored in the Yuanmingyuan was of course not spared, and most of them were scattered overseas. As the mainland's national strength increased, patriots began to collect these national treasures back to their homeland through various channels. In mid-2006, the Qianlong Emperor's imperial waist knife "Tianzi No. 17" ("Baoteng") waist knife was auctioned at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center, and a mainland buyer bought the treasure that had been lost overseas for many years for 46.04 million yuan, setting an unprecedented record in China's collection industry.
Qianlong Imperial Baoteng waist knife
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