The Chinese

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...

 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

Dao (sword)

Daois a category of single-edge Chinese swords primarily used for slashing and chopping , often called a broadsword in English translation because some varieties have wide blades. In China, the dao is known as one of the four major weapons, along with the gun , qiang , and the jian , and referred...

, but the weapon has a longer handle usually around one and a half to two meters (about four to six feet) which is circular in cross section. It looks somewhat similar to the guandao.

The podao is also known as the horse-cutter sword since it was used to slice the legs out from under a horse during battle. It is somewhat analogous to the Japanese nagamaki

Nagamaki

The nagamaki is a Japanese pole weapon with a long and heavy blade with an equally long hilt, used by the samurai warriors of medieval Japan. The nagamaki is very much like the Japanese naginata or a glaive.-History:...

, although the latter was probably developed independently.