Hole in the blade of Chinese dao

[Gavin Nugent]

Originally Posted by tom hyle

Maybe they are for hanging it on the wall when you're not carrying it, relating to European butchers' cleavers, etc. Have I read that these swords frequently have no sheath in the original cultural setting?????

I find this notion strange considering they have ring pommels...economics of the matter would be why drill a hole to hang when the small hole would make it crude and difficult to pull off a peg in a hurry when they could simply be hung by the pommel....

Gav

[Neil]

I thought I would post this old illustration I pulled from a Chinese web site. I am not sure how old the drawing is exactly, but the site was about the Boxer Uprising. I thought it was interesting because it has a ring in the blade hole, and there is a non-ring pommel on the sword.

[Neil]

I am still interested in others thoughts and or evidence related to the use of the blade holes in various forms of Chinese dao. I have also posted some pictures of a couple guan dao head (偃月刀 yan yue dao) that have the feature in question. Although I have yet to see a period guan dao example with a tassel adornment attached to the hole/ring, it is standard on modern Chinese martial art practice pieces. This combined with the other evidence I have available at this point suggests to me that these various dao blade holes are more ornamentation related than utility. Any thoughts?

[Gavin Nugent]

Niel,

My thoughts are ornamental on the polearms, though in motion and martial use the tassle which sits in this hole may have a martial application like the tassle on the Jian, but you'd have to ask practicioners of the Yan Yue Dao to confirm this.

http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showth...hinese+halberd

http://thomaschen.freewebspace.com/photo4.html

Gav

[Neil]

Thanks for your input Gavin, and the links too. Here is a picture of a tasseled guan dao head from the Thomas Chen site linked above (Thank you Mr. Chen).

[Ren Ren]

The Vietnamese carry methode (pic. 18)

[josh stout]

Hey Ren Ren,

Welcome to the forum. Nice post. What amazingly useful looking resource did the illustration come from?

I had often seen reference to the hole for suspension, but it is nice to see an example from a period text. It seems the blade hole is quite versatile.
Josh