Chinese Dao Sword

China is another of the civilizations where the use of the sword acquires a dimension of its own independently from the West. In fact, one of the best-known swords in history is the Sword of Goujian, which, although it is more than 2,500 years old, maintains a pristine state.

To know the origin of the Chinese sabers or swords, it must be taken into account that the first references are related to the Mythical Emperors of China, so the information found moves between history and legend. In the book ‘Ku Shin Kao’ the origin of the Dao is attributed to Sui Jen Shih, the second of the Mythical Emperors, who created a gold specimen. Other works place its origin in different emperors, such as 'Erh i Shih Lu', which attributes it to Huang Ti in the third millennium BC.

Among many other techniques, metallurgy was much more developed than in the West. As an example, in the seventeenth century BC they were already capable of making laminated and bimetallic forgings -of iron and bronze-, in addition to coating the sheets with antioxidants. Of course, the dominance of iron and bronze caused the discovery and application of steel to be delayed.

In the seventeenth century BC bronze swords were used by princes and kings to forge alliances. The technique developed a lot at that time, especially in the Yueh and Wu fiefdoms, where such was the quality that some forcers made it into the history books, such as Ou Yieh Tze, Kan Chiang and Mo Hsieh.

It must be contextualized that, in Chinese culture, weapons and hand techniques are used together in martial arts. Their handling is inseparable from boxing techniques. This is based on the fact that the weapons are seen as a continuation of the arm of the handler: the weapon can only be used if you have some knowledge of boxing.

But the best-known type of sword in this eastern civilization is the dao, -translated as saber or Chinese sword-. It is a single-edged saber that, depending on its variant, can be widened to the furthest third of the guard. This weapon, which is the forerunner of the famous Japanese katana, had as its main function hitting slashes, although there is much documentation that suggests that the last wider third also had the purpose of hitting thrusts. As with many of the Chinese inventions, it was fabricated much earlier than their western counterparts -with the first copies being placed in the Bronze Age- and its use lasts until the modern era. In fact, they are still used in the practice of tau-chi or kung-fu.

Because its morphology has varied throughout history -its tip, its curve, the guard and even the hilt-, the word dao, as with the scimitar, has been extended to refer to any saber or sword of curved blade of Chinese or Mongolian origin, applying today to up to 18 variations.

The abysmal differences in history, the techniques used and the process of development of the techniques make Chinese swords a must stop in the discovery of this type of weapon.