[tpkaplan]

The posters appear to have settled on a tentative consensus that the fighting iron in Clavell's novel, "Tai-Pan" was probably similar to the kau-sin-kee depicted in Andrew's post.

I wanted to add to the conversation. James Clavell spent several years in Hong Kong in the 1950s. Contrary to one of the speculations posted, it is clear from the extensive descriptions that he was describing a weapon he was familiar with. Presumably he either saw one himself or it was described to him by someone familiar with it.

While the kau-sin-kee conforms to many of the passages in the book, it appears to be slightly different in some respects. Most saliently, Clavell's fighting iron is attached to the wrist with a leather thong. It also had a barbed iron ball at the end.

In his first mention of the fighting iron, Clavell describes it as follows:

"Struan picked up the fighting iron and swung it aimlessly. It was a linked iron whip, a deadly weapon at close range -- three foot-long iron shafts linked together, and at the very end, a barbed iron ball. The short iron haft fitted neatly into the hand, and a protective leather thong slipped over the wrist."

The thong is mentioned throughout the book. "The fighting iron was thonged to his wrist" ..."Since the bullion came aboard the ship, he had worn the fighting iron day and night". ... "He unthonged the fighting iron".

While the kau-sin-kee shown in the picture does have three foot-long iron shafts linked together, the haft does not appear as if it were designed to be thonged, and there is no barbed ball at the end. Since your community is so knowledgeable about historical weapons, I thought it would be interesting to see if anyone could find any other examples that more closely fit the description of the weapon described in the book.