Description

Finally, another fully mounted jiàn on my site. It has been a while!

The blade I think is an old Qing blade, of typical form. Long, narrow, with a pronounced center ridge. It has signs of use and coarse grinding, all covered with a thick patina. Edges are not sharp, making me think it was probably blunted for use in forms training, during the Chinese martial arts revival of the early 20th century.

Hilt and scabbard are covered with very fine quality stingray skin, and the piece comes in a full set of fine brass mounts. The hilt has the ace of spades type guard typical for the period. All mounts are chiseled in great detail with Chinese auspicious symbols, standing out over a punched background.

Symbolism

The symbols on the mounts come from two suites of auspicious symbols; the Eight Buddhist symbols (Astamangala) and the symbols of the Eight Immortals of folk Daoism.

For more information, see the glossary articles:

Astamangala

Bāxiān (八仙), "Eight Immortals"

Condition

Blade with patches of coarse grinding and signs of edge damage polished out a long time ago. Later mounts in near-perfect condition. One of the scabbard mounts can freely slide due to shrinkage of the scabbard.

Comparable examples

A jiàn with identical mounts is published in Iron and Steel Swords of China by Alex Huangfu. It has a blade of imported modern steel with central groove, white ray skin grip and ray skin covered scabbard with painted flowers.

Notes
1. See Alex Huangfu; Iron and Steel Swords of China. (皇甫江; 中国刀剑). Jinan, Tomorrow Publishing House, 2007. Page 247.