[Military sub-plane] Lancers
Recently, the TV series "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an" has aroused heated discussion among fans of cold weapons, and the restoration display of many Tang Dynasty weapons and armor is a highlight of the play. Military fans and friends were happy to see the appearance of the Tang Sword, and once again stimulated their interest in Tang Dynasty weapons.
After nearly 20 years of fermentation on the Internet, Tang Dao has become famous all over the world, and many sword studios also have various restoration works. If you are interested, you can have one. The mystery attached to the Tang sword has gradually faded, and fans of the cold weapons army with a strong desire for knowledge have turned their eyes to other Tang Dynasty characteristic weapons.
So some friends will ask: "Why are Tang knives all straight blades, and did the Tang Dynasty have beautiful machetes?"
The answer is yes, and this machete is very famous, and it has been praised by poets and chivalrous warriors since then. This machete is the famous "Wu hook".
Military fans who like classical Chinese poetry will definitely be familiar with the term "Wu Hook", which appears in countless poems that praise Ren Xia's heroism and express his passion, as if it has become synonymous with the hero's beloved blade, and its frequency of use is second only to the sword, but its artistic conception is significantly higher than that of ordinary blades such as swords.
The sword is known to everyone, but what kind of weapon the "Wu Hook" that cannot be found in later generations has been solved for a long time, and there have been various theories, including "straight sword theory" and "iron hook saying". Why does The editor say that it is a "full moon curved knife" today!?
This is mainly because the name Wu Hook is too old, it was originally a weapon that existed in large quantities in the pre-Qin Dynasty, and then it was eliminated and withdrew from the stage of history. However, during the Tang and Song dynasties, it appeared in large quantities again, but it was already "this hook is not another hook", and it was not the revival of Wu hook in the pre-Qin period. Rather, it is a kind of exotic style machete introduced from the Western Regions, and the Tang people have no name for it, so they use the name of Wu Hook in the pre-Qin period to borrow the metaphor, which may have a great similarity in appearance.
However, this practice of naming new things with ancient historical names is not very ideal, and Wu Hook obviously cannot fully express the characteristics of this new weapon, but it is easy to cause people to misunderstand, thinking that it is a weapon based on "hooking and cutting", while ignoring that this new weapon is actually a machete. Therefore, after the Tang and Song dynasties, the machete may continue to exist, but the name Wu Hook no longer appears in the terminology of bingjia martial arts.
Wu hook in the pre-Qin period is an inner arc weapon made of bronze, and the pre-Qin Wu hook has been excavated from the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang in Lintong, Shaanxi Province, which can let people see the true face of Wu hook. Its curves are very graceful and smooth, like a crescent moon. However, the role is not to slash and kill, but to use the inner blade weapon like the European bent sickle, which is mainly hooked and cut, and has the function of "chiseling and pecking".
Wu hook in the pre-Qin is a very popular weapon, the reason why it is named after Wu, because Wu guo was the most developed in the production of bronze sword weapons in China at that time, the product quality of the region, so many excellent swords love to be crowned with the word "Wu".
After a large number of Han knife iron weapons replaced bronze weapons, many pre-Qin bronze soldiers were annihilated in the long river of history, and the same was true of Wu Hook, and there may be some new weapons that continue to be used on a small scale.
At the beginning of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, because some of the Chinese nomads such as Xianbei had a territory in the north that went directly to the western region and Central Asia, and these nomads had a more open mind than the Han people, a large number of cultural technologies and customs in the western region of Central Asia and even Rome were introduced into China, triggering a series of changes in the Sui and Tang dynasties, and the same was true for swords, such as the Tang sword, which contained many decorative art elements of the Central Asian sword. During the Sui and Tang dynasties, a western Central Asian style machete also appeared in large numbers at this time and was loved by the Tang people. Because of its similarity in appearance to the ancient Chinese Wu hook, the Tang people named this new machete after the name "Wu Hook".
What does the machete "Wu Hook" look like? In fact, its image has been preserved in large quantities, but it has been ignored. Where is it kept? As we all know, Buddhist art flourished during the Tang and Song dynasties, and in the Sui and Tang dynasties, in terms of Buddhist modeling, a large number of original features of Western culture were retained. For example, the shapes of many gods have actually retained the image shapes of a large number of civilian and military generals in the western regions.
After the "localization" of these exotic styles, the characteristics of foreign races slowly disappeared. Only in the Buddhist plastic arts of the Sui and Tang dynasties, some shadows of the Central Asian countries in the western region at that time could be captured in large quantities.
As far as weapon armor is concerned, in the "Heavenly King Shape" of the Sui and Tang Dynasties, many original images of the weapons and armor of the western warriors have been preserved. The machete "Wu Hook" in this article exists in large quantities in the Tang and Song Dynasties, who was praised by the warriors as the "God of Military Arms" by the warriors, and the Tang Dynasty's "Xingtang Temple Bishamen Tianwang" depicts: "The Vishamon Heavenly King, the Buddha's arm finger also, the right choke Wu hook, the left holding the pagoda." Its purpose will be to destroy the demons and protect the Buddha."
King Vishamun is the future King of Tota, who is the head of the four kings, so his armor is the most majestic and gorgeous. All the Tang Dynasty Vishamon Kings, all hanging under the navel, hang a curved machete that curves like a moon, and this machete is the Tang and Song "Wu Hook"!