Jianruiying, the Special Forces of the Qing Dynasty
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Jianruiying, the Special Forces of the Qing Dynasty
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Re: Jianruiying, the Special Forces of the Qing Dynasty
#2I always find certain weapons like the hook sword shown at the bottom to be interesting as they don't show up in other cultures, although the straight sword is pretty much available across the globe. Did it excel in some manner for the threats in China that were less relevant elsewhere? Maybe better armor in the west would have made it less relevant?
Re: Jianruiying, the Special Forces of the Qing Dynasty
#3I always find certain weapons like the hook sword shown at the bottom to be interesting as they don't show up in other cultures, although the straight sword is pretty much available across the globe. Did it excel in some manner for the threats in China that were less relevant elsewhere? Maybe better armor in the west would have made it less relevant?
Curved swords are quite common in Persian, Indian, Chinese, and Japanese cultures. They're not exclusively Chinese.
Re: Jianruiying, the Special Forces of the Qing Dynasty
#4I always find certain weapons like the hook sword shown at the bottom to be interesting as they don't show up in other cultures, although the straight sword is pretty much available across the globe. Did it excel in some manner for the threats in China that were less relevant elsewhere? Maybe better armor in the west would have made it less relevant?
Curved swords are quite common in Persian, Indian, Chinese, and Japanese cultures. They're not exclusively Chinese.
Even the Europeans used curved swords:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabre
Generally curved swords are better at slashing and straight swords better at thrusting, which is particularly useful against weak points in armors.
Re: Jianruiying, the Special Forces of the Qing Dynasty
#5I always find certain weapons like the hook sword shown at the bottom to be interesting as they don't show up in other cultures, although the straight sword is pretty much available across the globe. Did it excel in some manner for the threats in China that were less relevant elsewhere? Maybe better armor in the west would have made it less relevant?
Curved swords are quite common in Persian, Indian, Chinese, and Japanese cultures. They're not exclusively Chinese.
I guess the OP meant this hook sword
https://www.mandarinmansion.com/item/chinese-hook-sword
It does have a strange shape, and indeed I don't think I saw anything similar in other cultures.
Re: Jianruiying, the Special Forces of the Qing Dynasty
#6I always find certain weapons like the hook sword shown at the bottom to be interesting as they don't show up in other cultures, although the straight sword is pretty much available across the globe. Did it excel in some manner for the threats in China that were less relevant elsewhere? Maybe better armor in the west would have made it less relevant?
Curved swords are quite common in Persian, Indian, Chinese, and Japanese cultures. They're not exclusively Chinese.
I think op was referring to:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hook_sword
https://www.mandarinmansion.com/item/chinese-hook-sword
There's a fun fight with it in Crouching Tiger.
Re: Jianruiying, the Special Forces of the Qing Dynasty
#7BTW the portraits near the end were painted by a Jesuit priest in the court of Qianlong named Giuseppe Castiglione.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Castiglione_(Jesuit_p...
His works is a blending of both European and Chinese techniques.
Re: Jianruiying, the Special Forces of the Qing Dynasty
#8The article says the emperor compared his soldiers to the Solon cavalry. Does anyone know who/what that refers to? A quick Google search did not turn up anything.
Re: Jianruiying, the Special Forces of the Qing Dynasty
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
Curved swords are quite common in Persian, Indian, Chinese, and Japanese cultures. They're not exclusively Chinese.
I guess the OP meant this hook sword https://www.mandarinmansion.com/item/chinese-hook-sword It does have a strange shape, and indeed I don't think I saw anything similar in other cultures.
Ah, that makes more sense. I was looking for a sword "near the bottom" of the article itself and saw just the curved sword; the hook sword was past the end.
Re: Jianruiying, the Special Forces of the Qing Dynasty
#10The article says the emperor compared his soldiers to the Solon cavalry. Does anyone know who/what that refers to? A quick Google search did not turn up anything.
From internal evidence from the article, they were also a people inside the Chinese empire. Nothing to do with the Greek Solon :-)