Guandao

The guandao is a Chinese polearm consisting of a long, curved, single-edged blade mounted on a heavy wooden or metal shaft, its documented military and martial-arts use in the historical and textual record dating chiefly to the Song dynasty of the tenth through thirteenth centuries. Chinese popular tradition retroactively attributes the weapon to the earlier Han-dynasty general Guan Yu, whose legendary weapon of choice gave the type its common name, but historians of Chinese arms note that the guandao as an actual fielded and documented weapon form postdates Guan Yu's own lifetime by many centuries. Heavy and requiring considerable strength and training to wield effectively, the guandao was used both as an infantry weapon against cavalry and, in later Chinese history, as a training and demonstration weapon in traditional martial arts and military examinations, a role in which stylized guandao forms survive into the present day.