Mo Dao: From the above four battle examples, we can see that the Mo Dao among the Tang Dao was used as an important war material and equipment for the army. As a military artifact in the mid-Tang Dynasty, it was strictly forbidden to make and keep privately among the people. Its inheritance should be
The long sword of the Han Dynasty (Han Dynasty: a kind of long sword is called "horse-breaking sword", it should be a long sword used with both hands). The long sword of the Han Dynasty has been unearthed to be more than 140 centimeters long. It can be speculated that it developed through the prosperous Tang Dynasty.
, turned into a two-edged long knife held by both hands and with an extended handle. So far, no actual archaeological data has been unearthed. The "dropped knife" and "three-pointed two-edged knife" drawn in Song Dynasty's "Wu Jing Zong Yao" may be the Tang Mo Dao.
direct successor.
The Mo Dao is also mainly used by the infantry, and some major generals use the Mo Dao as the main battle weapon. According to the "Weigong Art of War" of the Tang Dynasty, the main combat methods of the Tang army are recorded: among them, the armies are divided into archers, crossbowmen, and garrison troops according to their functions.
There are many types of troops, vanguards, cavalry, jumping troops, surprise troops, etc. Whenever the battle begins, when the enemy is at 150 steps, the crossbowmen start shooting; when the enemy is at 60 steps, the archers start shooting; when the enemy is at 60 steps, the archers start shooting;
When they advance twenty steps, the crossbowmen fire their arrows, hold swords and sticks (i.e. Mo Dao, sticks), and attack with the vanguard. After the infantry is slightly defeated, the surprise troops and the cavalry are not allowed to move rashly. If the infantry
If the battle situation is not going well, the Tiao Dang, Qi soldiers, and cavalry troops will immediately rush forward to attack. The infantry retreats and reorganizes to prepare for reinforcements. If the Tiao Dang, Qi soldiers, and cavalry troops attack unfavorably, all infantry units must cooperate with the cavalry troops to fight at the same time. The enemy forces
When retreating, the cavalry army must not pursue easily. They must confirm that the enemy is truly defeated before they can cover up and kill them.
The Tang army combined infantry and horse, with duties on offense and defense. The infantry was the vanguard and the cavalry was the side auxiliary. The infantry was equipped with crossbows and Mo Dao. The cavalry was responsible for the assault and pursuit of the infantry after the war. The Mo Dao was a long-handled broadsword that advanced like a wall and served as the vanguard.
The main weapon of the infantry charge, together with the cavalry and surprise troops, constituted the main feature of the Tang Dynasty's battles. From the history books, it can be seen that Tang Taizong's battles were very personal. He liked to choose weak parts of the enemy's formation and lead the cavalry charge personally. "All enemies were defeated without fail."
, the scene of a cavalry galloping in front, followed by tens of thousands of cavalry, is particularly fascinating when I think about it today. In the early Tang Dynasty, a large number of cavalry was an important guarantee for victory in combat, while in the middle period, the infantry advanced like a wall.
Tactics created the glorious history of war in the prosperous Tang Dynasty, and also created the myth of Mo Dao. From Wude to Tianbao, the Tang Dynasty was able to achieve victory in the founding war and the war with nomadic peoples who were good at riding and shooting. The offensive weapon Mo Dao of infantry
It cannot be said that the use of the knife does not constitute one of the main reasons. The emergence and popularization of the Modao is not an isolated phenomenon. It is related to the Tang Dynasty and the entire military situation. It can also be said that the history of the use and promotion of the Modao is
The founding of the Tang Dynasty and foreign wars are an aspect of the history of Kaitian martial arts. Although there are four types of swords in the Tang Dynasty, the only weapon that really played a role on the battlefield was the Mo Dao.
The participation of the Modao Army played a decisive role in any available battle cases. As an independent combat force in the battle sequence, the Modao Army made great contributions to the Tang Army's battles in the mid-Tang Dynasty. The Modao Army was a member of the Han nationality and
The nomads who are good at riding and shooting are the key weapons to change their disadvantage of having few horses but not being good in the war, and to give full play to the advantages of infantry. The evolution of war weapons actually evolves with the development of war forms, and changes with the strength and decline of national power.
After the Song Dynasty unified the Central Plains, China's cold weapons began a new round of development. A large number of new spears, long knives, axes, and divine arm crossbows were born and armed the Song army. The heroic Modao became a luxurious war equipment. The Song Dynasty
The main direction of the war was also the northern nomads. In order to deal with the cavalry of the Liao and Jin Dynasties, spears and axes began to become the main weapons of the army. The large amount of equipment of the axes can be proved from the "Wu Jing Zong Yao" and Song stone sculptures.
The production and use techniques are simpler than Mo Dao, and it is equally effective against cavalry. The Yue family army used "Mazha Dao", "Zhu Dao" and "Chang Ke Ax" to defeat the Jin Army's "Lian Ma". Effective and inexpensive weapons are always an important part of military equipment.
Weapons, the luxurious Modao gradually withdrew from the stage of war, and disappeared completely, which is a pity for China's cold weapons.
Ritual knives: Ritual knives often appear on important ceremonial occasions. The long knives worn by guards can be seen in the murals in the tombs of Prince Tang Yide and Princess Changle. The long knives are ring-shaped, with obvious rhombus-shaped blades and scabbards.
There are more obvious double rings hanging on the waist, either holding the top with both hands, or standing in front of the body. As an important weapon for the royal army and guards, the sword is relatively long, with a "dragon and phoenix ring" shape, inheriting the Han ring
The style of the hand knife is extremely luxurious, and the decoration is "decorated with gold and silver". Such an exquisite hand-wrapped broadsword is not only a reflection of the majesty of the Tang Dynasty, but also has a profound impact on the development of cold weapons in China. Such a hand-wrapped broadsword has followed the development of various countries.
The exchanges of envoys flowed all over the world, and there were two countries and one nation that were deeply affected by the Yi Dao: Goryeo, Japan, and Tubo. Judging from current archaeological data, both Goryeo and Japan have unearthed Huan Shu Dao, and the rings of these Huan Shu Dao are
They all use dragons and phoenixes as the main artistic expressions, and are inlaid with a large number of gold and silver. These ring-hand knives are the inheritance of the Yi Dao, and Tubo retained the styling characteristics of the Tang Yi Dao. As the dynasties changed in the Central Plains, the wars
After being ravaged, Tang Yida also disappeared and was annihilated.
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In the process of the evolution of the ritual sword to the east, both Korea and Japan completely copied the form and style in the initial stage. In the mural of the Samarkand ruins in Uzbekistan in 1965, the Koryo envoy was wearing a large sword with a ring, and the style of the sword was similar to that of the Zhao Dynasty.
The long swords worn by the guards in the "Picture of Guards Holding Armor" in the mausoleum mural are exactly the same. The "Bingzi Pepper Forest Sword Seven-Star Sword" of Shitennoji Temple and the "Gold and Silver Denzhuang Tang Long Sword" of Shosoin Temple are all the same.
It is called "Tang-style broadsword". According to research, these swords are mostly imported from China and Korea. Also among the swords unearthed in Japan from the Kofun period (7th-8th century AD), "Tennozhong, Masuko Town, Hoga County, Tochigi Prefecture"
The gold-bronze-mounted single-phoenix ring-head broadsword unearthed from an ancient tomb, and the Tokyo National Museum preserves the ring-hand dragon-head broadsword with the inscription: "Being fearless makes the owner of this sword rich and noble, and has a lot of property." These ring-hand swords are consistent with historical records.
"Everyone is given a dragon and phoenix ring".
These murals and unearthed cultural relics fully prove that the sword is the ancestor of the current Korean sword and Japanese sword. Based on these objects and murals, we can restore the original appearance of the sword in the prosperous Tang Dynasty:
1. Knife ring: First of all, the most important mark of the sword is the ring. The dragon and phoenix are the main decorations in the ring. The dragon and phoenix and the entire ring are gold-plated. The dragon and phoenix ring are connected to the knife body by butt welding or riveting. Like this
The production is very clever. The blade ring is made with exquisite craftsmanship and exquisite decoration. It is operated by a separate craftsman. The blade is forged by a specialized forging craftsman. These two processes ensure an effective combination of the exquisiteness of the whole knife and the excellent forging of the blade.
, this kind of craftsmanship also appeared in the Huanshou knives of the Han Dynasty, and it can be seen that the inheritance is orderly.
2. Handle: It is mostly wrapped with gold and silver wire or decorated with thin gold and silver sheets. Judging from a Tang Huan hand knife unearthed in Xi'an this year and a Huan hand knife unearthed from the Tokyo National Museum in Japan, the handles are very similar. Coincidentally, these two large knives are
There are gold or silver inscriptions on the back of the sword.
3. Blade: The Tang sword has a straight blade with no curvature. There are two types of sword spines: one is flat, with text inlaid on it, and the other is now called "An Dong" in Japanese swords, which means the back of the sword has a ridge.
Line, such a spine is also found in high ancient Tibetan knives. The thickness of the blade is thickest near the handle, and then decreases evenly to the tip.
4. Knife tip: There are two types of knife tips. One is what Japan calls "cutting edge making", which means the knife tip is not curved, like the "7" in Arabic numerals. The other is a curved knife tip.
The tip of the knife is naturally integrated with the blade. Ancient Tibetan knives strictly follow this shape and retain it.
5. Knife guard: Judging from the murals and sculptures, early Yi knives did not have a knife guard. The knife guard appeared after the mid-Tang Dynasty. Some murals and statues vaguely found that the knife guard of Tang Yi knives was rhombus-shaped and relatively small, so
The blade guard can be seen in Japanese Tang-style broadswords.
6. Scabbard: The mouth and tail of the scabbard began to be wrapped in metal, and were gilded with gold and silver. In the early stage, the sword did not have a hanging ring. It is estimated that it was worn and carried diagonally on the belt. After the middle period, the hanging ring of the scabbard was complicated and extremely powerful.
Decorative, Shosoin’s “gold and silver
"Tianzhuang Tang Changdao" can fully reflect the majesty and exquisiteness of the ceremonial sword in the prosperous Tang Dynasty.
7. Forging: The forging of Tang Dao should have inherited the "hundred steel-making" technology invented by the Han Dynasty, and the blade was also forged using composite forging.
Although the Japanese sword is the inheritance of Tang Yi sword, with the tempering of war in Japan, the posture and forging have also undergone tremendous changes. After the war in the Heian period, swordsmiths began to study better forging technology. Due to the resources of Japan,
Scarcity, insufficient iron ore and high-temperature fuel have limited the performance of steel. In order to keep the blade sharp and maintain good hardness, and at the same time have very sharp performance, and the blade must maintain appropriate elasticity, Japanese knives began to adopt sandwich forging.
Technology, due to the different properties of the materials used, the stress generated inside the metal during quenching was different, and the blade began to become curved. From then on, the Japanese sword gradually broke away from the influence of the Chinese Tang sword and developed into a cold weapon with typical Japanese characteristics.
The Tibetan sword, which is also the inheritance of the Tang sword, has basically stopped the evolution and progress of swords due to the absence of major external and internal wars. Therefore, the strictly preserved posture of the Tang sword now provides a living fossil sample for our study of cold weapons.
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Zhan Dao and Heng Dao: Judging from historical records, they are the sabers of guards and ordinary soldiers. Judging from the swords worn by Qiu Xinggong in the tomb murals of Princess Changle of Tang Dynasty, Prince Zhang Huai and the "Salu Purple" of Zhaoling Six Horses, Heng Dao has no
Huanshou is shorter than the Yi Dao. The pommel of the handle is a metal tube that is placed on the handle. The handle is waisted in the middle and has a hole for a rope. Due to the lack of physical objects and detailed mural data, it is impossible to accurately restore the shape of the horizontal knife.
However, the Keishe straight sword unearthed in Japan was also introduced to Japan in the late Tang Dynasty. Its shape is very close to the horizontal sword. The only thing that can be known is that the horizontal sword has a wide wearing range. It should be a mass-produced and manufactured weapon. The hand rope is from the Yi sword.
The ring was moved to the middle of the handle to prevent the knife from falling out of the hand. This craftsmanship was passed down to the Ming and Qing Dynasties. In the subsequent evolution, this kind of saber became a self-defense weapon for army soldiers and ordinary people.
From the existing archaeological data and murals, as well as from fragments of history books, we strive to restore the shape and development of the Tang Dao and appreciate the charm of the cold weapon culture in the prosperous Tang Dynasty. As a peak in the development of China's cold weapons, the Tang Dao is not only accompanied by
With the establishment and prosperity of the Tang Empire, the joys and sorrows of honor and disgrace also successfully influenced the cold weapon culture of the entire Asia. With the changes in the form of war, the Yi Dao and Heng Dao in the Tang Dynasty developed into later sabers, and the Yi Dao spread eastward.
It went to Goryeo and Japan and evolved into the cold weapon of the nation. To the southwest, it became the ancestor of the Tibetan sword. In the later evolution, the Modao became the Song Dynasty sword. Several types of long swords evolved from it and were passed down to later generations.
The birth and development of the sword witnessed the most powerful empire in Chinese history. The Tang sword was the most splendid in the cold weapon culture. This article only recalls that great history.