Damarcusart comments on Chinese crescent-tipped maces, 18th-19th century

[–] Damarcusart@hexbear.net 4 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Oh yep. Should probably read the comments before just commenting myself.

I wonder if they were a little experimental because the Qing were trying to modernise their military and largely failing at it, so there could've been a lot of experimental weapons they were testing to see if it would give them an advantage?

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[–] Tervell@hexbear.net [S] 4 points 2 days ago (2 children)

I think this wasn't really a military weapon, more of a police/civilian thing. The Qing modernization attempts were mostly copying Western military methodology, although I guess that was more towards the 1900s so before that they may have tried some weirder stuff

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[–] Damarcusart@hexbear.net 4 points 2 days ago (1 child)

Yeah, it's an era I wouldn't really associate with a lot of experimentation, more just trying to emulate the west, though I don't really know a whole lot about the Qing in the 18th century, so I don't know how useful something like this might've been. If there aren't really a lot of them and they aren't written about much, it's probably a sign that they weren't really useful beyond some niche cases.

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[–] Tervell@hexbear.net [S] 4 points 2 days ago

The ones which are just a regular rod, without a fancy head, do actually have a decent amount of examples, and the Okinawan variety, the sai, is one of the weapons in their traditional martial arts. So those at least are well-attested to.

This crescent-head one was perhaps someone trying to iterate on the concept and add some extra hooking and/or striking opportunities, but it seems like it didn't catch on.

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