Chinese Glaive

[Royston]

Thanks everyone.
I will clean in the new year and post some more photos.
Regards
Roy

[sakimori]

Doesn't look like much Chinese to me,judging by the fitting.If there is any possibility the pole arm was made in China,it's most probably crafted in the southern&western region.

[Philip]

The elongated, slightly tapering ferrule with the numerous raised rings is a typical Vietnamese mounting for most pole weapons. The normal Chinese fashion is to have a wide (maybe 4 in. on average) sleeve below the guard, and two narrower rings below, in between which which are the iron rivets anchoring the tang into the shaft (these rivets usually peened over floreate brass escutcheons). Chinese tangs tend to be longer and stouter than Vietnamese equivalents, because the latter culture area generally anchored the tang into the socket with resin adhesive as was the usual case in neighboring Thailand, Laos, and Burma. Thus, a smaller tang was considered adequate.

These Vietnamese polearms as posted here are referred to as "phang", or the more sinified term "yem-nguyet-dao" (reclining [i.e. crescent] moon knife). The latter is a direct derivation from the Chinese "yanyuedao" (also analogous to Korean "unwoldo" which has the same meaning and identifies the same weapon). The popular term "guandao" is a relatively modern "dojo-ism" common in the martial arts world. It never appears in Chinese military texts dealing with this weapon or its usage. The weapon first appears in Chinese texts in the 11th cent. or so and was always referred to henceforth as yanyuedao. The story that it was invented by Gen. Guan Yu during the Three Kingdoms period, centuries earlier, is without foundation although it is an unshakable folk truism.

[Philip]

In a European context, the yanyuedao / yem nguyet dao could be classified as a fauchard rather than a glaive, by virtue of the projecting prong or spike halfway up the spine. In some catalogs the term glaive is applied to weapons having a smoothly concave spine; the Japanese naginata is a close equivalent.

Some scholars, like Arturo Puricelli-Guerra, do simplify things by just calling both types "glaives" although he does state that the "true" glaive has its point in-line with the axis of the shaft, and acknowledges that in centuries past the term falco / falcione (hence, fauchard) was also current.

For those curious about the parallel development of these knife-like polearms in the Western world, I recommend his well-illustrated article "The Glaive and the Bill" in ART, ARMS, AND ARMOUR (ed. Robert Held, 1979). In Europe the fauchard morphed by the 17th cent. into a magnificent but unwieldy piece of ceremonial regalia for the bodyguards of patrician families, unlike the halberd and partizane which retained a nominal battlefield role into the following century.