Straight sword v Broad sword
I can remember hearing somewhere that back in the day...
Broad sword was a weapon more for soldiers and the straight sword was more for nobility/generals etc, requiring higher skill level.
I may be on the wrong tip with this happy to be corrected...
;)
The broadsword translation is one of my major Kung Fu pet peeves
Quote:
Originally Posted by
RenDaHai
The western names are confused. Really the Jian is the broadsword (it is double sided and traditionally often wide) The Dao is a curved sword with a single edge and so is a Sabre.
You're spot on with this, but you cannot change language. As a translator of Kung Fu as well as a product of Western fencing, I wish I could kick the arse of the first person who called a dao a broadsword. It was a complete mistranslation and it stuck. The term 'broadsword' arose to distinguish them from the more advanced thinner blades from the earlier thicker (or broader) ones. It was used primarily for straight blades.
The distinction between dao and jian by infantry and officer, as well as by level of sophistication in technique and effectiveness in battle, is really simple. But I think we've grown so detached from the realities of swordsmanship that people make up all sorts of ****amamie tales based on marginal observations. To keep it simple, it's much easier to handle a single-edged sword over a double-edged sword. This is true on every level. You need only to work with a live blade to see. What's more, it's far more difficult to make double-edged sword. Remember, real swords were made by hand, so to achieve symmetry and uniformity in a double-edged sword took far more skill. So with a jian, you had a more expensive weapon that required far more training to master. This made the jian more the property of the gentry who could afford to purchase such a weapon and pay for a teacher.
Like so many things, it's really all about the financials. Jian are considered more 'upper class' because for the most part, only the upper class could afford them.