I often am asked about where to find good information on Chinese swords. There are no good books in English, so most of the information is scattered around in online discussions like this one. I have been selling some swords, so I have a growing set of pictures with accompanying text. This may form the basis of some sort of book or catalogue some day, but in the meantime, I thought it might be useful for others to have what I think is useful and accurate information. It is also useful for me to have comments on what I have written so I can refine my own knowledge. If anyone sees errors in the descriptions I have posted, please let me know.
Thank you for the help,
Josh

http://picasaweb.google.com/antiquechineseswords

For English info/pictures about chinese swords, you can refer to Thomas Chen's site:

http://thomaschen.freewebspace.com/

Yes, absolutely, I have learned allot from that site, and a few others on the web. I hope the catalogue I am developing will be another resource to build our level of understanding.
Josh

You should try to get hold of this book "Iron and Steel Swords of China (中国刀剑）" by Alex. J. Huangfu. I believe it has already been translated from the original chinese to English now. It's the 1st chinese book written in the world specifically and comprehensively about chinese sword. The book introduces over 300 different types of chinese swords and contains over 2000 pictures.

The book was only published in 2007. Alex J. Huangfu is a prominent chinese sword expert in China.

For details of the book, refer to http://www.chinesearms.com/swordbook/swordbook.htm

We have a discussion about this book led by Thomas Chen at
http://www.chinahistoryforum.com/index.php?showtopic=18174

Thomas Chen has also introduced you how to buy the book.

Has anyone here aside from Thomas Chen gotten ahold of this? I for one am pretty interested in getting this book.

Also, are you sure the translation is out? I can't quite believe it...the site doesn't say so, but then again Huangfu's site has always been slow to update. But I'll see if I can get this book if the English is indeed out.

No sorry.. just making a guess. I thought and "believe" there should be an english translation for it, since this book is quite hot in China.

If no-one has translated it into English, maybe me or Thomas can consider translating it as a project. Need to talk to Alex and also some publisher about it...however, I might be constraint by time..so need to consider .

Yeah, I have seen some pics of the book. I have really wanted to buy it but my Chinese isnt the greatest. Do you know where I can buy it or if there is an English translation out yet? Something this valuable definitely deserves one.

I checked this site

http://www.chinesearms.com/swordbook/swordbook.htm

and it had a short trailer/preview of his book and a program called Rediscovering Chinese Swords which I suppose goes with book. It looked really interesting and I tried looking it up online to see if I could watch it but I found nothing. Do you where I can find it?