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Originally Posted by DaveA
The small knife looks like it might be a Chinese hudiedao, a type known as a "river pirate" sword. This type is thought to be derived from maritime boarding knives. The lack of a hand guard distinguishes the ‘river pirate” type from other hudiedao. These swords without guards can be instantly reversed in the hand and used with the back edge to subdue an opponent without lethal cuts.
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Knives like the small one are often found in pairs. Some can be seen in this thread:
http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=15217 . The only ones I've seen with any reliable provenance have been street gang knives. But, yes, I see them labelled as "river pirate knives". Also, knives like the long guardless knife are called "river pirate knives". And short jian are often called "river pirate swords". So everything in that photo other than the long dao is sometimes called "river pirate <foo>".
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Originally Posted by DaveA
River piracy along the Yangtze River was rampant in the 19th century. The coasts of both Guangdong and Fujian province were literally covered in pirates in the 1840s. Pirates battled the military for nearly a century.
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Continued well into the 20th century as well. A. Lilius, "I Sailed with Chinese Pirates" has some interesting descriptions and photos:
http://www.amazon.com/Sailed-Chinese...dp/9881815444/ , including muzzle-loading cannon in use.