I wouldn't go so far as to declare the yanchi dao a separate blade type. I have seen dao with standard willow leaf curvature with the clipped tip.
You are getting into some deep and muddy waters with this issue. Here is what I have gathered together as best as I can.
The clipped tip is a very old form, perhaps from the Tang dynasty, best associated with the Song and early Ming, where they appear in period art as short chopping dao with clipped tips. Sometimes these can be referred to as “yanchi”, sometimes “yantou” sometimes they are called “phoenix wing” or “demon head”. I think they are most often called “po” dao in the regulations, and they are characterized more by size than tip shape. These short choppers were still made in the Qing where the simpler clipped tip with a straight or hooked clip is more generally associated with the late Qing and the wavy form is associated with the early Qing. As always dating of Chinese things is often impressionistic and lacking in certainty, so this is not much of a guideline. The later simple clipped tip chopper may in turn have been related to the dadao, but here cause and effect become blurred because the clipped tip has been associated with pole arms from the beginning. My guess is that the images shown previously of wavy tipped willow leaf sabers were of early Qing dao, but Ming is also possible.
I see the longer willow leaf types to be elongated “modernizations” of earlier chopping types.
One of the dao types where I most often see clipped tips is in the village “jian shaped dao”, where the clipped tip clearly allows them to thrust as a jian.
Below are some examples:
1. A Yi chopper in a style very similar to things seen in Song illustrations. Many minority forms are quite conservative and retain styles from much earlier periods.
2. A wavy tipped dao knowledgeable people have called “demon head”, “yanchi” or “yantou”.
3. A village jian shaped dao.
I hope this helps.
Josh
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