Thanks for watching!

Yeah Langyabang can be very difficult to find. I don’t know of anybody who produces them currently.

Yes, this is a very plausible use for such a device!

​@@thescholar-general5975 In modern off shore boat license training, you have to use a boat hook to retrieve lines and attach to buoys. Hooking onto other boats could be used to rescue people from a sinking ship just as easily as boarding. And even as a dedicated weapon it works exactly the same as a standard sailing tool. Even if a war axe and a wood axe are different, a lumberjack isn't going to need much training. A hooking weapon is going to be very easy for sailors to use.

Thanks for watching! While there are some stylistic differences I would say that the difference in hand placement really boils down to spear vs other polearms. In general the spear is used with the left hand forward while other polearms are used with the right hand forward. We can see a difference in staff manuals about this because Cheng Zongyou treats the staff more like a spear while Yudayou treats it more like a trident or glaive. As for differences between the guandao and the naginata. Yes the top hand of the guandao does not move too far away from the blade. I will discuss this in a different future video.

@@thescholar-general5975 There is a KZfaqr called Are You Full? who is re-creating the staff techniques from Cheng Zongyou's manual (and other manuals), and it does resemble spear techniques.

From what I was told, Southern China is full of lakes and rivers and most civilians had to ride a boat of some kind to get anywhere using either an oar for a dingy or a long stick to push a raft across a shallow river or lake. So manipulating heavy pole arms came naturally to them.

I already have a related video in the works!

Yeah you are right that the trident does help prevent over penetration. The main difference I see between the winged spear and the trident is that the winged spear is primarily designed to prevent over penetration while the trident is primarily designed to catch opposing weapons in the prongs, though they both certainly overlap in terms of function.

Thanks for watching! You are correct that “catching” type polearms existed in Europe, and I hope that I did not imply otherwise. I am also aware that some weapons like the trident are discussed in HEMA treatises. However, I do think that there was a greater inclination towards these forked polearms in China given the focus they receive in the manuals. Aside from the spear, the trident is the most common polearm featured. And the wolf brush, another catching type weapon is usually close in the manuals as well. As you mention, Chinese military texts boost the ratios of forked polearm troops in military units to a pretty high degree. Qi Jiguang’s famous mandarin duck formation relies just as much on tridents and the wolf brush as it does on spears. But yes, you are correct that over the course of the 16-17th centuries both Chinese and European militaries were converging towards pike and shot. And Dutch occupation in Formosa accelerated this trend.

The Great Ming Military blog says soldiers often used the trident (鎲鈀) to launch rockets. Europeans had rocket technology, but I can't recall coming across any of mention of rockets in 16th-century European military manuals. I've never heard of them being used as personal weapons in Europe as they were in Ming China. I wonder if that was contributing factor in the trident's popularity.

You are probably referring to the yue 钺. This are ancient axe heads from bronze age China with beast faces and other motifs cast into them.

@@thescholar-general5975 I'm thinking you're correct. I believe he used the word "yue" as well. I wish I could remember who it was and go watch it again. However I can remember neither having handles or never having accommodations for one.

@@OasisTypeZaku I’ve seen them used as ceremonial objects presented to kings and without handles when they take the throne

@@jeffreyshover9327 I figured they were too important for common folks to have, and being bronze, the metal of the gods, would be for royalty to use in ceremonies or other official functions.

Thanks for watching!

Thanks for watching! I will do more polearm content in the nearish future. It will have to wait just a little though, as I am currently in the middle of a big channel related project.

@@thescholar-general5975 No problem I'm waiting for your update. I'd also like to see some videos about armors, particularly the various organic armors (paper/rattan/leather) that were used in South China.

This painting is known as the "Departure Return". You can view it online here: theme.npm.edu.tw/exh105/npm_anime/DepartureReturn/en/index.html#section_1

Thanks for watching!

In Qi Jiguang's fighting against Wokou (a mix of Japanese and Chinese pirates), each squad had its two strongest men wield wolf brushes. Apparently, besides catching katanas, another function of theirs was to simply sweep people off their feet so that the spearmen could kill them. Qi Jiguang specified that it was a weapon of strength, not technique, and it was possible that the earliest iterations of wolf brushes were literally just large trees of fresh bamboo.

Chinese TV documentary, has made an animation of how that wolf brush works. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/f5qmp61mprHaenk.html 😁

That is an excellent question, but unfortunately not one that ai can answer! Almost all of the martial arts manuals that we have from China are found in broader military treatises while the same does not appear to be true for European fencing treatises. This difference in the context of martial text production has made the European manuals very intricate with detailed images and descriptions, but they lack the battlefield fixation and unit tactics that are found in the Chinese texts.

The Ji is more of a combination weapon than what I featured in this video. Later I will talk more about it. Also, even though it is common in art related to literature. It is much more rare when looking at depictions of imperial armies or battles.

Yes you are absolute right about a lack of antiques being a huge problem when it comes to studying polearms.

Oh boy! that is a great question. To be honest, I would need to do more research before I can give you a proper answer, but the question is definitely on my radar now!

@@thescholar-general5975 My guess is that the crossbar pieces of the Ji were deemed unnecessary as armies evolved towards close order formations. You need a lot of space between soldiers in order to properly use a halberd, which is also why they fell out of favor in Europe as Pike and Shot took over. In China, the combination of crossbows and pikes was effectively their version of Pike and Shot. This is just me armchair generaling.

​@@theredbar-cross8515 I disagree. Close order formations were commonly used during the Warring States, Qin, and Han Dynasty era when Jis and Dagger Axes were used at their height. The pike and crossbow formations (similar to pike and shot) originated in the Warring States era and used throughout the Qin and Han. Dagger axes and Jis were used in confunction with pike and crossbow infantry. Even in European Pike and Shot, Ji-equivalents in the form of halberds were often used. They were used to support pike infantry - so they didn't really fall out of favor. If Wikipedia is any indication, halberds compliment and support infantry with pikes: "The armies of the Catholic League in 1625, for example, had halberdiers comprising 7% of infantry units, with musketeers comprising 58% and armored pikemen 35%. By 1627 this had changed to 65% muskets, 20% pikes, and 15% halberds.[14] A near-contemporary depiction of the 1665 Battle of Montes Claros at Palace of the Marquises of Fronteira depicts a minority of the Portuguese and Spanish soldiers as armed with halberds"

​ @theredbar-cross8515 I disagree. Close order formations were commonly used during the Warring States, Qin, and Han Dynasty era when Jis and Dagger Axes were used at their height. The pike and crossbow formations (similar to pike and shot) originated in the Warring States era and used throughout the Qin and Han. Dagger axes and Jis were used in confunction with pike and crossbow infantry. Even in European Pike and Shot, Ji-equivalents in the form of halberds were often used. They were used to support pike infantry - so they didn't really fall out of favor. If Wikipedia is any indication, halberds compliment and support infantry with pikes: "The armies of the Catholic League in 1625, for example, had halberdiers comprising 7% of infantry units, with musketeers comprising 58% and armored pikemen 35%. By 1627 this had changed to 65% muskets, 20% pikes, and 15% halberds.[14] A near-contemporary depiction of the 1665 Battle of Montes Claros at Palace of the Marquises of Fronteira depicts a minority of the Portuguese and Spanish soldiers as armed with halberds"

In my research, the ge (dagger-axe) and it's evolution into the ji is a very important and prominent over a broad swathe of regional history. The ji seemed to be favored, and promoted as an optimal anti-spearman weapon that could be used both on foot and from horseback.

To be honest, I do not watch Chinese content on youtube too much. There is a channel on bilibili called 减肥90斤的胖子. A somewhat silly name, but he brings up interesting points when talking about martial arts and chinese weapons. I do like to watch chinese tv series. My favorites would be nirvana in fire or three body problem. I hope that helps. Enjoy your journey!

@@thescholar-general5975 thank you!

I will get to the armor side of things eventually!

They likely used stronger single shot crossbows (not the multi-shot or semiauto versions), certain types of battleaxes, maces, warhammers, flails, and certain types of polearms resembling warpicks. The ancient variant of the Ji and dagger axe for example has a blade mounted perpendicular to the shaft and is swung at an enemy...it resembles a warpick or the sharp point of a warhammer.

@@thescholar-general5975 Awesome. Appreciate your work. Another question I would love to know the answer to is why there is very little focus on hand protection in Chinese armor. even armors like full multilayered brigandine that covers almost all gaps somehow leave the hands unprotected. other cultures with equivalent armor always focus on the hands as well.

@@efafe4972 The prevailing hypothesis is that Chinese doctrine was just incompatible with hand protection, or at least had no good reason to prioritize it. A couple common factors I've seen discussed were: 1) Mass production of similar armors for both infantry and cavalry necessitating simplicity 2) Emphasis on ranged weapons (bows, crossbows, guns) 3) Emphasis on infantry formations with thrusting polearms It's important to note that just because hand protection became more sophisticated elsewhere in the late Middle Ages and Renaissance does not mean it was always used even in those regions. There are plenty of instances in contemporary European artwork where soldiers are depicted with no gauntlets - most often they are infantry with otherwise solid chest and helmet protection.

@@perrytran9504 All fair points, yes agree that most troops around the world in that time period were far less heavily armored than we expect. we really only talk about the very elite few when we discuss knights and samurai. the majority of soldiers in most battles were using lower quality equipment. Im just wondering if heavily armored units that resemble fully kitted knights existed during the Ming and early Qing and how they would have been kitted. If they did exist, did they have more personalized armor or did they also have to deal with a lack of hand protection?

Thanks for watching! Perhaps I didn’t express myself clearly. I wasn’t saying that thin spikes didn’t exist in Europe, but more that reinforced spikes appear to be more common in Europe than in China.

@@thescholar-general5975 ok then i understan what you mean.

A little too accurate 😅

It's called Ji in Chinese. It's a magnificent weapon; fit for a king. They were used as late as 200 AD - 300 AD. Then, they were not mentioned in books anymore. Or maybe called by other names.

@@ichimonjiguy cool thank you !

方天画戟 😁@@ichimonjiguy

Thanks for watching!

It is a small section of the song 春江花月夜. The version that I used is listed at the bottom of the description.

That's it! I knew it was familiar.@@thescholar-general5975

Hello! I hope you are doing well! This is a good question but not necessarily an easy one to answer. If you want to know if a katana is an antique then there are a few things you can do. In general, the most accurate way to authenticate a sword is through metallurgical analysis with something like an XRF scanner. This can tell you the chemical composition of the steel, and modern steels tend to have less inclusions and may contain trace elements such as magnesium which are not present in preindustrial steels. However, the equipment and experience needed to conduct this kind of analysis makes it very difficult to access. A second way which is easier to do and still somewhat reliable is to take the handle off and inspect the metal core or tang inside the handle. The handle of a traditional katana is designed to be taken off easily by means of a bamboo peg in the handle. This peg has some taper to it kind of like a cork on a bottle. If you get a little pin and mallet, you can remove the peg and then take off the handle. The tang of an antique blade should have a deep dark patina almost black in color and should not be shiny or have active rust. Many katana also have the smith’s signature on the tang (usually on the left side if you hold the sword edge facing away from you). This method requires a little familiarity with the construction of the katana and the color of patinas, but it is much more accessible than the first way. The final way, is to simply analyze many details about the quality, materials, fit, and finish of the blade. Doing this accurately requires lots of experience, and even then it is the least reliable method to authenticate a sword. The big advantage of this method is that it can be very easy to do. My advice would be to first try this method by simply posting a few pictures of a given katana to an online group like reddit r/swords, and many of the experience people there can provide their insights and advise. I hope that long winded response was helpful or at least interesting! Take care! Mr. S

Welcome!

未来我会讲别的长柄兵器，比如戟

好耶好耶！@@thescholar-general5975

戟的发展有很清晰的脉络不同朝代的演变很有意思@@thescholar-general5975

其实还有一个武器三尖两刃刀（二郎神用的）那个也是很有特色的@@thescholar-general5975

@@user-yc2kn6ww7i 還有馬朔。我覺得這些長柄武器後來的名字叫法改變了。

谢谢！