Dao

is a category of single-edge Chinese swords primarily used for slashing and chopping (sabers), often called a broadsword in English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 translation because some varieties have wide blades. In China, the dao is known as one of the four major weapons, along with the gun

Gun (staff)

The Chinese word gun refers to a long Chinese staff weapon used in Chinese martial arts. It is known as one of the four major weapons, along with the qiang , dao , and the jian , called in this group "The Grandfather of all Weapons".-Variants:There are various kinds of gun, and they include the...

(staff), qiang

Qiang (spear)

Qiang is the Chinese term for spear. Due to its relative ease of manufacture, the spear in many variations was ubiquitous on the pre-modern Chinese battlefield...

(spear), and the jian

Jian

The jian is a double-edged straight sword used during the last 2,500 years in China. The first Chinese sources that mention the jian date to the 7th century BCE during the Spring and Autumn Period; one of the earliest specimens being the Sword of Goujian.Historical one-handed versions have blades...

(sword), and referred to as "The General of All Weapons". Dao is actually a generic word used to denote any member of a family of single-edged

Backsword

A backsword is a sword with a blade on one edge, or an "edge-and-a-quarter." The back of the sword is often the thickest part of the blade and acts to support and strengthen it....

, broad-bladed cutting or slicing tools, but in common, everyday usage means knife

Knife

A knife is a cutting tool with an exposed cutting edge or blade, hand-held or otherwise, with or without a handle. Knives were used at least two-and-a-half million years ago, as evidenced by the Oldowan tools...

. The weapon, also known as dan dao 單刀 (single knife) when just one is used, is thereby thought to be an adaptation of the kitchen knives common to Chinese cuisine

Chinese cuisine

Chinese cuisine is any of several styles originating in the regions of China, some of which have become highly popular in other parts of the world – from Asia to the Americas, Australia, Western Europe and Southern Africa...

. Dao also appears in the names of such polearms

Pole weapon

A pole weapon or polearm is a close combat weapon in which the main fighting part of the weapon is placed on the end of a long shaft, typically of wood, thereby extending the user's effective range. Spears, glaives, poleaxes, halberds, and bardiches are all varieties of polearms...

 as the pudao

Pudao

The Chinese weapon known as the podao was originally an edged infantry weapon which is still used for training in many Chinese martial arts. The blade of a podao is shaped like a Chinese broadsword, but the weapon has a longer handle usually around one and a half to two meters which is circular...

and guan dao

Guan dao

A Guan Dao, Kwan Dao, or Kuan Tao is a type of Chinese pole weapon that is currently used in some forms of Chinese martial arts. In Chinese it is properly called a 偃月刀 yan yue dao , the name under which it always appears in texts from the Song to Qing dynasties such as the Wujing Zongyao and...

, due to the knife-like shape of their blades.

General characteristics

While dao have varied greatly over the centuries, most single-handed dao of the Ming

Ming Dynasty

The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...

 period and later, and the modern swords that are based (sometimes loosely) on them share a number of characteristics. Dao blades are moderately curved and single-edged, though often with few inches of the back edge sharpened as well; the moderate curve allows them to be reasonably effective in the thrust. Hilt

Hilt

The hilt of a sword is its handle, consisting of a guard,grip and pommel. The guard may contain a crossguard or quillons. A ricasso may also be present, but this is rarely the case...

s are sometimes canted, curving in the opposite direction as the blade which improves handling in some forms of cuts and thrusts. Cord is usually wrapped over the wood of the handle. Hilts may also be pierced like those of jian

Jian

The jian is a double-edged straight sword used during the last 2,500 years in China. The first Chinese sources that mention the jian date to the 7th century BCE during the Spring and Autumn Period; one of the earliest specimens being the Sword of Goujian.Historical one-handed versions have blades...

(straight-bladed Chinese sword) for the addition of lanyard

Lanyard

A lanyard is a rope or cord exclusively worn around the neck or wrist to carry something. Usually it is used where there is a risk of losing the object or to ensure it is visible at all times. Aboard a ship, it may refer to a piece of rigging used to secure objects...

s, though modern swords for performances will often have tassels or scarves instead. Guards are typically disc-shaped often with a cupped shape to prevent rainwater from getting into the sheath, and to prevent blood from dripping down to the handle, making it more difficult to grip. Sometimes guards are thinner pieces of metal with an s-curve, the lower limb of the curve protecting the user's knuckles; very rarely they may have guards like those of the jian.

Other variations to the basic pattern include the large bagua dao

Baguazhang

Bāguàzhǎng is one of the three main Chinese martial arts of the Wudang school, the other two being Taijiquan and Xingyiquan. It is more broadly grouped as an internal practice...

and the long handled pudao

Pudao

The Chinese weapon known as the podao was originally an edged infantry weapon which is still used for training in many Chinese martial arts. The blade of a podao is shaped like a Chinese broadsword, but the weapon has a longer handle usually around one and a half to two meters which is circular...

.

Early history

The earliest dao date from the Shang Dynasty

Shang Dynasty

The Shang Dynasty or Yin Dynasty was, according to traditional sources, the second Chinese dynasty, after the Xia. They ruled in the northeastern regions of the area known as "China proper" in the Yellow River valley...

 in China's Bronze Age

Bronze Age

The Bronze Age is a period characterized by the use of copper and its alloy bronze as the chief hard materials in the manufacture of some implements and weapons. Chronologically, it stands between the Stone Age and Iron Age...

, and are known as zhibei dao (直背刀) - straight backed knives. As the name implies, these were straight-bladed or slightly curved weapons with a single edge. Originally bronze, these weapons were made of iron or steel by the time of the late Warring States period as metallurgical knowledge became sufficiently advanced to control the carbon content. It is also speculated that iron swords existed before this time, but were simply not preserved. Originally less common as a military weapon than the jian

Jian

The jian is a double-edged straight sword used during the last 2,500 years in China. The first Chinese sources that mention the jian date to the 7th century BCE during the Spring and Autumn Period; one of the earliest specimens being the Sword of Goujian.Historical one-handed versions have blades...

 - the straight, double-edged blade of China - the dao became popular with cavalry

Cavalry

Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...

 during the Han dynasty

Han Dynasty

The Han Dynasty was the second imperial dynasty of China, preceded by the Qin Dynasty and succeeded by the Three Kingdoms . It was founded by the rebel leader Liu Bang, known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu of Han. It was briefly interrupted by the Xin Dynasty of the former regent Wang Mang...

 due to its sturdiness, superiority as a chopping weapon, and relative ease of use - it was generally said that it takes a week to attain competence with a dao/saber, a month to attain competence with a qiang/spear, and a year to attain competence with a jian/straight sword. Soon after dao began to be issued to infantry, beginning the replacement of the jian as a standard-issue weapon.

During the Tang Dynasty

Tang Dynasty

The Tang Dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China preceded by the Sui Dynasty and followed by the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period. It was founded by the Li family, who seized power during the decline and collapse of the Sui Empire...

, dao were exported to both Korea

Korea

Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...

 and Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, influencing the swordsmithing of both nations. The blades of Tang era dao are reminiscent of the Japanese chokuto

Chokuto

The is a type of Japanese sword that dates back to pre-Heian times. Chokutō were made in later periods, but usually as temple offering swords. Chokutō were straight and single-edged hacking swords. That chokutō's design was originally imported to Japan from China, though seemingly most often...

 or the popular image of the perhaps-mythical ninjato

Ninjato

The , also known as or , is the most common name for the sword that the ninja are portrayed to have carried by ninja in television and movies. Historically, there is no physical evidence for the existance of this weapon. In reality, the katana was probably the ninja's weapon of choice...

.

During the Song Dynasty

Song Dynasty

The Song Dynasty was a ruling dynasty in China between 960 and 1279; it succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period, and was followed by the Yuan Dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or paper money, and the first Chinese government to establish a...

, one form of infantry dao was the shoudao, a chopping weapon with a clip point. While some illustrations show them as straight, the 11th century Song military encyclopedia Wujing Zongyao depicts them with curved blades - possibly an influence from the steppe

Steppe

In physical geography, steppe is an ecoregion, in the montane grasslands and shrublands and temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biomes, characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes...

 tribes of Central Asia

Central Asia

Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...

, who would conquer parts of China during the Song period. Also dating from the Song are the falchion

Falchion

A falchion is a one-handed, single-edged sword of European origin, whose design is reminiscent of the Persian scimitar and the Chinese dao....

-like dadao

Dadao

The dadao one of the varieties of dao or Chinese saber, is also known as the Chinese great sword. Based on agricultural knives, dadao have broad blades generally between two and three feet long, long hilts meant for "hand and a half" or two-handed use, and generally a weight-forward balance...

, the long, two-handed zhanmadao

Zhanmadao

The zhanmadao was a single-bladed anti-cavalry Chinese sword of the Song Dynasty.- General characteristics :The zhanmadao is a sabre with a single long broad blade, and a long handle suitable for two-handed use....

, and the long-handled, similarly two-handed buzhandao (步战刀).

Yuan, Ming and Qing

The Mongols

Mongols

Mongols ) are a Central-East Asian ethnic group that lives mainly in the countries of Mongolia, China, and Russia. In China, ethnic Mongols can be found mainly in the central north region of China such as Inner Mongolia...

 invaded China in the early 13th century. The Mongolian Yuan dynasty

Yuan Dynasty

The Yuan Dynasty , or Great Yuan Empire was a ruling dynasty founded by the Mongol leader Kublai Khan, who ruled most of present-day China, all of modern Mongolia and its surrounding areas, lasting officially from 1271 to 1368. It is considered both as a division of the Mongol Empire and as an...

 influenced China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 and other nations considerably, particularly in the tools and tactics of war. A favored weapon of the Mongol cavalry was the saber: this simple, one handed, curved blade had been used by the Turkic

Turkic peoples

The Turkic peoples are peoples residing in northern, central and western Asia, southern Siberia and northwestern China and parts of eastern Europe. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...

 and Tungusic tribes of Central Asia

Central Asia

Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...

 since probably at least the 6th century. Its effectiveness for mounted warfare and popularity among soldiers across the entirety of the Mongol empire had lasting effects. The Persian shamshir

Shamshir

A Shamshir also Shamsheer and Chimchir, is a type of sabre with a curve that is considered radical for a sword: 5 to 15 degrees from tip to tip. The name is derived from Persian شمشیر shamshīr, which means "sword"...

, the Indian talwar

Talwar

The talwar is a type of curved sword or sabre from India and modern-day Pakistan...

, the Afghani pulwar

Pulwar

A pulwar is a single handed curved sword from Afghanistan and neighbouring regions of Pakistan and Northwestern India.-Characteristics:...

, the Turkish kilij

Kilij

A kilij is a type of saber used by the Turks throughout history starting from late Hsiung-nu period to Avar Empire and Göktürk Khaganate, Uyghur Khaganate, Seljuk Empire, Timurid Empire, Mamluk Empire, Ottoman Empire, and later Turkic Khanates of Central Asia...

, the Arabian saif (all of which can be referred to by the blanket-term "scimitar

Scimitar

A scimitar is a backsword or sabre with a curved blade, originating in Southwest Asia .The Arabic term saif translates to "sword" in general, but is normally taken to refer to the scimitar type of curved backsword in particular.The curved sword or "scimitar" was widespread throughout the Muslim...

") and the Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

an saber (adopted via Hungary

Hungary

Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...

's Magyar horsemen) and cutlass

Cutlass

A cutlass is a short, broad sabre or slashing sword, with a straight or slightly curved blade sharpened on the cutting edge, and a hilt often featuring a solid cupped or basket shaped guard...

are perhaps descended from the Turko-Mongol curved blade.

In China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

, Mongol influence lasted long after the collapse of the Yuan dynasty at the hands of the Ming

Ming Dynasty

The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...

, continuing through both the Ming and the Qing

Qing Dynasty

The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....

 dynasties (the latter itself founded by a steppe people, the Manchu

Manchu

The Manchu people or Man are an ethnic minority of China who originated in Manchuria . During their rise in the 17th century, with the help of the Ming dynasty rebels , they came to power in China and founded the Qing Dynasty, which ruled China until the Xinhai Revolution of 1911, which...

), furthering the popularity of the dao and spawning a variety of new blades. Blades with greater curvature became popular, and these new styles are collectively referred to as pei dao. During the mid-Ming these new sabers would completely replace the jian as a military-issue weapon. The four main types of pei dao are:

• yanmao dao, or "goose-quill saber." This weapon, similar to the earlier zhibei dao, is largely straight, with a curve appearing at the center of percussion
  Center of percussion
  The center of percussion is the point on an object where a perpendicular impact will produce translational and rotational forces which perfectly cancel each other out at some given pivot point, so that the pivot will not be moving momentarily after the impulse....
  
   near the blade's tip. This allows for thrusting attacks and overall handling similar to that of the jian, while still preserving much of the dao's strengths in cutting and slashing.
• liuye dao, the "willow leaf saber." The most common form of Chinese saber, this weapon features a moderate curve along the length of the blade. This weapon became the standard sidearm for both cavalry and infantry, and is the sort of saber originally used by many schools of Chinese martial arts
  Chinese martial arts
  Chinese martial arts, also referred to by the Mandarin Chinese term wushu and popularly as kung fu , are a number of fighting styles that have developed over the centuries in China. These fighting styles are often classified according to common traits, identified as "families" , "sects" or...
  
  .
• pian dao, "slashing saber." A deeply curved dao meant for slashing and draw-cutting, this weapon bears a strong resemblance to the shamshir and scimitar. A fairly uncommon weapon, it was generally used by skirmishers in conjunction with a shield
  Shield
  A shield is a type of personal armor, meant to intercept attacks, either by stopping projectiles such as arrows or redirecting a hit from a sword, mace or battle axe to the side of the shield-bearer....
  
  .
• niuweidao, the "oxtail saber." A heavy bladed weapon with a characteristic flaring tip, this is the archetypal "Chinese broadsword" of kung fu movies today. It is first recorded in the early 19th century (the latter half of the Qing dynasty
  Qing Dynasty
  The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....
  
  ) and only as a civilian weapon: there is no record of it being issued to troops, and it does not appear in any listing of official weaponry. Its appearance in movies and modern literature is thus often anachronistic
  Anachronism
  An anachronism—from the Greek ανά and χρόνος — is an inconsistency in some chronological arrangement, especially a chronological misplacing of persons, events, objects, or customs in regard to each other...
  
  .

Besides these four major types of dao, the duan dao or "short dao" was also used, this being a compact weapon generally in the shape of a liuye dao. The dadao

Dadao

The dadao one of the varieties of dao or Chinese saber, is also known as the Chinese great sword. Based on agricultural knives, dadao have broad blades generally between two and three feet long, long hilts meant for "hand and a half" or two-handed use, and generally a weight-forward balance...

saw continued use, and during the Ming dynasty the large two-handed changdao and zhanmadao

Zhanmadao

The zhanmadao was a single-bladed anti-cavalry Chinese sword of the Song Dynasty.- General characteristics :The zhanmadao is a sabre with a single long broad blade, and a long handle suitable for two-handed use....

were used both against the cavalry of the northern steppes and the wokou

Wokou

Wokou , which literally translates as "Japanese pirates" in English, were pirates of varying origins who raided the coastlines of China and Korea from the 13th century onwards...

(pirates) of the southeast coast; these latter weapons (sometimes under different names) would continue to see limited use during the Qing period. Also during the Qing there appear weapons such as the nandao

Nandao

Nandao is a kind of sword that is nowadays used mostly in contemporary Chinese wushu exercises and forms. It is the southern variation of the "northern broadsword", or Beidao. Its blade bears some resemblance to the butterfly sword, also a southern Chinese single-bladed weapon; the main difference...

, regional variants in name or shape of some of the above dao, and more obscure variants such as the "nine ringed broadsword," these last likely invented for street demonstrations and theatrical performances rather than for use as weapons.

The Chinese spear

Qiang (spear)

Qiang is the Chinese term for spear. Due to its relative ease of manufacture, the spear in many variations was ubiquitous on the pre-modern Chinese battlefield...

 and dao (liuyedao and yanmaodao) were commonly issued to infantry due to the expense of and relatively greater amount of training required for the effective use of Chinese straight sword, or jian

Jian

The jian is a double-edged straight sword used during the last 2,500 years in China. The first Chinese sources that mention the jian date to the 7th century BCE during the Spring and Autumn Period; one of the earliest specimens being the Sword of Goujian.Historical one-handed versions have blades...

. Dao can often be seen depicted in period artwork worn by officers and infantry.

During the Yuan dynasty and after, some aesthetic features of Persian, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n, and Turkish

Turkic peoples

The Turkic peoples are peoples residing in northern, central and western Asia, southern Siberia and northwestern China and parts of eastern Europe. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family. They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds...

 swords would appear on dao. These could include intricate carvings on the blade and "rolling pearls": small metal balls that would roll along fuller

Fuller (weapon)

A fuller is a rounded or beveled groove or slot in the flat side of a blade . A fuller is often used to lighten the blade, much in the way that an I-beam shape allows a given amount of strength to be achieved with less material...

-like grooves in the blade.

Recent history

Some of the blades from the Qing Dynasty

Qing Dynasty

The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....

 lived on and even had descendants see military action in the 20th century. The dadao

Dadao

The dadao one of the varieties of dao or Chinese saber, is also known as the Chinese great sword. Based on agricultural knives, dadao have broad blades generally between two and three feet long, long hilts meant for "hand and a half" or two-handed use, and generally a weight-forward balance...

was used by some Chinese militia

Militia

The term militia is commonly used today to refer to a military force composed of ordinary citizens to provide defense, emergency law enforcement, or paramilitary service, in times of emergency without being paid a regular salary or committed to a fixed term of service. It is a polyseme with...

 units against Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

ese invaders in the Second Sino-Japanese War

Second Sino-Japanese War

The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. From 1937 to 1941, China fought Japan with some economic help from Germany , the Soviet Union and the United States...

, as was the miao dao

Miao dao

The Miao Dao is a Chinese two-handed dao or saber of the Republican era, with a narrow blade of up to 1.2 meters or more and a long hilt. The name means "sprout saber", presumably referring to a likeness between the weapon and a newly sprouted plant...

, a descendant of the changdao. These were used during planned ambushes on Japanese troops because the Chinese military and patriotic resistance groups often had more willing soldiers than firearms.

Most Chinese martial arts

Chinese martial arts

Chinese martial arts, also referred to by the Mandarin Chinese term wushu and popularly as kung fu , are a number of fighting styles that have developed over the centuries in China. These fighting styles are often classified according to common traits, identified as "families" , "sects" or...

 schools still train extensively with the dao, seeing it as a powerful conditioning tool and a versatile weapon, with self defense techniques transferable to similarly sized objects more commonly found in the modern world, such as canes, baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...

 or cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

 bats, for example. There are also schools that teach double broadsword shuang dao 雙刀, forms and fencing, one dao for each hand.

One measure of the proper length of the sword should be from the hilt in your hand and the tip of the blade at the brow and in some schools, the height of shoulder. Alternatively, the length of the sword should be from the middle of the throat along the length of the outstretched arm. There are also significantly larger versions of dao used for training in some Baguazhang

Baguazhang

Bāguàzhǎng is one of the three main Chinese martial arts of the Wudang school, the other two being Taijiquan and Xingyiquan. It is more broadly grouped as an internal practice...

 and Taijiquan schools.