The author | cold research author team - archer Dong Lang
Word count: 3115, Reading time: about 11 minutes
Editor's note: Recently, an "iron sword" marked as "Song Dynasty" collected by the Yangzhou Museum has been questioned by many netizens. It can be said that the logo of the museum on this cultural relic, except for an iron character, many netizens do not recognize it, believing that this is a tang dynasty knife, not a song dynasty sword. If what netizens think is true, then this cultural relic is too wronged, and the famous Tang Dao is marked as the "Song Sword" that is not so famous. So, is this "Song Sword" really a "Tang Sword"?
▲The iron sword of Yangzhou Museum
First of all, the netizens' doubts actually have a certain truth, that is, the shape of this sword is too similar to the general saying of "Tang Knife with Multiple Blades" and "Tang Dao with two blades".
Above, from top to bottom, the first is the Song sword collected by the Yangzhou Museum, the second is the "Tang Da Dao" or "Tang Feng の大刀" (see the official website of the Zhengcang Yuan), and the third is the Tang Dynasty iron knife excavated from Dou Shu's tomb. Note that the Tang knife excavated from Dou Shu's tomb is not a two-bladed head.
The introduction of "Tang DaDao" on the official website of Shocangyuan is very strict in wording. Some domestic netizens often blindly describe the Zhengcangyuan collection as the original goods of the Tang Dynasty in China, but in fact this is not the case;
A considerable part of shosoin's collection, such as bows, arrows, hulu, etc., are very different from Chinese cultural relics and documentary records. When the Nara Museum in Japan officially held the "Shosoin Exhibition" in 2018, the source of the Shosoin collection had already been disclosed:
Of the 9,000 items in Shosoin's collection, 95% of the artifacts were made in Japan (I note that a considerable part of them are made in Silla, and there are very few real Tang objects). Although there are some exquisite works from the Tang Dynasty that have been passed down to Japan in the Shosoin collection, only 2 of the 56 cultural relics in this exhibition (referring to the 2018 Shosoin exhibition) are identified.
The first sentence of the commentary on the official website of Zhengcangyuan is translated as: Tang Dadao refers to the big knife of Tang Feng.
Netizens questioned the Yangzhou Museum, but also appeared in the local media in Yangzhou, yangzhou museum also responded to this matter, the screenshot of the relevant report is as follows:
In summary, the museum's identification as the Song Dynasty iron sword is based on "shape and material", and at the same time believes that this iron sword is a "homemade weapon", not an official weapon.
Although the museum can also make mistakes, it is not false; but in this matter, the author believes that the museum is very rigorous. That is, this is the "Song Sword", not the "Tang Sword".
This article also agrees with the museum's view, so it is uniformly called "sword" later.
First of all, let's talk about the first question, is this a sword? Combined with the relevant literature, it can be known that this kind of sword, which only has two blades at the tip of the sword, was indeed called "sword" in the Song Dynasty and Ming Dynasty, and was a weapon used by Taoists for practice, self-defense, and cultivation.
Such a sword head, from the literary and artistic works, the Southern Song Dynasty to name Wu Daozi's religious painting atlas "Daozi Mobao" has the image of a Taoist immortal holding such a sword.
▲ Southern Song Dynasty "Daozi Mobao", the sword-wielding Saint Zhenjun, pay attention to the sword tip
In the "Map of Xuanwu Emperor" (now in Russia) at the site of Heishui City in Western Xia, the Taoist god Xuanwu Emperor also holds a single-edged sword, although the sword tip is obscured, but it is speculated that it should also be a double blade:
▲Western Xia "Xuanwu Emperor Diagram"
From the literature point of view, then the information is more abundant. The Eighty-fourth volume of the Song Dynasty's Taoist classic "Seven Signatures of Yundi" has the "Sword-making Corpse Solution Method", which details the shape of the Taoist accessories of the Song Dynasty;
...... Make a sharp sword. Make it three feet nine inches long, one inch wide and four minutes wide, and three and a half minutes thick, with nine inches as the left and right blades. Its handle is as long as it is short, and it is suitable for it, and the head can be recorded in the ring, but it is three feet nine inches long...
To know the left and right of the sword, inside and outside, with the sword in the right guide, so that the sword is on the back, so that the blade of the sword is also under ...
The sword is nine inches, with two blades, and two blades are engraved, and the upper and outer sides of the ridge are made of three dings, starting from the two blades of the head, divided into three inches for a thong, and the word is straight to the sword pole...
The "sword stick" mentioned in this article is the position of the sword tip, that is, the meaning of the sword tip, and it is repeatedly mentioned that the nine inches of the sword tip are "two blades" and "left and right blades", and the "sword blade" and "sword back" are mentioned, which can be seen in the Taoist sword recorded in the "Seven Signatures of Yunji", that is, the sword tip opens two blades, and the back of the sword is like the shape of the back of the sword.
A similar account can also be found in the Song Dynasty's Taiping Imperial Records - Volume Liu Hundred and Sixty-Five - Daobu Seven - Sword Solution, and the record is more detailed:
Make it three feet nine inches long, one inch wide and four minutes wide, and three and a half minutes thick, which is called the upper ridge of the back near the handle, so that the thickness is three and a half minutes also. To the two edges, you can subtract one or two centimeters.
And to the edge of the blade, first burn the back of the two points, but the blade to copy, but also gradually make thin. Nine inches, for the left and right two, when the radius is fixed, the whole three feet, the back of the carved back as a blade, also three points and eight centimeters wide, will make the middle ridge remaining six points also.
These two written records have also caused some netizens to question, believing that "three feet nine inches long, one inch and four points wide", if calculated by song dynasty weights and measures, it is too exaggerated to find something of this size:
However, in fact, as long as you turn one more page in the "Taiping Imperial Records", you can know that Taoism is very ancient, and the weights and measures used to make swords are not the rulers of the Song Dynasty, but the so-called "zhou rulers" are used like music laws and astronomy:
Looking for different lengths of ancient and modern rulers, the nine chapters of the algorithm are all accumulated in millimeters. JinZhongshu supervisor Xun Xun was good at music and often hated the eight tones. Later, someone dug the ground to get a jade law, inscribed Zhou Shi, short Jin ruler four and a half minutes, in order to change the rhythm, sound rhyme degree. It is advisable to use this ruler today, so the showman, Zongzhen, Tongbai and Zhou Shi as a sword, use the Zhou ruler also.
The screenshot of the ancient book of the Taiping Imperial Records of the Twelfth Year of Jiaqing is as follows:
In fact, the so-called "ruler" after the Tang Dynasty in ancient China was divided into two types. Construction, measuring clothes, daily use, for large rulers, different generations, about today's more than thirty centimeters, this is generally called "building a ruler";
And involving astronomy, music, medicine "ruler", has been using the ancient system, for the small ruler, about today's 24.5 centimeters, the past has not been a major change, this ruler is called "astronomical ruler", "measuring ruler", until the Qing Dynasty did not change the calendar, with the construction of the ruler unified "measuring the ruler".
On the one hand, Taoism is very ancient, on the other hand, it often prides itself on being a heavenly person, and it is natural to be keen on using the ancient system, and it is reasonable to use the "measuring ruler".
Then we calculate by measuring the heavenly ruler, then the length of the Sword used by the Daoist in the Song Dynasty is three feet and nine inches, about 95.55 centimeters, and the width is one inch and four minutes, which is 3.43 centimeters. The nine inches of the sword tip are two-edged, that is, the tip of the sword is 22.05 cm for two edges.
Three and a half minutes thick, that is 8.575 mm.
Specific to the length data of this cultural relic in Yangzhou Museum, its length is 98 centimeters, which is equivalent to four feet; the width is 3.2 centimeters, which is equivalent to one inch and three minutes, which is almost a whole number. The overall data is converted into a measuring scale, and the length and width are almost all integers, and are highly close to the data of the Standard Sword used in Taoism in the Song Dynasty.
However, the museum has not proposed more data, we can not accurately know the thickness of this sword and the length of the two blades; but there are two things that can be affirmed, one is that the sword body is thicker, it should be more than 8 mm, and it also coincides with the Taoist sword of the Song Dynasty;
In addition, the length of the two-edged part of the sword tip can be approximated by comparing with the width, and on the way, the length of the two-edged part is about 6.5 times the width, about 21 centimeters, which is also close to the height of the Standard Sword of the Song Dynasty.
There is also a point of controversy, that is, the literature mentions that the Song Dynasty Taoists used swords, and the head would be installed with "recording rings", "ring recorders, engraved sword rings also." ”
However, specific to the context in the literature, it can be seen that the "recording ring" is actually an optional accessory, not a standard.
The record of the Seven Signatures of Yundi is that its handle is as long as it is short, and its head can be recorded as a ring, but it is three feet and nine inches long.
Taiping Imperial Records: The sword head can be recorded in the stirrup.
Similar Taoist swords are also recorded in the Taoist classics of the Ming Dynasty, but in the Ming Dynasty, the sword ring seems to have become the standard. The "Dongxuan Lingbao Dao Discipline Instrument" records:
If the fast iron is made into a sharp sword, the radius is round by two inches and six minutes, the handle is one foot and one inch and seven minutes long, the blade is two feet four inches and seven minutes long, and the total length is three feet nine inches. The hooked stirrup is three feet nine inches long, one inch wide and four minutes wide, three and a half minutes thick, nine inches at the tip, and the left and right blades, and the head is anchored.
The word ke has been removed, which shows that in the Ming Dynasty, Taoists used swords, and sword rings seemed to become standard accessories.
Finally, I would like to add that this form that only opens two blades at the tip should be called "left and right blades". In addition to the records in the "Seven Signatures of Yundi", "Taiping Imperial Records", and "Dongxuan Lingbao Dao Discipline Instruments" quoted above, Qi Jiguang's "Record of Military Training" of the Ming Dynasty records "line guns" and "armor-piercing guns", and also explicitly mentions the left and right blades:
Manufacturing method: steel for the front, steel for the blade of about three inches, iron below one foot, from the ridge to the left and right sides of the blade flat, Naili. The edge is flatter, the widening is gradually closed, the thinning is profitable, and the wide blade is not lagging behind. The most sharp immediately straight poke, the use of the same as the spear, but in the end can not resist the long weapon, in the waist knife each other have victory and defeat, get five out of ten.
Leng Yan had sent a special photo of the spearhead of the Ming Dynasty before, which should be what Qi Jiguang said about the "armor-piercing gun":
The two-edged part of the figure is about 10 centimeters, which is exactly in line with the length data of the "three-inch blade"; in the figure, one foot below is the connection with the pole, and the material seems to be soft, in line with the record of "iron below one foot".
On the whole, at least in the Song and Ming dynasties, the two-edged system of the head of the sword and spear was called the "left and right blades".
The titles of "Zhu Blade", "Blade Two Blades", and "Sharp Two Blades" are only shallow and shallow, and have not yet been found in ancient Chinese books. Nor is there any record of such sword tips in the pre-Song literature.
But in general, this cultural relic should be a "sword" used by Taoist monks in the Song Dynasty, rather than a "Tang sword" as some friends have speculated.
This article is the original manuscript of the Cold Weapons Research Institute, the editor-in-chief of the original outline, the author archer Donglang, any media or public account without written authorization shall not be reproduced, violators will be investigated for legal responsibility. Some of the image sources are online, if you have copyright questions, please contact us.