Ok, i've seen a few Zhan ma dao ages ago which inspired me and thus, i would like to put my emphases on this gorgeous weapon. I've also seen some posts about japanese too, that also has a similar if not exactly the same version of chinese zhan ma dao. So im just wondering if the japanese might have adopted the zhan ma dao from the song dynasty people.

As everyone, if not some acknowledged that the first incursion of mongolian armies to the east coast of japan, consisted of northern chinese(jurchen/han people) have been conquered by the mongolians as well as subjugating korean pennisula. Only the Southern Song (南宋) was still at rival with the mongolians, however i believe that during the first invasion of japan, the jurchen jin did not use zhan ma dao and only the Southern Song's did. After Southern Song had been conquered by the mongols, the second invasion then would consisted of Southern Song armies with the use of zhan ma dao. The defeat of the second invasion was resulted that the japanese spare the Song chinese because they respect and regarded them as Tang people (唐人) whilst the mongolians they did not spare a single one of them. From my point of view, i would say this is the very starting point of where Song chinese transmitted the making of zhan ma dao and how to utilize them to the japanese.

This is a replica one.


This is one of my favourites, the Yun Nan Zhan Ma Dao used by kang xi emperor.


And another replica of zhan ma dao.


Any contributions of pictures and information or your opinions are very welcomed.

Best regards,
Intem

Note that the Song dynasty zhanmadao looked very different from the Qing version shown in these pictures. You can find a photo of the Song version at Thomas Chen's website here: http://thomaschen.freewebspace.com/index.html

'Zhanmadao' is one of the most confusing terms in the history of Chinese weapons. The zhanmadao of the Song, the zhanmadao of the Qing, and the weapon commonly called a zhanmadao today (also called pudao or podao) all looked different from each other.

Above are the pics of a Qing Dynasty zhanmadao, owned by one female Mainland Chinese collector...

I had read from some Taiwanese website that the Yunnan zhanmadao was first used by Koxinga's (Zheng Cheng Gong) troops against Qing soldiers... The shape of the Kangxi blade bears a close resemblance to the sabers used by Thailand and Burma, possibly the blade was a tributary gift to Kangxi from the Yunnan minority tribes or a direct copy made by the Imperial Workshops...

Based on my studies on the histories of the Japanese sword and that of the Song Dynasty zhanmadao, there appears to be no textual or archaeological-physical evidence that the zhanmadao or the concept of it was transmitted to Japan during the Song or Yuan... The Japanese appeared to develop their own long swords (the nodachi) independently a few hundred years later...

I can see your point there, but i do remeber from this 'Sword Forum International- Chinese sword and swordmanship'. I believe your quite active there sometimes and i've seen your posts, and one of the thread was about a japanese version of Zhan ma dao, so maybe this is where i got confused about whether zhan ma dao was a transmitted product from song dynasty.

best regards,
Intem