2200 Year Old Chinese Swords - LK Chen Magnificent Chu Jian Review & History
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- Опубликовано: 30 сен 2024
- Matt Easton (Scholagladiatoria) reviews the beautiful Magnificent Chu Jian from LK Chen. lkchensword.co...
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LK is really making waves. Finally someone is putting the attention to detail towards making historical chinese swords. Most out there just aren't that great.
I think there's also a dearth of actual historical Chinese swords as well - what I was told was, during Mao Tze-Tung's time, because of his command to "produce steel" in order for China to industrialise (this was the same period where he caused famine etc. because of his various pronouncements), villagers around China were desperately melting down anything they could find (you really don't want to be the village that is unable to meet the quota), so basically an entire generation of antique swords etc. was lost because of this - that's why you can find many more "antique" Japanese katanas etc. than Chinese equivalents
Tsototar same thing with most of their culture and history. The ccp is a virus.
Jim Ferdinando Yah ccp is the worst, not just to other ethnic minorities but also for the Hans.
@@hwasiaqhan8923 yeah they are the worst, they lifted most of the country out of poverty, oh the horror.
PaperCrease and here comes the ccp shill. You mean put most of them into poverty in the first place, then killed millions, then when Deng finally opened up the economy and let business do their thing the country finally started to stabilize, but 40% are still in poverty. Nice try wumao troll. So you can thank evil capitalism and businesses. Not the ccp for lifting millions out of poverty.
I am thrilled by this review.
I was one of those shouting corrections at the last Jian review, and I have to say I am impressed with how your knowledge on the subject has increased since then.
As someone who as been in the middle of research and experiment project with historical Jian combat for the past few years, it’s fantastic to see the information spread.
Thanks
Your pronunciation of "jian" is now pleasing to the ears.
He says it almost perfectly. I'm impressed.
His pronouncing is fairly good enough, even with right tone
I don't speak Chinese, but from what I know it's similar to the pronounciation of the former leader of CCP Jiang Zemin.
Been waiting for this review for a while!! Minor correction: rather than the dynasty of Chu, it's the Kingdom of Chu during the Warring States period of the dynasty of Zhou. Much the same as during the Wars of the Roses, the country was still under the rule of the Plantagenet dynasty.
to be fair, Chu had a pretty close shot and being the ones to unify China about 200 years before the Qin eventually did it. But true enough. Still amazing time period, many of these kingdoms existed for almost a milennia, and Chu was one of the odd ducks compared to the more traditionalist states of the north.
The Kingdom of Chu revived itself with the Chu leader Xiang Yu leading a rebellion that destroyed the Qin Dynasty after the Warring States period ended with Qin reunification. It then established itself as the kingdom of Western Chu and fought the Kingdom of Han during the War of 18 Kingdoms (aka Chu-Han contention) - which resulted in the Han kingdom's victory and establishment of the Han Dynasty. IIRC, the Chu Kingdom was never really under the rule of the Zhou Dynasty in the first place even at the height of Zhou power, or only paid basic lip service to the Zhou. The Chu were also heavily influenced by the Austro-Asiatic or Austronesian Yue peoples, and were considered a backwaters barbarian power for a while before they became one of the most powerful Warring States kingdoms. So it's more like totally different kingdoms fighting each other rather than a civil war like War of the Roses.
@@anasevi9456 So did CaoCao, ancient chinese history loves to sing the praises of almost conquerors.
@@Intranetusa very true apart from the austro-peoples-stuff which is pure speculation that shouldn't be repeated. Apart from that, as far as I know the local population of Chu is thought to have been ethnically different from both the Middle Kingdoms and the Yue.
@@albertdittel8898 IIRC, scientists have conducted DNA studies tracing the migration of Austronesian and/or Austro-Asiatic DNA across SE Asia and the Pacific Islands to an originating point around the region of what is now Taiwan and Southern China. The natives of Chu may or may not have been the same or substantially similar people as these early migrators, so it's more of a somewhat educated guess rather than pure speculation with no evidence whatsoever.
The "belt loop" is a scabbard slide. They were often made from jade. (as were the other fittings)
There's a whole book on these called "The Long Sword and Scabbard Slide in Asia", and I think it's freely available in digital form.
Here's a link to the Smithsonian page from which you can access the book:
repository.si.edu/handle/10088/1332
It's 341 pages in total - 124Mb for the hi-res version, about 20Mb for low-res.
If you do have a look at it, check out the bottom of Page 38 (page 47 in the pdf file). You'll see something that now looks familiar!
I know some hilts and parts had jade inlays but solid jade damn that's cool. Had an interesting idea for using epoxy resin to made cheaper inlays then various colored jade.
Lk Chen : "We make warring states and Han period swords."
"Aren't you missing an entire imperial dynasty?"
Archaeologically, the Qin dynasty was so short-lived that soldiers probably just scraped off the qin insignias on their equipment and continued on serving the splinter rebel states then later in the Han army (not much to look for until 1974),
yet culturally it had so much influence on China down the line.
@@longfeijiang2449 That's a myth I haven't heard before. Do they say where they are buried? This sounds like a hell of a find if they're somehow preserved.
a nigh-impossible task to replicate a bronze Qin dynasty sword, a marvel even by today's standards especially considering they were mass-produced.
I fell in love with this sword since I saw the Swordsage and Skallagrim videos! And I'm the type that prefers European long swords!
but in the current situation, even though LK Chen's prices are not absurd, it is out of reach for me, unfortunately ...
In fact, I think their prices are quite low, for the quality they seem to have ...
Hahaha! Someone else has watched "SwordSage"! He flippin cracks me up!😂 I haven't watched any of his vids in years, but from what I remember, this sword would totally be right up his alley!
@@andreweden9405 Indeed! He convinced me with his review!
I'm new to this "RUclips about swords and HEMA" thing, I was looking for videos about spears and I ended up in a Shadversity video, which took me to the Skallagrim channel, which took me to SwordSage and finally ended up here. I find it interesting how this niche complements itself ...
@@Lillythu Nawww, that's heartwarming to read. I really like the sword community as well
@@l.o.b.2433 Yes, it has been interesting to interact with this community!
Chinese swords aren’t normally my area of interest but this one looks very well done it must be said. Excellent attention to detail. Looks like it was made by people who took their time to get the product right. Thank you for this in depth review.
In Chinese, a double-edged sword is called Jian（剑）. Translated into English, it is called sword, while a single-edged sword is called Dao（刀）. Translated into English, it is called knife
In case anyone in the UK is wondering, this was the first sword I ordered from them last year and the team were utterly amazing from answering every query I had, to giving me in depth historical information regarding the military history of Han China. Shipping was quick and effortless, and I had no hiccups from customs (though YMMV). Regarding the weapon itself the build quality is incredible and it is a work of art, and I was more than happy to order from them again (and I recently took hold of two more of their blades this week). Everything Matt has said (as well as SwordSage and Skall) about the blade is correct, and even if his video *is* a paid production (it isnt) this post isn't and I can confirm their opinions. My only issue, in fact, was the cord wrap around the handle which after a *lot* of use now requires re-doing.
If anyone has any questions let me know and I'll be only to happy to answer, but be aware it's almost only good things! :)
Its legal to buy here?
To be fair I think your only issue isn't much of an issue ;p
@@426mak Absolutely! You need a reason to carry them around in public but private ownership is legitimate!
@@bohicagaming4462 It is if you're hopeless at it like me XD
Are there video resources on how to redo the cord wrappings?
Chinese swords are really underrated, thanks for fixing this with this very interesting review! :-D
剑(jian) is a personal defence weapon, it represents the gentlemen and justice, it on purpose made light weight, single hand handling, which makes its damaging capacity is very limited. Actually almost no warlord in ancient China famous for using Jian, Jian is more famous for those honoured knights who using their lifetime to traveled all over the 天下(the land under haven) to help the poor people. So you always read a word 仗剑天下(traveling under haven with a Jian) to describe a person who's ideal is help people from injustice. And because of this, the characteristic of Jian is justice but not killing, such characteristics are not enough to make it famous as a weapon.
@@zhaochongyao9997 Interesting, I like it. Xiè Xiè Ni
I've been debating on buying from lk Chen this review will probably result in a new purchase, cheers Matt
I always thought Chinese sword designs were a bit lame compare to European and Japanese ones.
Now I know it's just because there weren't people making good modern replicas before, and now there are.
This thing really stands its own ground even putting next to some of the best katanas and western swords.
You also need to keep in mind how much earlier they were doing the same things, be it spring steel, long, thin blades, lamellar armour, mass production and more.
@@Robert399 yeah, I thought with the technology at that time, the most practical use for steel is in short sword like gladius or maybe some medium size sword like spatha or la tene sword. But this sword, together with its two handed variant really change my perception.
Well, as with all culture, if the country/civilization is poor and economically battered, no one will really care about how great their ancestors were. I think in the future, eventually, there will be a revival of other great civilization like the middle east and such, and discover how their weapons technology are no less amazing than everyone else.
No joke these swords are very beautiful
Something like this can alter people's perceptions. 2,200 years ago and such incredible sophistication. Many people don't realise that China and India have been the economic hearts of the planet for all of civilisation until the hiccough during the colonial period. And that wealth means a lot of money for crafts to develop to extraordinary levels of refinement. Also the scale of warfare in China dwarfs everything from the European classical and medieval eras - similarly promoting high levels of craftsmanship.
I disagree with the last part of your assertion. Ancient Chinese warfare at the time had comparable numbers to Mediterranean ancient warfare (Romans, Carthaginians, Seleucids, Persians, etc). The Battle of Arausio saw the Romans alone field well over 100,000 men for a single battle. Cannae involved 80k Romans in a single battle, and the Second Punic War saw the conscription of 800,000 Romans. The Final War of the Roman Republic saw somewhere around half a million Roman troops fighting each other. And the 2nd century principate Roman military had 450,000-500,000 troops while the late Roman military had 600,000+ troops. These numbers are roughly comparable to the more reliable figures for the ancient Chinese Empires such as the Han Dynasty.
Disclaimer: This is my favorite historical martial arts (& many other topics) chanel bar none. That being said, having someone so knowledgeable and articulate around this subject matter and looking so completely bad ass when flourishing the weapon is just fan-fucking-tastic.
Images of a Terracotta Qin chariot operator wearing the sword on his back: pin.it/bxx0ipA pin.it/2xgL2H1 and pin.it/4Y2TWTM
Modern reconstruction drawing depicting Chinese Nobleman wearing a sword from the relative periods:
pin.it/2Z5k6DM (Chu dynasty nobleman)
pin.it/5SNwvXE (Qin dynasty nobleman)
pin.it/1vYQMY0 (Han dynasty nobleman)
What's great is LK Chen bases his expanding line of products on a sampling of actual antiques and includes a lot of historical and cultural info on his website. Great to get your take on his work Matt - thank you!
"...Ewart Park type, made by Neil Burridge..."
Guys that's Matt flexing his sword collection at us.
*Clutching my Neil Burridge Ewart Park*
Damn right. Gotta flex to soften the blow to the bank account.
@@TheWastelander86 Look on the bright side, when it's time to raid cattle from the enemy's hill fort and steal the stones from his henge, you'll be ready.
I tend to find some chinese swords very beautiful, the simple and minimalist look on them are quite different from some european swords, this one became one of my favourite, its is a piece of art, they look so elegant too.
just like art, from different calture with different look.
So there I was in New York City. A Buddhist Monk went to go get a hotdog. He paid the vendor with a $10 bill. The hotdog was $5.
He then waited and looked at the vendor.
He asked the vendor " What about my change?"
The vendor says " Ah. Change must come from within"
Although clearly it has significant differences from them it's basic blade profile, scabbard mounts & short guard are not all that dissimilar from the design of migration era and Viking era swords.
Found a bug, the guard of this sword, is a beast's mouth, might be a tiger. the shape looks like it would swallow the blade, this was called 吞口, which was very popular design in ancient chiense swords or 刀 blades. Just like some of those armors at the same time.
If you plan on aging the bronze, could you make a video of it?
I have a White Arc by LK Chen and swallow-tail spears. The White Arc is extremely (scary) sharp, so I'm a bit surprised the Magnificent isn't as sharp. Great customer service and dedication to the art and history they are producing. I intend on acquiring several more swords - especially as they come out with new designs.
Unfortunately LK Chen doesn't make Warring States shield (as far as I can tell from his website). He does make those cool Han Dynasty hooked buckler though.
BTW it's Chu State, not Chu Dynasty, although I am sure someone else already pointed this out in the comment.
i hope they do make those shields, that plus actual bronze swords.. or even better.. finding out a way to cast multibronze swords without them costing $50k= a dream of mine that i do not expect to happen.
@@anasevi9456 With some woodworking (and maybe leatherworking) skills, one can hopefull make a reasonably close approximation of a Warring States shield, at least for the purpose of playing/bashing around with it.
This odd shield is available from same company -- but I think it's a different era (Han?).
lkchensword.com/shop/ols/products/gourang-1
A chinese hook shield would be an excellent combo and probably historical.
The hook shield, based on what we know, was a predominately an early-mid Western Han Dynasty thing (Western Han 206BCE-9CE). The Chu Kingdom ended in 223BCE, and while there could be overlap, and that the shield could have existed in late Warring States, we tend not to link them together this way.
The hook shield is depicted pairing with the dao for the most part. That puts it in the mid-period of known Western Han history.
@@junichiroyamashita buckler-like shield with hook attached to the top and bottom, they're specialized to counter the dagger-axe halberd formation
@@chickknightgreenleaf820 not necessarily true. We have reliefs showing they are used against daos and other shield and dao sets as well. We cannot tell whether the shield was a specialized equipment or not (mostly likely not IMO). What is known is that a set with a dao was popular self-defence equipments, and they were used by civilians as well.
The same company even sell a gou-rang hook shield, so I guess that's the style they were going for.
@@theartofmantis Technically, we can say the Chu kingdom lasted until 202 BC and didn't completely end in 223 BC after the Qin conquest. The Kingdom of Chu revived itself with the Chu leader Xiang Yu leading a rebellion that destroyed the Qin Dynasty after the Warring States period ended with Qin reunification. It then established itself as the kingdom of Western Chu and fought the Kingdom of Han during the War of 18 Kingdoms (aka Chu-Han contention) - which resulted in the Han kingdom's victory and establishment of the Han Dynasty.
I checked out the website for these, and I'm really surprised by the prize. They're much cheaper than I expected. They look like they'd be more like $600-$750, rather than the $300-$450 they actually are. Might seriously consider one when I get spending money...
During the warring states (475-221bc), iron swords were already common in the Yan state, however, Qin won the wars and united the states, and it's ruler became Qin the first emperor. Qin has skillful craftmen pushing the bronze casting skill to the limit and their bronze swords are as long as 95cm (50% longer than other states). So even though there were already technology to mass produce iron swords, they did not become the mainstream until Han dynasty, after the fall of Qin dynasty.
A game of chess is like a sword fight *swish swish* you must think first, before you move.
Can you match Matt's Wu Tang style?
I`m realy happy to hear more information about this sword`s history and that`s fenomenal for me how early this steel blade. Great video, thx for your work Matt!
Trust Scholagladiatora to give you the full context. Amirite?
@@scottmacgregor3444 Absolutely right
I'm so glad to see you cover this type of sword! In Chinese tradition it is known as the "Gentleman of Weapons"(the spear being the "King" of course). These swords are from the period when there was very little difference between Chinese and Japanese swords, as single-edged swords such as the tachi and katana hadn't come around yet. In fact, this very well could be what the legendary Kusanagi-no-tsurugi looks like, the sword connected with the creation of the Japanese Empire. I'd also be very interested to see if this same maker produces a replica of the Sword of Goujian!
I wonder why the japanese moved away from this design.
@@arx3516 , I think that topic of discussion could be enough for its own dedicated video!😁 But it's a video I'd love to see!
@@arx3516 when Japanese contact widely with Chinese it's about 7 century.at that time,Chinese already given up the jian and use dao widely.After the battle of Baijiangkou(war between Tang dynasty and Japanese),the Japanese decide to learn to Chinese,and the Tang Dao become the ancestors of Katana.
hey Matt - I am making true replicas of original Chinese swords. I am a professor of psychology, so I only do a couple per year. I use modern steel, though. Mine are one-to-one matched to specific swords or at least class of swords. Not trying to sell anything here. Just mentioning. I work with Scott Rodell who provides the measurements and I make the blade to fit.
Would be awesome to see good quality Chinese swords from a different maker in
scholagladiatoria video. Especially the different takes on historical points; different takes on the hilt.
Wow, you weren't kidding about the price point. I was checking out their page expecting something in the neighbourhood of your average Albion prices, given the quality, but these are *much* more affordable. I've certainly had much worse-quality replicas for that price.
Wow! Nice sword and review! Btw, it is the Chu Kingdom rather than dynasty, whose last king (lord) Xiang Yu was defeated by Liu Bang (later the founding emperor of the Han Dynasty).
That's a beautiful sword! Great review, too
Wow....now I'm curious as to how this blade would feel and perform if attached to an 19th century British cavalry sword hilt..
I have to admit that it crossed my mind as well....
@@scholagladiatoria Oh, my, the Rifles Officer hilt comes to my mind!
scholagladiatoria Make it happen so we can all see :)
Now, that is a pretty sword!
Question - did designing steel swords the same way as bronze ones come with any disadvantages?
I'd assume the weight differences between bronze and steel may play a role too
I would say so only based on the fact that Chinese moved away from this type of sword style/construction. Chinese swords with double fuller after this period were scarce; I would postulate that the toughness of the steel negate the need for double fullers that were necessary for bronze swords. The hilt saw much changes too, with handguard became larger. In addition, the pommel evolve from simple disk to actual counter weight that balance the increased weight of later Chinese swords, which from my understanding, weight about the same as contemporary European arming swords.
A stunning piece. The blade reminds me of many Celtic longsword and Roman Spatha blades. A truly elegant cut and thrust sword for the man of refined taste. Compare it to some of those seen here from the same time period (some of which still have their scabbards on, obscuring the blade). Outwardly, they appear capable of being as finely balanced as Renaissance sideswords.
www.tf.uni-kiel.de/matwis/amat/iss/kap_b/illustr/celt_latene_large.jpg
www.tf.uni-kiel.de/matwis/amat/iss/kap_b/backbone/rb_2_1.html
It is interesting to note that it seems the wider-bladed longsword came into prominence in the Migration Era and into the Viking Age, possibly due to conditions that you discussed in your video about why Viking swords usually weren't very pointy.
It also strikes me that perhaps this Chinese method of wearing the sword was used with certain Viking Age and pre-viking age European scabbards with very similar rings fitted. Maybe this can be investigated further...
the symbol on guard is “饕餮纹“. 纹=symbol，饕餮=monster & beast
This is absolutely beautiful... I want it sooooo badly
I own one of these and some others from LKChen. This sword is really incredibly beautiful and well made. It's gorgeous. They somewhere stated that in the old days the fittings often were inlayed with jade.
In terms of handling though, I prefer their Flying Phoenix. It's even lighter and not that fancy, but feels so good in the hand that it is sometimes hard to put it away after handling it. And it's a beastly cutter, probably due to its better blade geometry.
I could talk about their swords all day 🤣
Flying Eagle all the way for me.
When I see Jian or Dao, I subscribed! Pls do more chinese swords!😍😍
Hello from lebanon, im charles isnt the same sword skallagrim reviewed also, anw ive been experimenting with jian techniques recently, great review as always keep up the great informational work, regards matt
It's from the same maker, not sure about the model though.
@@SniperAngle12 It is the same sword, he reviewed it alongside the Roaring Dragon Jian
Another RUclipsr named Swordsage has reviewed pretty much everything LK Chen makes, if you're curious about them.
@@scottmacgregor3444 thank you man, will cjeck it out
Maybe I've missed it, but have you ever made a video on any of Neil Burridge's bronze swords?
Scholagladiatora,
The SHIELD GUARD HAN JIAN by LK Chen. He mentions it's designed for fencing specifically. With a built in shield.
It has a POB of 1.57" (4cm) weighs 2lb 12.44 oz ( 1260grams)
Could be interesting to look at.
This model is probably the closest to a rapier as you can get at least from China.
It has the best POB of all the Jian that they sell.
Which I also got an email from Lk Chen saying he's researching the Smallsword.
Mr. Easton thank you, for another, comprehensive, detailed and in depth review. And you sure are not exaggerating about the price being outstanding. They actually have a link to your video review, now. Super cool Matt. . On sale right now for 350 bucks, normally 400 US. Good stuff. Thank you. Cheers!
great review. i'd love to see it with a decent sized crossguard. I'd even retro fit one (not worried about the trad. look).
However, i think the way the hilts are constructed, (by LK Chen) might make it hard to remove that assembly.
But, i'm thinking, can i build a crossguard that slides down the blade. And then fixes tightly over the old 'crossguard'.
So i can have both designs :)
Taiwanese here, your pronunciation of Jian is perfect.
A small historic mistake here is that there wasn't a "Chu dynasty". Chu was a kingdom during the Zhou dynasty. While the Chu kingdom participated in the great war at the end of the Zhou dynasty, it was conquered by the Qin kingdom which eventually became the Qin dynasty.
I have a flying pheonix from LK chen on the way . It was a great buying experience i had an insightful conversation with the own afterwards . Good people
Adorable kitty!
Just bought one about 30 minutes ago. $686 Canadian dollars. If Mr. Easton says its good to go, that's good enough for me. If Mr. Easton says he loves it, well...
I've always thought about the sword's geometry was exclusive a Chinese feature till today. the carp's tongue is amazing.!
It's been living in your study, you say. Have you given it a slot in your "sword wall"? What did you have to displace in its favor? Will you now be dedicating one rack just to Chinese swords?
Also, what exactly is the function of shagreen, waterproofing the wooden grip?
Man I really hope one of the other swords is a two-handed jian, really interested in Matt's take on those
phiengley see swordsage’s review on them and skallagrim’s as well.
Flying Eagle is my favourite.
They make two handed Jian as well
Thank you for the review. I had been considering adding this sword to my collection. Now where is my credit card .
Would you please also review similar sword from Northshire Swords. Thank you again
I have a Flying Phoenix on order.
With you, Skall, and Swordsage giving LK glowing reviews you can be sure my anticipation is peaked.
A small mistake, Chu was just a kingdom in the warring states period, not a dynasty.
At that period, steel swords were still largely luxuries, and only nobles and high rank generals could offer. But according to archeology discoveries, soldiers in Chu state already began to use iron swords, instead of bronze swords.
I'd love to see LK Chen make a much later period Da Dao.
LK Chen is on my watchlist now
Although they are normally sharp swords you can also request a dull one for practice or tai chi or other cases where you'd rather it just be safer. You could probably request that extra little bit of bite too and if they know you want it, they'd make sure it's there.
I strongly suspect that people who buy replica swords for cutting will further sharpen the factory sharp blades. Lol
you probably know this - later Chinese swords were sharpened in sections, and so the forte and first few inches were never really sharp.
Who knows about early ones?
Man I love watching Matt move with a sword. His flourishes flow like water and the blade glints like lightning. It's so pleasurable watching a master in his element.
I don't know if there are similar tranditions in other countries, but in China there is a traditional saying that displaying a sword in the house could scare off bad ghosts.
Would you make a video when you decide to sharpen this sword? I'm sure I'm not the only one who would love to see that. ^_^
In my experience chinese swordsmiths leave it up to the owner to put the final edge on the blade.
I'm thinking of inlaying mine with crushed turquoise or something...
Video inset... oh look at this man practising the ungentlemanly poke.
760 g= 27 oz.
800 g= 28 oz.
900 g= 32. oz.
1,000 g= 35 oz.
7.0 mm= 280 mil/thou or 18/64 in.
3.5 mm= 140 mil/thou or 8.8/64 in.
It seems to be a good thing. I'm glad.
looks more sophisticated and bigger then the swords being made 3000 KM west in Greece
One small thing that shows the historian in Matt. He says it 300 to 200 BC not the other way around like the layman might.
it looks very spatha-like to me. is that just my ignorance?
1. Now I see why the 1st Qin emperor failed to draw his sword for 3 times when confronting the assassin Jing Ke...he probably wore his sword on his back.
2. Chu technically wasn't China yet. It was a rival kingdom to Zhou Dynasty to the South. It's culture was quite different to China (which technically only include the Dynasty of Zhou and it's subjects) at that time.
Whether Chu was Chinese depends on how you look at it. Technically, both the Chu and the Qin state were considered backwaters "barbarian" states by the supposedly more "civilized kingdoms" as both were far from the Yellow River valley heartland and were greatly influenced by native non-Han peoples. So the two greatest kingdoms of the Warring States era (including the one that won and created China) weren't totally Yellow River Valley Han peoples, but they fought each other for supremacy over the region of what is now China proper. So even the Qin Kingdom, which incorporated the Yue peoples of Shu and Ba, would have had a different culture from the central states of the Zhou Dynasty.
Furthermore, the Kingdom of Chu revived itself with the Chu leader Xiang Yu leading a rebellion that destroyed the Qin Dynasty after the Warring States period ended with Qin reunification. It then established itself as the kingdom of Western Chu and fought the Kingdom of Han during the War of 18 Kingdoms (aka Chu-Han contention) - which resulted in the Han kingdom's victory and establishment of the Han Dynasty. So by that stage, they were as Sinicized and Chinese as any of the other kingdoms in the region.
Chu is a Chinese kingdom build on barbarian land of Yue. Ancestor of modern Vietnamese... it is located near Guangdong and Fujian. It has the characteristic of Chinese and Yue culture combined.
Kingdom of Yue and Wu are actually built by sinicized Yue ppl. Not a Han Chinese origin Kingdom.
Qin is a vassal of Zhou, it's ruler is called 公 （equivalent to Prince or Duke in English)
They were the nomadic people who breeded horse for royalty of Zhou. They were granted the right to settle and rule over the land of Qin after aiding Zhou to push back a barbaric invasion.
Though Qin was also considered to be culturally inferior to the rest of Zhou China, it was legally part of it.
Chu is a rival kingdom of Zhou in the south. The land of Yue is further south...somewhere around modern day Canton and northern Vietnam. We Cantonese sometimes call the place we're living Yue. Vietnam literally means Southern Yue or South of Yue.
Of course in the last few decades of Zhou, everyone started calling themselves Kings
However, the ruler of Chu was always a king...
@@longfeijiang2449 I think that happened before the unification? So the emperor was not that old when the assassination happened.
Great video, Matt. I really hope LKChen sent you their White Arc jian because that mfer is genuinely razor sharp.
Yes I have it here along with a bunch of others :-)
The most famous sword of the Chu State era is the Sword of Goujian, which is bronze. Apparently funerary swords from that era are mostly bronze, but they are often buried next to servants (real live executed ones or representations of) with steel tools for growing them food in the afterlife. One of the advantages of bronze swords over steel is that bronze lasts for eternity in the afterlife, while iron rusts. Even the weapons found with the terra cotta warriors, which was well within the iron age, are mostly bronze. There's a lot more terra cotta archers, chariot pullers & the like than there are sword carriers.
bronze sword was so bueatiful an very lasting compare to steel, many of them like piece of art.
I have their Flying Phoenix Han Jian. It is even more exquisite sword than the Chu Jian. I hope you can get one of those and or one of their Dao.
I do have 6 of their swords now and more on the way :-)
@@scholagladiatoria Excellent! There may be sample variation on the sharpness issue - my Flying Phoenix is easily the sharpest blade I have ever gotten from a maker. I sliced myself a couple of times accidently.
I look forward to the rest of your reviews and cutting. These blades are exquisite.
I just really need to budget in a Royal Arsenal Han Dao to complement the Han Jian.
Matt should really check out their Heavenly Horse Han dao. I have one, and am very impressed by the quality and elegance of the design. I would love to see Matt compare and contrast it to European cavalry swords.
How come no one on the internet ever talks aboutthe glory of the jian 😢
ancient chinese swords, warring states and so forth are just amazing. Hope one day we get actual bronze repos too.
The scabbard according to LK is CNC'ed
Beautiful flourishes Matt, the sword came alive in your hands.
When will you review the O Katana ?
Drinking game: have a shot each time Matt says beautifully or beautiful.
chinese swords and other weapons are under appreciated
Has he (or someone else) ever brought up why the jian have generally had smaller guards than Western swords?
Chinese fencing methods generally use a circular motion with the arm to deflect blades. So the philosophy is different.
Chu was one the lase seven kingdoms in War states periods which gave us Qi dynasty, Chu did dethrone the Qi but the Chu kingdom was conquered shortly by Han, In Han Chu became a state, ruled by a King(King After Han dynasty rules stated with it own army buy report to the Emperor). Chu never made it a Dynasty. your sword is a Han dynasty Hans sword. The blade profile is a carryover from Qi Dynasty bronze swords was a !m long.
EXCUSE ME HOWEVER DIN SOMERSET O'FALLON THEIR SWORDS ONLY COST 300 BUCKS?! Damn that's really, really cheap. That's the price of an expensive kitchen knife.
Nice.
Well done, very thorough. These replicas of ancient Chinese weapons is great. So little is known of them.
A simply beautiful sword.
Well done LK Chen for bringing these swords back to life.
Incidentally I don't think there was a Chu dynasty. It was more likely one of many competing states.
Didn't expect the scabbard to have such a striking and colourful design on it.
剑(jian) is a personal defence weapon, it represents the gentlemen and justice, it on purpose made light weight, single hand handling, which makes its damaging capacity is very limited. Actually almost no warlord in ancient China famous for using Jian, Jian is more famous for those honoured knights who using their lifetime to traveled all over the 天下(the land under haven) to help the poor people. So you always read a word 仗剑天下(traveling under haven with a Jian) to describe a person who's ideal is help people from injustice. And because of this, the characteristic of Jian is justice but not killing, such characteristics are not enough to make it famous as a weapon.
There shouldn't really be much stress on the last syllable of Jian. If you watch Scott M. Rodell's videos, his pronunciation is very good.
That video convinced me to buy it myself. It is sutch a beautyiful design. Your review is spot on, thank you. 😊
I really really hope you end up also reviewing LK Chen's Infantry Han Dao and their Frontier Tang Dao!
People are so fickle. They complain that he gets sponsored by Raid Shadow Legends because it's a video and all over RUclips. Then Matt does a review of a LC Chen sword and he gets complaints about being sponsored by, of all things, a sword maker.
But was he sponsored? I know LK Chen is giving out a lot of samples to various people, but that's different than sponsoring or paid advertising.
Thank you for this review. I have been looking for a fully functional Jian for quite sometime. One I can practice forms with as well as cutting and self defense. Am I correct in thinking that this swords fits my needs or is there another sword crafted by LK Chen that may be even better?
I am not as concerned about historical accuracy as I am dependable and functionality. Again , thank you sir.
Dammit, now I want a jian! Hmm, I do have a birthday coming up...
Same excuse I'm thinking of using
Nice vid. You spoke about the sharpness of the blade, but you didn't mention whether you ordered the 'sharp' version, or the 'not sharp' version. If that's their version of 'sharp' then I'm comfortable with it - I can touch it up myself as necessary - likewise, if it's their version of 'not-sharp'. But, if I allow some guy on the other side of the planet who I don't know/trust to put a 'sharp' edge on a sword, which I might not be able to return - that's a problem.
Matt, I strongly recommend you to look at two Skallagrim videos with just this sword and one other: ruclips.net/video/Tzxaq9wO3Do/видео.html A ruclips.net/video/c5n_g5vwQdA/видео.html
beautiful sword Matt and a great Video as always, the RUclipsr Swordsage has made Review for multiple LK Chen Swords and other Chinese Replica swords. A Collab between you two would be awesome, if you want to spend more time With Chinese Swords and Their History.
LK Chen knows his shit! Love it!
When i think of 2200 year old swords I don't think of this. These swords sure are impressive. The replica itself ain't a slouch either.