18 Types of Weapons

[YunXiang]

During the Song and Yuan Dynasties (10th to 14th centuries), the 18 types of weapons were listed as follows:

1. Mao (lance) 矛
2. Chui (mace) 槌
3. Gong (bow, shooting one arrow at one time) 弓
4. Nu (mechanized bow, shooting many arrows at one time) 弩
5. Chong (pipe-like weapons to shoot out darts) 銃
6. Bian (straight whip) 鞭
7. Chan (spade) 鏟
8. Jian (sword) 劍
9. Jian (rod) 鐧
10. Zhua (claw) 撾
11. Fu (hand-axe) 斧
12. Yue (battle-axe) 鉞
13. Ge (long sickle) 戈
14. Ji (crescent-moon spear) 戟
15. Pai (shield) 牌
16. Bang (cudgel) 棒
17. Qiang (spear) 槍
18. Pa (rake) 耙

Please note the Chinese characters posted are traditional and the romanisation is Mandarin.

[YunXiang]

During the Ming Dynasty (14th to 17th centuries), the 18 types of weapons were as follows:

1. Gong (bow) 弓
2. Nu (mechanized bow) 弩
3. Qiang (spear) 槍
4. Dao (scimitar) 刀
5. Jian (sword) 劍
6. Mao (lance) 矛
7. Dun (shield) 盾
8. Fu (hand-axe) 斧
9. Yue (battle-axe) 鉞
10. Ji (crescent-moon spear) 戟
11. Bian (straight whip) 鞭
12. Jian (rod) 鐧
13. Gso (pole) 篙
14. Shu (long weapon with wavy blade) 殳
15. Cha (fork) 叉
16. Pa (rake) 耙
17. Mian-sheng (roped weapon) 綿繩
18. Bai-da (empty hand combat) 白打

Please note the Chinese characters posted are traditional and the romanisation is Mandarin.

[George]

Thank you for posting these lists - I had a lot of fun reading up on these the various weapons.

4. Nu (mechanized bow, shooting many arrows at one time) 弩

連弩 appears to show more relevant pictures when searching Google Images (弩 alone shows lots of pictures of modern crossbows),

11. Bian (straight whip) 鞭
12. Jian (rod) 鐧

What is the difference between these two? As I understand the Bian is a shorter metal rod whereas the Jian is a longer, sword-like (with handle) rectangular bar - is that correct?

[George]

15. Cha (fork) 叉

Would a trident (like in our logo) count as this?

[YunXiang]

Dear George,

Thank you for your post and some interesting questions. It'll help us to understand Classical Chinese Weapons better.

What is the difference between these two? As I understand the Bian is a shorter metal rod whereas the Jian is a longer, sword-like (with handle) rectangular bar - is that correct?

From my understanding, bian (鞭) is typical rounded rod or whip and jian (鐧) is a flatten, rectangular bar as you have said. The bian, or straight whip, can be either hard or soft. The hard whip would resemble a metal rod and a soft whip would be segmented rods linked together with chain. Most common formations of the soft whip are three sections and nine sections. The three-section whip is represented in our logo.

To be honest, I have very little understanding or experience in the jian. If I'm not mistaken, it was a weapon used in the Three-Kingdoms era. I speculate one of this weapon's distinguishing uses is to damage or break the opponent's weapon.

I'll ask Sifu if he would kindly clarify this for us.

Would a trident (like in our logo) count as this?

Initially, like you, I would have guess that cha (叉), or fork, would be the trident represented in our logo. However, I am not certain.

The name of the "Taming Tiger Big Trident" set is "Fu Hu Da Ba" in Mandarin (or "伏虎大耙" in Traditional Chinese Characters) which literally translates word-for-word as "Tame-Tiger-Big-Rake". Although the big trident could be classified as a cha, or fork weapon, I think the "da ba", or "big rake", is a traditional name for the big trident used in Southern Shaolin Kungfu.

Once again, I'll ask Sifu if he could help us with this.

Best wishes,
Mike

[YunXiang]

From the Qing Dynasty (17th to 20th centuries) onwards, the 18 types of weapons were like what we have today as follows:

1. Jiang (spear) 槍
2. Ji (crescent-moon spear) 戟
3. Gun (staff) 棍
4. Yue (battle-axe) 鉞
5. Da-pa (big trident) 大叉
6. Da-dao (halberd) 大刀
7. Chan (spade) 鏟
8. Mao (lance) 矛
9. Sheng-biao (roped spear) 繩鏢
10. Dao (scimitar) 刀
11. Jian (sword) 劍
12. Fu (hand-axe) 斧
13. Guo (hook-sword) 鉤
14. Jian (rod) 鐧
15. Bian (soft-whip) 鞭
16. Guai (clutch) 柺
17. Chui (round hammer) 錘
18. Bi-shou (dagger) 匕首

Please note the Chinese characters posted are traditional and the romanisation is Mandarin.

[YunXiang]

Please find the listings of the 18 Types of Weapons in the "Special Weapons Course: 10 Questions to Grandmaster Wong" discussion thread under post #16. Here's the link:

http://www.wongkiewkit.com/forum/showthread.php?11984-Special-Weapons-Course-10-Questions-to-Grandmaster-Wong&p=127255#post127255

[YunXiang]

Dear All,

Sifu has generously given a comprehensive answer to these interesting questions. Please find his response below.

Thanks to Sifu, it will help us all deepen our understanding of these classical weapons.

Best wishes,
Mike

A bian or a straight whip 鞭 has designs, usually symmetrical, geometrical designs, on its rod, whereas a jian 鐧 is plain without any designs. Though maintaining its general rod appearance, a bian may sometimes be slightly rectangular at its edge whereas a jian is round while being long like a rod.

A straight whip is not necessarily shorter than a rod. Both have handles and both are not sword=like. There are no sharp edges in a straight whip and a rod, and their ends are not pointed like that of a sword. They are heavy weapons for hittng, whereas a sword is a light weapon for thrusting and slashing.

Please take note that both a sword and a rod are spelt "jian" in Romanized Chinese but their tone in pronunciation and ther written characters are different.

The trident is a "cha" 叉, and is called "sam cha" in Cantonese indicating its three pointed forks. However, in South China, for reasons which I don't know, the trident is often called "tai pa", or "da ba" in Mandarin, which means "big rake". Actually a rake and a trident are quite different. Piggy, the junior brother of Monkey God used a nine-fork rake.

In North China the trident is called a "cha". A big trident is called a "da cha" and a small one is called "xiao cha". The "da cha" usually has two forks and looks like a crescent-moon spade. except that it has forks instead of blade pointed at its two ends as in the case of a crescent-moon spade. The two-forked northern big trident looks very different from its southern three-forked big trident, and is much lighter. Their combat functions are also different.

In legends, underworld guards are known as "ye cha", probably because they police the streets at night carrying the northern big trident. However, there was a famous Northern Shaolin weapon known as "xiao ye cha" (literally "small-night-fork". But it was not a small or a short weapon, and was neither a fork nor a trident, it was a tapering long staff. There was also a famous classic on this weapon known as "xiao ye cha" too.

As weapons, the northern trident is not popular, except perhaps used by the night guards of the underworld who are always depicted as holding the northern big trident. The northern small trident is even less popular. But its popularity grew tremendously when it crossed the sea to Japan and known as the "sai".