"Ratio" of weapons of "civilian" S.Chinese... ?

[fearn]

Wasn't the White Lotus Rebellion around 1800? That could give you one reference point, I think.

As for ratios, outside of armory records, I'm not sure where you'd get any of that information. After all, something that's a staff one day would be a stick, flail, or spear the next, and what does it get counted under?

I suspect an approximate rule is that the shorter the (metal) blade, the more there were of them, just because metal was relatively uncommon, and over-sized swords and such were the province of the great generals and Imperial Palace.

The other two categories are the improvised weapons, such as hoes and rakes, the "weapons of the gods" (aka whatever villagers could make out of their bamboo stands when they got sufficiently annoyed), and the exotic weapons used by the martial artists, particularly when they were doing things like guarding caravans or collecting taxes. The exotic weapons were a bit of a trademark, and if they got famous, they let people know not to mess with the bearer. But that only worked if they were rare too.

Additionally, the Korean Muyedobotongji (available from in a book) shows the weapons that the Chinese taught the Koreans to repel the Japanese invasion. It's handy, because you can get some idea of the proportions of their basic 12-man squad.

Hope this helps.

F