The deified "Tang Dao" turned out to look like this

The deified "Tang Dao" actually looks like this

When it comes to weapons of the Tang Dynasty, the most famous one is the "Tang Dao". Of course, today, due to the hype of merchants, this concept has already become an artifact like the "Great Qin Star Destroyer Crossbow", and is almost blown to the sky. After removing these additional factors from later generations, it is still worth exploring the original appearance of Tang Dynasty knives. Since the phrase "Tao of the Tang Dynasty" is too cumbersome to say, I will borrow the term "Tao of the Tang Dynasty" here.

Tang Dao among cultural relics

According to the funeral customs of the Tang Dynasty, weapons were generally not buried with weapons. However, in the ruins, iron tools are difficult to preserve well, so We can see very few Tang knives. The author often finds iron knives and iron swords in the Han tombs excavated. This is because during the Han Dynasty, it was very common for men to wear knives and swords, and there was no strict management method. Therefore, compared with the actual weapons of the pre-Qin and Han Dynasties, Tang knives are really rare.

Among the Tang Dynasty extant objects, the most famous one is the "Gold and Silver Tang Dynasty Sword" stored in the Shosoin Temple in Japan. The state of preservation is also very good. Both the blade and the equipment are as brand new. .

There is a lot of controversy as to whether this knife was introduced from the Tang Dynasty or made in Japan. The respondent once specifically looked through the "Todaiji Temple Offering Account" which records the catalog of Todaiji Temple collections. In this account book, there are both "Tang Dashi" and "Tang Style Dagger". Obviously these are two different concepts. In addition, A "Korean-style broadsword" also appears in the account book. The author here agrees with the views of some scholars, that is, the "Tang-style broadsword" and "Korean-style broadsword" here are knives made by Japan imitating the styles of the Tang Dynasty and the Korean Peninsula, while the "Tang broadsword" was passed down from China. of.

Strictly speaking, there is only one Tang sword discovered through official archeology in China, namely the iron sword unearthed from the tomb of Dou Qiu in the southern suburbs of Xi'an. This knife is 83 centimeters long and is relatively well preserved. It is in the style of a ring head. The handle has two gold hoops. There is also a line of gold inscriptions on the back of the knife, with the words "hundreds of twists and turns", indicating that its material is likely to have been Hundreds of steel made by repeated beating. In addition, a vividly carved crystal pig was found near the handle of the knife when it was unearthed, which may have been an ornament on the knife's cord.

In addition, there is also a knife (or sword) that has been excavated through archaeology, but is not a practical weapon, that is, a knife (or sword) from the tomb of Li Ji, a famous official in the early Tang Dynasty. Buried in the Zhaoling Mausoleum of Emperor Taizong of the Tang Dynasty. Although this artifact is probably a sword, archaeologists named it a wooden sword with a gilt scabbard and a copper handle, so I also call it a sword here. This sword is 100 centimeters long and has a wooden body, so it should be a model weapon specially used for burial. It can be seen that the sword head is not ring-shaped like the iron sword from Dou Qi's tomb, but is in the shape of a Gui head like the Shosoin Tang sword.

It can be simply divided into two categories according to the style of the knife handle:

The knife handle has a ring head

The knife handle has no ring

Apart from the physical objects above, the rest can only be found in images or sculptures. Fortunately, these materials are quite abundant. There are images of warriors with swords in many murals, pottery figurines, and stone carvings. Looking back, in fact, at least during the Northern Dynasties, knives were almost the same as Tang knives. For example, in the murals of the tomb of Lou Rui, King of Dong'an in the Northern Qi Dynasty, there is a traveling diagram. Most of the guards in it are wearing swords. You can see that these swords are hung diagonally around the waist, and the ends of the handles have flat heads instead of ring heads.

However, the ring-shou sword has always existed. In the tomb of the Sui Dynasty in Tongguan Village, Shaanxi (the owner of the tomb is speculated to be Yang Yong, the deposed prince of the Sui Dynasty), there are also murals of warriors with swords. What they wore is obviously Ring head knife.

In the murals of the Tang Dynasty, both types of knives also existed. For example, in the murals on the tomb of Princess Changle of the Tang Dynasty, the swords worn by the soldiers were all ring-headed knives, while in the murals on the Tang tomb of Jiaohua Chang in Taiyuan City, the swords worn by the guards were ringless.

Friends who know a little bit about the history of the development of ancient Chinese weapons will know that the use of knives as practical weapons in ancient my country began in the Han Dynasty. The most popular style at that time was the ring-headed sword, which was the case until the Wei and Jin Dynasties of the Three Kingdoms. During the Northern Dynasties, new knives without rings on the handle became popular. As for the origin of this new type of knife, we think it may have something to do with foreign affairs.

For example, in the Sasanian Persian Empire distributed in Central Asia and West Asia, in the 5th and 6th centuries, there was a knife with a scabbard hanging horizontally and a ringless handle, and some "Tang Dao" , "Northern Dynasty Sword" is very similar in wearing method and appearance. We know that during the Northern Dynasties, there were extensive exchanges between the northern region and the Western Regions, and cultural relics such as glassware and Sasanian gold coins with a strong foreign style were found in many tombs. Against this background, it is not surprising that there is an exchange of weapons.