long chinese dadao execution ''sword'' ?

[Ren Ren]

Originally Posted by Peter Dekker

Ha, wonderful! I had seen the motif before but had not been able to find its meaning. Do you have a good reference on Vietnamese symbology?

In Russian there is a good book "The Magic World of Patterns. Encyclopedia of Ornamental Motifs of Southeast Asia" (edition of the State Museum of Oriental Art) and an excellent article by the famous ethnographer Y. V. Chesnov "The myth of the sword and the beginning of statehood in East Indochina." About the symbolism of creepers, pumpkin and grapes shoots , I took from there. My friend Vladimir Vetyukov (Ph.D., his dissertation is devoted to the Vietnamese military of the Late Lê era) told me about the symbol of the sword and a bunch of books.