Small heavy jian sword

[Philip]

Originally Posted by francantolin

Hello,
I found on internet this old sword with the same heavy blade ,
the hilt seems looks like too, guard too but is reversed,

The guard on the sword in your post was not installed backward. It is put on the proper way, it's just that it's a different design with the "quillons" facing forward. You can see the hollow part in the front where the blade comes out. This shows that the guard is on the proper way because this opening contains the mouth of the scabbard when the sword is sheathed.

Most jian have guards which have this recess to accept the end of the scabbard. In this respect the design is similar to that of the crossguards on Turkish kilij which also have an opening for the scabbard mouth.

The exception are those jian with flat disc guards like those seen on sabers.