Emperor sword, high-end replica! -Daming Yongle Sword, the work of Master Zhang.
It adopts the ancient white steel-making process for precision forging, covering the soil and burning the blade, fine grinding by hand, realistic carving with brass knife, silver plating on the surface, and wrapping pearl fish skin with scabbard, which is exquisite in workmanship! Before the text begins, I'd like to ask if you have seen the TV series starring Xue. Why did you bring this up? In fact, the reason is that Xue's weapon in the TV series is too heavy for me.
Xue once got a painted halberd, weighing 240 Jin. I thought at that time, is 240 kilograms of weapons really the normal limit of weapons that people can accept? Not only is it uncomfortable to hold it in your hand, but it may also hurt yourself when you wave it.
However, to my shock, it is only a little heavy. There are more than 800 kilograms and 500 kilograms of weapons in other TV dramas.
Such a weapon, which is far beyond the weight of human beings, is described as easy to use when held in the hand, and it is light, fast and labor-saving when held by its owner. Can anyone really do it? Can someone really fight for another day with such a weapon? This is a question worth thinking about. To solve this problem, we must first know what weapons China had in ancient times.
1. weapons introduction
There are many kinds of weapons in ancient China, generally divided into 18, commonly known as 18 martial arts, but the types of weapons included in different periods are different. We are familiar with knives, guns, swords, whips, bows and arrows, meteor hammers and so on. Let's introduce their forms and functions in detail.
Knife: Knife is a short weapon with a side and a long blade. Its shape gradually evolved, from stone knives to later copper knives and bronze knives. During the Qin and Han Dynasties, sabers were divided into sabers and combat knives. Its role has also become more diversified. Different knives have different functions and different forging methods. At present, our understanding of knives is still relatively shallow, and we may only know part of them. However, this still does not prevent the knife from becoming one of our most familiar weapons.
Sword: Sword belongs to "short soldier". The ancient sword in China was very long, with a sharp front end and a short handle at the back end. The sword feels very noble and sacred, and it has the reputation of "the king of hundreds of soldiers".
At first, the sword can be used for self-defense. Due to the rapid development of armor forging in battle, the sword gradually withdrew from the battle stage and became a decoration because of its little effect on the battlefield. When we watch TV series, we often see some characters with swords, and the swords between their arms are like running water, which is very arrogant.
Gun: The gun is a long-handled stabbing weapon, which evolved from the ancient spear in China. My impression of guns originated from Yue Fei, whose Yuejia guns are often amazing.
Whip: Whips are also short soldiers, which can be divided into short whips and hard whips. Copper or iron is a hard whip, and leather is a soft whip. We may refer to the soft whip more in the novel, but it is actually used as a weapon, and the hard whip appears more. The hard whip is heavy and the user needs a lot of strength. Soft whip is usually used in hidden weapons, which is easy to carry and can be wrapped, swept and danced.
Meteor hammer: Meteor hammer is also a weapon that we often see on TV. It is a soft weapon made of a metal hammer tied to one end or both ends of a long rope. If only one hammer is tied, it is called a single meteor, and if two hammers are tied, it is called a double meteor. Meteor hammer consists of three parts, namely handle, hammer body and soft rope. The handle is convenient for beginners to use, but it can be discarded after learning.
Bow and arrow: Needless to say, bows and arrows are originally made of wood, and only one end of the stick is sharpened. Later, bronze arrows appeared and even poisonous arrows appeared. Personally, the arrow is a practical invention, especially for ancient wars, and it is a good weapon for long-range attacks.
So how heavy will these weapons be? Nowadays, all kinds of guns seen in film and television dramas look gorgeous, but they are actually very different from ancient guns. Guns used in ancient times were generally wooden poles, because it was difficult to forge iron in ancient times and the weight of iron was extraordinary. If it is really an all-iron gun, it will be very troublesome to make and use, so it is conservatively estimated that in the specific use, the wooden pole and the iron head are probably the whole.
Needless to say, the arrow itself needs to be carefully made, which requires both the weight of the feather and the weight of the arrow, and the user does not have to hold it often, so it is not laborious to use it in battle. The same is true for soft whips, while hard whips are relatively heavy. Excellent materials, strong armor-piercing ability, so high requirements for users, not everyone can afford.
For the sword, the current imitation sword generally weighs about one or two kilograms. Actually, the ancient swords in China were not heavy. The traditional single sword is less than one kilogram, and most of the heavier ones are equivalent to 30 kilograms now. If it is a meteor hammer, the records in many novels are suspected of exaggeration, and its weight far exceeds common sense. Meteor hammer, as a convenient weapon, is actually relatively small. The hammer is generally around 10 kg, and the copper hammer is basically below 20 kg.
2. Unearthed cultural relics
Regarding the weight of these specific weapons, we still have some unearthed cultural relics to study. For example, the sword, a familiar unearthed cultural relic, has an iron sword with a gold sheath and a copper handle, which was a weapon in the middle of the Western Han Dynasty. * * * weighs about 7 10/0g, of which the scabbard weighs 90g, which means less than 2kg. In addition, there are some unearthed long swords, the weight of which is basically less than two pounds.
The heavier weapon may be a knife. In film and television dramas, there are not a few long knives of seventy or eighty pounds, which are used to highlight masters. They are brave and fearless. For example, Guan Yu's dragon crescent moon blade weighs 82 kilograms. However, such a weight will make our arms ache for a while, let alone wave it at will. As mentioned above, this is more or less exaggerated. So, what is the weight of the unearthed cultural relics of the actual Dao?
We have dug a lot of long knives, which are generally about one meter, basically under three pounds. The heavier one is Wu Sangui Dao unearthed in Majiacun, Guizhou Province. According to historical records, it weighs 50 Jin, but actually it is only 12 Jin. In addition to these seemingly normal swords, there are some unimaginable weapons weights, such as a giant sword unearthed in Shandong, which is about seven meters long and weighs 1.5 tons. It can be said that it is beyond human cognition, and such a sword must not be used by people.
In fact, it is not a human weapon, but a water conservancy. So besides more swords, what other weapons such as hammers are unearthed? After collecting information, we know that there are some well-preserved unearthed hammers, such as melon hammers in the Ming Dynasty, which are small and lovely in appearance and gilded as melons, hence the name.
Moreover, this small melon hammer is not heavy, and it is not for those who are usually so powerful. In fact, its single hammer weighs more than a catty.
For whips and hammers, they appeared earlier and have a long history. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there were records about whips. The back beam also has the ability to whip well, because we may have heard of Wang. According to records, the whip he used was only a little over six feet long and weighed about fifteen pounds. Each whip is tied with copper bars, with a total of 19 knots, and the words "serving the country with heart" are listed all around.
Such a whip sounds unusual, but it is rarely seen in unearthed cultural relics. The main reason is that light whip and soft whip are less lethal, while hard whip and heavy whip are quite difficult to use. Therefore, there are fewer users and more practice, resulting in few people using only whips as weapons, and other weapons are more likely to assist.
It can be seen that the weight of weapons used in ancient times is not as incredible as we thought. In addition, even heavyweight weapons don't have to fight all day.
3. The situation of ancient wars
We often hear "300 rounds of war" and "three days and three nights of fighting". But as you know, people's energy is limited, and continuous fighting will not only consume their physical strength, but also do great harm to their spirit. Long-term fighting is neither ideal nor realistic. So, what was the approximate time of the ancient war?
In fact, the ancient fighting time was relatively short, such as the battle of Changping, which took only half a day from the beginning to the end, but compared with his short fighting time, its preparation time can be said to be very long, and it was fully prepared for more than half a month.
As the saying goes, "Know yourself and know yourself, and you will win every battle." To ensure the victory of a war, we must fight bravely, but this alone is not enough. The preparation of the opportunity and the understanding of the other party are both things to consider. In addition, there are road analysis along the way and thinking strategies in battle. Only by integrating in many aspects can a smooth war be completed.
So the preparation time we know is not its real time, and the real time may be longer. Moreover, ancient wars are usually not a battle to decide the outcome, and often require multiple charges to achieve the final victory. Then it is even more impossible to play for a whole day at a time, because in this case, even a fairy can't stand it.
Most of the ancient people's war time was spent marching, so there was no need to worry about being overworked by waving weapons all day. Ancient wars lasted for years or even longer, but in fact they could end in just a few days. In these days, there are not always wars, but there are still many examples of wars ending in half a day. But besides fighting with weapons, marching on the road is equally tiring, that's all.
Modern weapons are more advanced than ancient weapons, and there are guns in modern times, but this gun is different. The power of modern guns is far from that of ancient wooden handle guns. There are also fighters, even because of the development of science and technology, as well as cyber weapons and so on. Their application conditions are different, but their lethality should not be underestimated.
This has caused ancient weapons not to be widely used in modern times. Instead, they are often used as decorative storage or as harmless materials in the same style as toys. I feel that China's weapons contain a lot of wisdom. If you forget it, it is also a pity. If the weapon can be a little heavier and then exercise regularly every day, it can also play a good role in fitness. It is a very happy thing to think about it.
The more you know about the cultural relics unearthed in China and the history of China, the more you are shocked by the wisdom of the ancients and proud of the crystallization of China's wisdom. The more you feel the lack of knowledge, the more you are eager to further improve yourself. As a Chinese son, I only hope that the motherland will become more and more prosperous, and that the civilization and wisdom left by the motherland can be preserved for a long time, and I will make my own contribution to it.