Qiang (Chinese Spear)

The qiang is the Chinese term for the spear, a leaf-bladed weapon usually finished with a red horsehair tassel below the blade, and one of the most common weapons on the pre-modern Chinese battlefield. Lengths ranged from roughly eight to twenty feet, and Ming dynasty military writers classified shorter versions for close combat and longer versions for extended reach against infantry and cavalry. Alongside the staff, the saber and the straight sword, the spear was counted among what Chinese martial tradition calls the four major weapons, sometimes styled the king of weapons for its ubiquity.