did the Chinese sword smid let behind there signature on the jian or dao, is there also photograph of it , visit me also once www.dekoele.nl

I can't think of a single example of signed Chinese swords. Some swords associated with particular Emperors were named and numbered, but as far as I know, even then, the smith was anonymous.
Josh

I've seen Seven Stars (Big dipper) constellations on Tang dynasty swords. Thomas Chen's website has pictures

But you wouldn't call that a signature would you?
Josh

Ancients bronze swords can have notation on them saying they were cast for a kings personal use, and ancient steel can have writting describing the level of refinement of the steel.
The Qin bronze weapons, certainly the halberds, had the names of the official responsible for its production and so perhaps would some of the bronze swords.
This was not about 'fame' of a swordsmith but about the artisans life potentially depending on the quality of the weapon they oversaw production of. A failure can be easily traced after all..
In the Han period too a list of people who worked on a mechanism for a corssbow might be recorded on the surface too.
A single artefact might have a name for the various stages on a lacquerware vessels for example, carved by so&so, painted by so&so, layered by so&so.
It was more like a team trademark than a personal signature.
Since many Western antiques might just have stamps that link an item back to a certain factory, and then also a certain name, 'signatures' as such would not mean much when dozens of people might be involved when the product is more industrialised in production.
For China in ancient times producing numbers of weapons would mainly be about large foundries and output. and not about one craftsman as such.
i.e the Qin terracota warriors have the names of supervisors inscribed on some figures and so the # people involved has been calculated since each had a team below. This means the person who overseas a team responsibl for a single stage rather than a home industry and a single artisan from start to finish. This is more practical in terms of scale. Think of how modern militaries industrial production works manufacturing a rifle for example.
In this way only the weapons made for kings would be made by commision for unique & personal items. Then the name of the smith need not be on the blade.....it belongs to a king after all. The work speaks for itself. There are plenty of famous baldes in ancient China.
Most weapons though are made to fit demand, and quality and output is more important than a single persons handiwork or reputation.

If Chinese smiths did not put names on the weapons as their own 'creation' it in no way detracts from the blade.
In this way a Han sword saying '100 time forged steel' on the blade (as can be seen in books on ancient swords) would say plenty about the sword quality. The end product is more important than the personality behind it then.

Thank you for the excellent analysis. I think that as you say, custom pieces tended to have the names of the owners instead of the smith. This seems to hold true even when the owner was not the Emperor. I have a set of butterfly swords made for a security company by a village smith. Of course, the set has the name of the security company ('mounting gold") rather than the name of the smith. Who would want the name of a village smith?
Josh

thanks for the answer greetings frans