The Green Standard Army was a large standing army of the Qing dynasty. It was composed entirely of soldiers of the Han dynasty, lead by a mix of Chinese and Manchu officers. It was the largest troop force the Qing had,…
In the late Ming dynasty, Chinese coasts were raided by Japanese pirates -mockingly called 倭寇 wokou or "Dwarf Bandits" by their Chinese adversaries- who were using their long sabers, nodachi, to great…
Ever since I acquired an antique Chinese tengpai (籐牌) or "rattan shield" I had been wanting to figure out how to make these. I ordered rattan of appropriate type and dimensions at a local rattan…
(This is an old article so the images are fairly low resolution)
Over the past few years, local collectors and antiques dealers have brought in a number of different variations of the Prussian Dreyse needle-fire rifle…
According to Chinese symbolism, the strength and martial spirit of a soldier is embodied in the single-edged blade (dāo, literally meaning “knife”) whereas the double-edged sword (jiàn) represents the noble character of…