Swords
Master Wang Zhihai with Miaodao, Cangzhou, Hebei, China. Source Wikimedia Commons.
Introduction
This article should really be titled ‘All the Gear, But no Idea’.
In the seven or so years I have been studying Taiji I have been taught forms using some of the various weapons to be found in the Traditional Chinese Martial Arts (TCMA), including the staff, the sabre, the straight sword and the broad sword. In reality, I have only dabbled, and sadly don’t know any of the forms well enough to teach them at this time. I am hoping to change that over the next few years.
In my typical enthusiasm, I rushed out and bought all the toys, which for the most part sit in my storage cupboard, unused.
The purpose of this article is to help the curious with the types and names of some of the swords you might encounter in TCMA.
Miaodao
A miaodao ‘sabre’ in its scabbard. Adapted from Wikimedia Commons.
A curved, single sided, long bladed sabre (e.g. 120 cm / 47.2 inches) that is also long handled and used with two hands. It is believed to be a recent weapon, similar to the older Long Sabre - changdao.
The name means "sprout saber", presumably referring to a likeness between the weapon and a newly sprouted plant.
…
While the miaodao is rarely practiced in modern Chinese martial arts, some schools of Piguaquan and Tongbeiquan (in the Guo Changsheng lineage) and Xingyiquan train with the weapon.
— https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miaodao
Our school seems to be one of the few schools teaching miaodao techniques (in the UK at least), and I think this is unintentionally obscured because of the training tool we use.
The author’s wooden training miaodao above (total length 140 cm / 55.1 inches) imported from China. I am 190 cm / 6’3” so I chose a proportionally longer sword. A very ‘straight’ example compared to the miaodao above, and the author’s wooden bokken below it (total length 101 cm / 39.8 inches), which are both a little more ‘curvy’. © Steffan Stringer, 2025.
We use a Japanese wooden bokken as a safe and widely available alternative for training purposes. Miaodao are longer than bokken and the ‘samurai sword’ (katana) that they represent.
Being longer, the miaodao will be heavier than shorter katanas and more unwieldy. On the upside, there is the longer reach and the additional and deadly cutting momentum the tip is going to have once it gets to ‘operating speed’.
I am probably overly pedantic about this (Who? Me? 😉), but when someone says that we have ‘bokken’ on our syllabus, I will say that we don’t, we have ‘miaodao’, but we learn and train with the bokken.
This is a nice general overview article showing the range and variety of ‘dao’. It covers the the ‘sprout sabre’ mentioned here and the ‘broadsword’ covered below…
Dao (pronunciation: [táʊ], English approximation: /daʊ/ dow, Chinese: 刀; pinyin: dāo; jyutping: dou1) are single-edged Chinese swords, primarily used for slashing and chopping. They can be straight or curved. The most common form is also known as the Chinese sabre, although those with wider blades are sometimes referred to as Chinese broadswords. In China, the dao is considered one of the four traditional weapons, along with the gun (stick or staff), qiang (spear), and the jian (double-edged sword), called in this group "The General of Weapons".
Jian
‘Straight Sword’ with scabbard. Steel, silver, wood. 18th–19th century. Adapted from Wikimedia Commons.
A straight, two sided, single handed sword, regarded as the ‘gentleman of weapons’ and believed to have been in use for the last 2500 years.
— https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jian
We typically refer to this as the ‘straight sword’.
Niuweidao
Author’s own ‘broadsword’ and scabbard. © Steffan Stringer, 2025.
Also referred to as Tan Tao (or Tandao).
It has a heavy flared blade that is used single-handedly.
— https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niuweidao
In our school we simply refer to this sword as ‘broadsword’.
Butterfly Swords
Double sword (‘butterfly swords’) with scabbard, 19th century. Steel, wood, brass, leather. From Wikimedia Commons.
A pair of short swords. I have sometimes heard these referred to as butterfly knives, which I understand to be one of the translations of ‘dao’ (dao = knife).
The butterfly sword is a short dao, or single-edged sword, originally from southern China, though it has also seen use in the north. It is thought that butterfly swords date from the early 19th century. Several English language accounts from the 1840s describe local militia in Guangdong being trained in the "double swords", short swords with a hook extending from the guard, and fitting into a single scabbard.
The blade of a butterfly sword is roughly as long as a human forearm, which allows easy concealment inside loose sleeves or boots, and allows greater maneuverability when spinning and rotating during close-quarters fighting. Butterfly swords are usually wielded in pairs. A pair of swords will often be carried side by side within the same scabbard, so as to give the appearance of a single weapon.
Purchasing Equipment
Don’t.
Your school will help you here when the time is right and may have loan equipment to get you started. They can probably supply simple equipment to suit your level of ability, at an affordable price.
There is a lot of cheap stuff out there that will disappoint you, especially the jians and broadswords. It’s easier to find decent wooden bokkens as they are used widely across Japanese martial arts schools. If I had my time over, I wish I would have bought a wooden jian too.
On a personal level, I’d stay away from the super flexible, whippy swords that you might see in wushu displays. I am not putting down the incredible skill and athleticism of these practitioners, but I am looking for a more ‘authentic’ approximation of a traditional sword.
If I were ever to develop any level of mastery (not holding my breath) and wanted to buy a ‘forever sword’ I’d look at hardware sold by Mushin Martial Culture (see here for their jian and here for their broadsword. Don’t get confused with the Bagua versions which are both (ridiculously!) longer and highly specialised).
Last Word
⚠️ Wutan UK / Blackwater Tai Chi students - don’t forget to read and comply with the applicable Terms on the carrying and use of training weapons listed here. All weapons, including those designed purely for training, whether made out of metal or wood, should be transported in covers or bags that can be closed securely. Don’t train with weapons in public places. The police don’t like it!
Credits: Featured Image Unsplash. Showing a typical ‘ready’ stance with the miaodao.
