#nandao

[chobistudio]

【Wushu】7th World Wushu Championships (2003) Awards Ceremony of Men's Nandao

[lgbtlunaverse]

What kind of saber is baxia anyway?

I love my bloodthirsty princess of a cursed blade, and in my heart of hearts i am nothing but a sword nerd, so i've been extremely fascinated by Baxia and how we know frustratingly little about what she actually looks like!

I mean, look at bichen, right?

Bichen in the donghua:

Bichen in the drama:

They're clearly not exactly the same. The scabbards are different, and the guards have a different shape. But these are recognizably different iterations on one theme, right? Thin jian with a white grip silver guard, light blue tassel and silver mounting accents on the scabbard.

Now this is baxia in the donghua:

And baxia in the drama:

????????

THAT'S A COMPLTELY DIFFERENT WEAPON

it doesn't stop there either, the audio drama is kind enough to give us ANOTHER COMPLETELY DIFFERENT BAXIA

pretty! But how is that he same sword??

And when we go back to the novel, we get very little information on her appearance other than the fact that her blade is tinted red with all the blood she's absorbed. Which none of these designs incorporate.

This is not a dig on the designs itself, they're all quite gorgeous in their own right and i'm going to spend a while discussing all of them! Because isn't it fascinating how, since we know little about novel baxia beyond "saber" all of these designs ended up so different? What kinds of sabers are these, anyway?

So, a chinese aber, aka a "dao" (刀) just means a sword that has only one cutting side. As opposed to a jian, which has two.

You can see how that leaves a LOT of room for variaton.

I've actually seen some people get confused because Huaisang's saber in the untsmed is thin and quite straight, making it superficially resemble the jian more than drama!baxia, but it is still clearly a saber!

See? only one cutting blade!

This, to me looks a lot like a tang dynasty hengdao

credit to this blog for providing his image and being a great source for all this going forward.

TANGENT: during all this I found out the english wikipedia page for dao is WRONG! Ths is what they about the tang hengdao!

So that sounds like the hengdao was called that during the sui dynasty, but then, after that, started being called a peidao, right?

WRONG

I LOOKED AT THE SOURCE THEY USED AND IT SAYS THIS:

IT WAS CALLED THE PEIDOU UNTIL THE SUI DYNASTY, AT WHICH POINT IT WAS CALLED A HENGDAO. Which would carry over to the Tang dynasty. This was the source wikipedia linked! and it says something else than they say it does!

Anyone know how to edit a wikipedia article?

ANYWAY

BACK TO BAXIA

Since we're already at the drama, let's look at drama baxia: She's also straight! the general term for straight-backed saber is Zhibeidao, but that's a modern collector's term, and doesn't really say anything about which historical kind of saber baxia could be based on. Another meta i found on the drama nie sabers already went on some detail here.

I'm gonna expand on that a little: The kinds of historical straight-backed sabers we see resemble the hengdao a lot more than they do baxia. They don't go to their point as harsly as she does (she's basically a cleaver!) and they're all way skinnier.

No, my personal theory is that instead of being based on any kind of historical sword, drama!baxia is based on a Nandao.

I mean, come on, look at it!

Baxia!

The Nandao... isn't actually a historical sword. It was invented for Wushu forms. There's a really fascinating article about its conception, but that's why the swords in the images look a little thin and flimsy. Wushu swords are very flexible and light, they're dance props, not weapons to fight with. There are actual steel versions of Nandao, but they're recreations of the prop, not the other way around.

So That's one way in which Baxia differes from the Nandao: she's actually a real weapon. The other is that, as you can see above, the nandao has an S-shaped guard. Baxia doesn't. She's also much more elaborately decorated, of course. Because she's a princess.

Now: audio drama baxia!

This is much easier. with that flare at the tip?

Oh baby that's a niuweidao, all the way!

There are more sabers with that kind of curved handle, but the broad tip is really charcteristic of the niuweidao. The Niuweidao is also incredibly poplar in modern media, often portrayed as a historical sword, but it originated i nthe 19th century! And it was actually never used by the military!

That's right, the Niuweidao was pretty much exclusively a civilian weapon! That makes its use here anachronistic, but so is the nandao, and considering that the origin story of the Nie is that they use Dao intead of Jian because their ancestors were butchers, portraying them with a weapon historically reserved for rebels and common people instead of the imperial military is actually very on theme!

Finally, Donghua/Manhua baxia. These two designs are so similar I'm going to treat them as one and the same for now.

Unlike both previous baxias, The long handle makes it clear this baxia is a two-handed weapon, though Nie Mingjue is absolutely strong enough to wield her with one hand anyway. Normal rules don't count for cultivators.

Now, this is where things get tricky, because there are a lot of words for long two-handed sabers. And a lot of them are interchangable! This youtube video about the zhanmadao, one of the possible sabers this baxia could be based on, goes a little into just how confusing this can get. This kind of blade WAS actually in military use for many centuries, making it the most historically accurate of all the baxias. But because of that it also has several names and all of those names can also refer to different kinds of blades depending on what century we're in.

So here's our options: i'm going to dismiss the wodao and miandao, because these were explicitly based on japanese sword design, and as we can see manhua baxia has that very broad tip, so that won't work

(Example of a wodao. According to my sources Miaodao is really just the modern common term for the wodao, and the changdao, and certain kinds of zhanmadao... do you see how quickly this gets confusing?)

Next option: Zhanmadao.

Zhanmadao stands for "horse chopping saber" so... yeah they were anti-cavalry weapons. meant to be able to cut the legs and/or necks of horses. That definitely sounds like a weapon Nie Mingjue would wield. But if you watched that youtube video i linked above, you'll know the standardized Qing dinasty Zhanmadao looked very different from earlier versions. It was inspired by the japanese odachi, and more resembles the miandao than its ealrier heftier counteprarts.

Earlier Ming dynasty Zhanmadao on the other hand were... basically polearms. the great ming military blog spot, another wonderful source, says these are essentially a kind of podao/pudao (朴刀) which looked like this

Now that blade looks a lot like baxia, but the handle is honestly too long. Donghua!baxia straddles the line between sword an polearm a little, but while zhanmadao have been used to refer to both long-handled swords and polerarms, this was undeniably a polearm, not a sword.

If you want to know what researching this was like, I found a picture of this blade on pinterest-- labeled as a "two-handed scimitar"-- and the comment section was filled with people arguing about whether this was a Pudao, Wudao, Zhanmadao, Dadao, Guandao, or a japanese Nagita.

So... that's how it was going. This has kept me up until 2 AM multiple times.

However! Thanks to this article on the great ming military blog I found out there have historically been pudao blades with shorter handles!

Specifically, Ming dynasty military writer Cheng Ziyi created a modified version of the pudao to work with the Dan Fao Fa Xuan technixues-- aka technqiues for a two-handed saber, which would alter heavily influence Miaodao swordmanship-- thereby, as the article points out, essentially merging the cleaver-polearm type Zhanmadao with the later two-handed japanese-inspired design.

This is the illustration for the Wu Bei Yao Lue (武備要略) a Ming dynasty military manual

This blade shape in the illustration doesn't match Baxia exactly, but since it's a lengthened Pudao-like blade and we've seen above that those can match Donghua Baxia's shape, i'm gonna say that calling Baxia a Zhanmadao with a two-handed grip isn't all that innacurate!

However, because all of these terms are so intertwined, there are a dozen other things you could call her that would be about equally correct.

To show that, here's a lightning round of other potential Baxia candidates:

Dadao (大刀)

Which are generally one-handed and too short. However!

Another youtube video i found of someone training with a Zhanmadao that resembles baxia a little also calls it a "shuangshoudai dao" (雙手带 刀) shuangshou means two-handed, and while 雙手带 seems to refer to a longer handled weapon, when looking for a shuangshou dao or shuangshou dadao (双手大刀) we find a lot more baxia-resembling blades like here and here

I also found that, while the cleaver-like Dadao is strictly a product of the 20th centuy, since dadao just means big sword or big knife, it has been used to refer to loads of different weapons! Some people could've called the zhanmadao and pudao "dadao" during the Ming dynasty as well.

Another potential baxia candidate that mandarin mansion classifies as similar to the later dadao (though longer, as seen in the illustration below) is the "Kuanren Piandao"

Which piqued my interest because this diagram classifying different tpye of Dao:

Claims that a Kuanrenbiandao (diferent spelling, same sword) is the same as a modern day Zhanmadao.

(So once again, all of these terms are interchangable)

Another opton Is the Chuanmeidao/Chuanweidao (船尾刀) below you can see a diagram, based on the Qing dynasty green standard army regulation, of blades all officially classified as types of "pudao"

The top middle is the Kuanren Piandao, and bottom left is the Chuanweidao.

Both of these have a lot of baxia-like qualities.

So there you go! live action baxia is based on a Nandao, audio drama baxia is based on a Niuweidao, and Manhua/donghua baxia is some kind of two-handed Zhanmadao/Pudao/Dadao depending on how you want to look at it.

I'm honestly surprised no one has made the creative decision to portray Baxia as a Jiuhuandao, aka 9 ringed broadsword yet.

I mean look at it! Incredibly imposing. Would make for a great Baxia imo. (@ upcoming mdzs manga and mobile game: take notes!)

[the-wintry-mizzenmast]

When a dao isn't just a dao 笛飞声的刀不只是刀

A quick and dirty analysis of Di Feisheng's dao

Following up from my previous post speculating about Di Feisheng's dao 刀, I think the configuration of Di Feisheng's dao is quite clever and consistent with his character, despite looking like nonsense at first glance. I know more taiji and kung-fu 刀 dao forms than I do 劍 jian forms, and this is what I choose to do with my knowledge and time, I guess.

Before I launch into his dao in particular, I think it's important that you understand what a dao is, and how you are supposed to attack and defend with one.

When you say 刀 dao (in English, it's also been called a Chinese saber or broadsword), this is what it's supposed to look like (I've annotated the image below from the Wikipedia entry on dao). They are by definition single-edged, and the majority are slightly curved (though there are some variants such as the Nandao 南刀 which are straight). A dao should have a point, a sharp edge (in red), and a blunt edge (in blue). The blunt edge (short edge, or inner edge, since the thing is curved) is usually quite thick.

One of the main ways that a dao does damage is through slashing/chopping motions, either down, sideways, or upwards (which my sifu always called uppercuts). All upwards slashes with the dao require that you turn your wrist so that the sharp edge, which usually faces down, faces upward instead.

The other way that a dao does damage is via forward thrusts, where the point of the dao is supposed to pierce enemy flesh. The basic attacks I've mentioned above are in the beginning of this clip, and I've added text to the original video below to highlight what's what and what they're supposed to look like.

(n.b. I was just randomly searching for videos to show what I'm trying to describe, no endorsement intended).

One of the things you'll notice from the above video as well is that the master is putting his hand on the blunt edge. This helps stabilize and give more power to the dao through its various motions, and is a basic part of how dao forms are supposed to work.

The blunt edge is also important because it helps in defense. One of the cardinal rules of a dao is that when you are defending, the dao should be kept close to your body, with the blunt edge facing your body. This is what a basic block looks like:

Should you get hit, you can brace the blunt edge of the blade using a shoulder or upper arm. In certain positions you can also use your hand as a brace on the blunt edge to stop (or execute) a particularly strong attack.

These are the dao basics. Now you have enough background to know what makes Di Feisheng's dao so unusual: it is double-edged, and it has a blunt tip.

These two things must follow if you have a dao that has two edges and is blunt at the tip:

You are limited to slash and chop attacks as your main blade damage. Thrust attacks won't penetrate flesh unless you have a serious amount of qi behind it.

Your defense is limited, because you can't use your dao to defend in the usual way.

But wait, does Di Feisheng's dao really have two full edges?

If you're a details guy like me, and completely obsessed over Di Feisheng (guilty as charged), you'll notice that one the edges of his dao doesn't actually extend the full length of the blade:

From the way that light reflects off the edges of his dao, you can see a bit on the short (inner) edge of the dao where the blade seems to transition from sharp to blunt:

And this shot, it's confirmed that there is a short blunt area on the inner edge of his dao:

In this memorable scene, Di Feisheng uses his hand against the very short blunt part of his dao to press his attack into Li Xiangyi's cheek:

One of the upsides of his unusual dao is also that he can use the inner edge for attacking as well. Upward sweeps using the inner edge aren't possible with usual daos (because they are blunt), but are possible with Di Feisheng's dao. I think we see an example of that here in the way you see his arm sweeping upward. (He has also added a substantial amount of qi to this sweeping strike, most of us plebs don't have enough qi to do anything like this.)

You can see how he gains some flexibility to his attacking capabilities, when he flips his blade mid-block into an attack:

While a double-edge gives him more adaptability in terms of attack on along the slashing and chopping edges of his dao, what he is losing out on because of the blunt end is thrust. You almost never see Di Feisheng thrust his dao forward because his sword just doesn't work like that.

In this final scene in the episode one fight when they are charging at each other, Li Xiangyi thrusts the Shaoshi Jian forward, but Di Feisheng, due to the design of the dao, has to slash:

However, most of the power of a dao is in its slashing and chopping motions. This is where the weight of the blade and its curved design (plus gravity and force) result in the most damage. Unlike the jian, the dao's thrusts do less damage. My conclusion about this is that it's a purposeful trade-off that Di Feisheng has made. He would rather maximize his offensive capabilities where they are strongest.

In terms of blocking, the design of Di Feisheng's dao means he's at a defensive disadvantage, since there's no blunt area to brace his body against for blocking (he can use his hand on the bit that is blunt, but because he has an edge along the rest of it, he can't use a shoulder or upper arm). This is a key feature of the standard dao that Di Feisheng's dao is missing.

In this move in the Battle of the Eastern Sea in episode 1, we see Di Feisheng execute a block, but he's got both of his hands along the hilt instead:

At this point, it should be noted that the standard dao is typically a one-handed weapon. The hilt is slightly curved, so you can get a good downwards chop with your wrist. There are other daos that have straight hilts and can be two-handed like the Miaodao 苗刀 (which is more similar to the Japanese katana 刀 than most Chinese folks like to admit). Di Feisheng's dao being straight-hilted and two-handed isn't that unusual because it's a feature that can be present on certain types of dao (it's way less unusual than the two edges!), but I thought it was worth pointing out in case any eagle-eyed readers noticed the difference between the Wikipedia image and what Di Feisheng has.

I could wax on about Di Feisheng's dao and his fighting style forever, but I think this thread has gone on for long enough.

I believe that the design of Di Feisheng's dao is very clever. At first glance, it seems utterly silly (what kind of dao has two edges?), but on deeper inspection of his style and how he uses it, it is consistent with his character.

He is always playing on Hard Mode because he is trading defense for more flexibility in his offense. And he is maximizing his offense where it is strongest (slashes and chops), and choosing to forego the offensive capabilities where it is weaker (thrusts).

...And that really is Di Feisheng's martial arts style in a nutshell, isn't it?

[kungfuwushuworld]

Nangun ana nandao 🔥🥰👊

[d-nobile]

UNSC The Heart of Midlothian (DD-366)

Today's ship of the day is the Halberd-class UNSC The Heart of Midlothian (DD-366) from Halo! 

Meta info: The ship was named for the seventh of Sir Walter Scott's "Waverly" Novels. It also shares its name with a football club based in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Canonical info: The most notable event in the ship's career was her hijacking by covenant forces near the human colony of Algolis. The objective of the Covenant's operation was to recover navigation data in order to locate human colonies to expand the scope of their campaign.

The ship was ultimately scuttled by ODST Michael Baird and the ship's on-board AI Mo Ye to deny the Covenant access to the navigation data.

Technical Specs:

Dimensions: 485 meters (Length)

Crew: 250 sailors, 50 marines

Armament: twin-linked MAC battery, 26 missile pods, 4 point defense guns, 3 nuclear missile silos

Compliment: F-29 Nandao aerospace fighters, 2 Pelican dropships

Propulsion system: Fusion engines

FTL method: Wormhole travel

Additional notes: The Halberd-class is used to represent the antagonist ship Staff of Charon in seasons 10, 12, and 13 of Red vs. Blue.

D's Thoughts: I love the Halberd-class. It's a beautiful ship. Sharp angles, and an aggressive profile make this an intimidating sight, which Red vs. Blue put to good use in the Season 10 episode 'Turbulence'. Also the Halberd-class is a favorite of my fiancee's, so this one's for you.

[justawanderingbabbit]

InkTober 23

"Doctor Yan?"

"And assistant, yes." The doctor glances around distastefully. "What sort of mess did you lot make this time?"

Mop shifts uncertainly. "It's not my fault." He's heard rumors about Doctor Yan. Heard that the man's tongue could be sharper than the razor sharp nandao he's never without. Heard he doesn't suffer fools gladly - and what is Mop but a fool?

"I'm not looking for explanations or excuses. I'm here to get your men out, preferably alive."

A swallow. "Yes. Yes, of course." Mop pauses, eyeing Doctor Yan's assistant. "And that...?"

"Hui. No need to be concerned about him. I'm the one who bites." Doctor Yan tilts his head, waiting for Mop to move.

Nervous, uncertain and damned grateful to Boss Xie for sending his best rescue service out to help, Mop leads the way back into the passage leading to the Purple Star Emperor's tomb. He doesn't know how Doctor Yan trained his assistant, but he can understand why.

After all, when a tunnel is filled with rocks and debris, sometimes the only thing that can get through is a rat.

---

Part of the Yan Sanxing survives agenda. I'll be putting this into the Fox!Yan Sanxing series when I get to the third 'book', where he's mostly on his own and keeping an eye on the Tomb Raider world without actually involving himself in it. Hui is part of a group of rats he trained to assist him in rescue missions and is inspired by real life rats.

Shading didn't come out as well as I'd like. I may rework that sometime.

[mnaasilveira]

Fanahy Masina Miasa

______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________ Nisy olon-tsy fantatra iray manodidina ny dimampolo taonany nanatona ahy tampoka, rehefa nandao ny sezako aho mba hilahatra ho amin’ny Kômonio ao ambadiky ny Fiangonana Dominikanina Saint Pius V, any Providence, RI — manerana ny Campus Providence College — ny 8 aogositra…

[aishavass]

"Customers may gain deep information about the market's competitive environment and current trends b

[asklordcaptaincastronova]

✍ + nandao

Anastasia picked up the nandao. Yet another sword type. Humanity produced so many. Or maybe it was "convergent design."

Either or.

[dariostelluti]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Dario Stelluti (@dariostelluti)

I’ve almost cut my hair in this Aerial 🤸🏻‍♂️🗡 my new barber is my Nandao 💇🏻‍♂️ #wushu #stuntman #sword #fight #martialarts #nandao #aerial #martialartsfitness #ninja #warrior #chinesemartialarts #martialartstraining #martialartslife #madeinchina #wayofmartialarts #coordination #jackiechan #jetli #workout #inspiration (presso D-Unit) https://www.instagram.com/p/BwW20rphg6y/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1vlf5dgle4cb5

[aikipilgrim]

Sometimes ya gotta blitz. Sometimes ya gotta bop. #nandao #whirlingdervish #swordonthedancefloor #swordskills #sacredmountainkungfu #kungfulifestyle #martialartslife #dancelikenobodyswatching #fleetfeet https://www.instagram.com/p/B15IrQDJtSa/?igshid=1rtbnll8ndd2q

[chobistudio]

【Wushu】7th World Wushu Championships (2003) Men's Nandao 4804 Tran Trong Tuan (Vietnam)

Men’s Nandao Gold Medalist

[alessandrolenzini]

Difendiamo il diritto dei bambini di divertirsi e giocare! Buona giornata e buon aprile #wushu #kungfu #shaolin #sciabola #sciaboladelsud #nandao #nanquan #pose #posture #broadsword #martialartkids #babywushu #wushukids #kungfukids #valtrighe #mapello #ternodisola #bonate #carvico #calusco #solza #chignolo #locate #presezzo #brembate #sottoilmonte #pontesanpietro #impararedivertendosi #sapersidifendere (presso Valtrighe) https://www.instagram.com/p/Bvs-LXEAJQr/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=kxebfwmphmk2

[the-spud-player]

My mdzs oc:

For this oc I've used the nie colours from the live action web series and the timeframe of the novel, since the timeframe of the animation is a little less clear cut, at least on the wiki. (I should clarify, paangoliin on twitter drew this for me as a commission, I'm just outlining the choices I made for my OC's design and background).

Nie Tianbao (courtesy name) he's 28 in the modern timeline. He participated in 1 battle towards the end of the sunshot campaign when he was around 14-15, (for a rule of thumb he's roughly the same age as mo xuanyu). His parents died in the sunshot campaign. He's the son of the cousin of nie mingjue/nie huisang's father, making them second cousins. His mother was a cultivator from the lan sect, she's the one that gave him his sanxian and taught him how to play. His teal sash on his belt is to remember her by.

After the seige of the burial mounds and studying in the cloud recess for half a year, he got into an argument with nie mingjue and left the clan (not long after jie mingjue succumbed to his qi deviation) becoming a rogue/wondering cultivator learning and developing other cultivation techniques and helping more people further away from the reach of the main cultivator clans, this is where he earned his title.

He's currently developing a way to use demonic cultivation on the spirits or undead corpses of beasts instead of humans, he's seen most success with using his sanxian (named jingxian). At the start of Wei wuxian's second life he's come back and nie mingjue has welcomed him as a guest cultivator of the clan for the time being.

He's quietly confident and a calming influence, is very relaxed when interacting with others, though he prides himself on his skill in battle, he's easily embarrassed when teased about his lack of skill with a bow, to make up for it, he uses his weighted chain for great effect. His birth name means crystal, and his courtesy name means maintain the peace, his title can be translated to the kind travelling dragon, a nod to his wondering nature to protect poor folk but his ferocity in fighting fierce corpses. His nandao's name means night mist, blazing Star is the name of his weighted chain and he named his sanxian peaceful chord. He always got along well with nie huisang, they often neglected training with their father and brother to practice the sanxian and practice art respectively. He also frankly, didn't understand the animosity of the cultivation world towards Wei wuxian since he was such a strong ally in the sunshot campaign, he never expressed it out loud however for fear or reproach by other cultivators, especially Jiang Cheng.

[kungfuwushuworld]

Nandao Girl 🔥🥰👊

[sarephic]

                                                      for     @hecrowned​​     ,     from     lonnie.

effortlessly     using     her     one     hand     to     flip     herself     over     the     lotus     bridge,     she     quickly     planted     her     feet     on     the     cement     to     strike     at     her     brother,     nandao    clashing     and     she     wondered     if     her     butterfly     knives     would’ve     been     a     better     choice     of     weapon     ---     applying     pressure     to     her     stance,     she     pushed     down,     knowing     that     anymore     weight     the     blades     would     slip     and     she’d     have     him     pinned,     not     that     she     didn’t     already.       “       你     输     了     !       ”       and     then     out     of     the     corner     of     her     eye     she     caught     a     glimpse     of     brown     locks,     standing     out     from     the     bed     of     obsidian     waves     ---     gaze     narrowed,       “       ben     ?       ”       and     then     her     brother     swept     his     foot     under     hers     and     back     was     flat     on     the     ground,     blade     aimed     at     her     chest     ---     she’d     lost.     but     she     wasn’t     so     concerned     anymore.     tripping     her     own     brother     in     revenge,     she     stuck     her     tongue     out     at     him     before     pushing     herself     up     and     running     towards     the     king,     dropping     her     weapon     and     wrapping     her     arms     around     him     in     tight     hug,       “       what     are     you     doing     here     !       ”       pulling     back,     she     quickly     ruffled     through     his     hair,     poking     his     ribs.