In this video, I discuss two question I see come up online now and again: “Were Guandao actually used in combat?” and “Were Guandao primarily cavalry weapons?”

Let me know if you agree or disagree!

Secretly Transmitted Methods of the Guandao is my series for discussing all things Guandao. The Guandao is a weapon that has been used in Chinese martial arts for several centuries. It is a pole weapon with a large crescent blade at one end and a spike at the other end. I examine the Guandao from the perspectives of traditional and historical martial arts, history, performance, and religion.

Links:

Scholar General’s video on the langxian:    • The Chinese Wolfbrush 中國狼筅  

China Comprehensive Gazetteers:
https://www.eastview.com/resources/e-...


Bibliography/Further Reading:

Cheng Zi Yi 程子頤. Wubei yaolüe 武備要畧. 1632.
Available at Wikimedia commons:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...
The Guandao form is from juan 8.14-21.

Mao Yuanyi 茅元儀 (1594–1640?). Wubei zhi 武備志 (Records of Armaments and Military Provisions). Yue dong: Ming jing ge粤東 : 明經閣, 1621.
juan 43 on archive.org: https://archive.org/details/02092301....

Qī Jìguāng 戚繼光 (1528-1588). Jìxiào xīnshū紀效新書. 1561.

Zheng Dayu 鄭大郁. Jing guo xiong lüe經國雄略 (Ambitious Strategies of Statecraft). Longwu tanyang wang jiejue guan she, 1645.

Available from the Curiosity Collections of Harvard Library:
https://curiosity.lib.harvard.edu/chi...
The physical specs of guandao are on seq. 1725 (p.5.7a of 武備攷); the guandao form is on seq. 1684 – 1691 (p.4.1-8 of 武備攷)
This text is also available from Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/item/2012402644/ (Guandao is starting Image 1 of Volume 43 https://www.loc.gov/resource/lcnclscd... )