Chapter 67 Martial Arts Research Institute 2

"Pō knife", "ciyuan" is a narrow and short knife. The Chinese Dictionary is a knife with a narrow body and a short handle. Use with both hands. This weapon has appeared repeatedly in popular literary and artistic works of the Song and Yuan dynasties (examples will be given below), but it is not seen in the records of the General of Martial Arts compiled by Zeng Gongliang and others in the Song Dynasty. The book says: "The difference between knives is that there are commonly used in the army. During this period, the fighters competed with different systems to show themselves, so the road has the names of peace, fixed me, facing the sky, opening the array, partial knives, knives and daggers. If it is dropped, there is a two-edged mountain character system, which should be small, so it is not recorded. The book introduces eight kinds of knives. Including falling knife, bending knife, happy ear knife, moon mask knife, halberd knife, eyebrow tip knife, phoenix mouth knife, pen knife. It is not as good as Pu Dao, which shows that military scientists do not regard it as a real weapon. It is just a crude weapon that is popular among the people and cannot be elegant. Song people made a detailed explanation of the shape of this "knife":

March edict of the eighth year of Renzong Tiansheng (1030): "Chuanxia Road shall not build trousers knives in the future, and violators will be dismissed according to the rules." In May, Chen Guan said, "With a trouser knife and sticking on the head, it is called 'drill the knife'; the one with a short wooden handle is called a 'knife'. And you can wear trousers.' She Dao is a daily tool for folk use. The rivers and mountains are dangerous. This knife is used to open mountains and farm fields, which is called slash-and-burning. If there is a case of prohibition, it is harmful to farming, and I am afraid that it will not be banned, and the people will offend the masses. From now on, please use the trouser knife to ban the weapons and release the agricultural weapons. Yes, please. ( See 185 volumes of Song Hui's manuscript

It can be seen from Chen Guan's words that another name of the knife is "pants knife", which can be hung on the waist of the trousers. It is extremely simple, and the short handle is used for "slashing and fire", which is a farm tool. If you install a long handle, it is a "pu knife", no wonder it can't be used in the "General of Wujing". The common people use it as a frequently used weapon because it is easy to get and cheap. The knife can be used by both soldiers and farmers, so it is impossible to completely ban it. The simple knife is a short knife head and a long knife handle. The blade has no sheath, and the long knife handle can be removed from the knife head and used as a rod. This is described in detail in the Water Margin. In 61 times, when Lu Junyi went to Shandong to prepare for the battle with Liangshan heroes: Lu Junyi took out a simple knife and put it on the pole. The three maids fastened their cars and rushed to Liangshan to park on the road.

The "pu knife" here is just a knife head, with a screw in the handle, a screw at one end of the rod, and "three maids" installed and very strong. The Pu knife is written in many places in the Water Margin, from which we can see that it is very long and usually not used, so it leans against the wall or gun rack like a long gun. "The rod" "ciyuan" works as a thick wooden stick as a weapon. The Chinese Dictionary plays a role as a wooden stick for weapons. Although the General of the Book of Martial Arts is recorded, the introduction is very simple, saying that "long and strong" is the stick. It is more simple, according to the records of the Song people:

On May 13 of the second year of Jianyan (1128), Cheng Changbi, a prison official on Jingdong West Road, said: "There are few military weapons between Jinzhou and counties. Begging Zhuzhou and counties choose the local tough wood, with a wide range of sticks, and its long body can be grasped. If you don't work far away, you can do it at any time. Compared with bows and crossbows, there is no ability to pull; compared with swords, there is no exercise project. If you use it as a royal iron horse, it will go out to the right, and the iron horse will be harmful if it is not an arrow to chisel the blade. From that. ( See 185 volumes of Song Hui's Manuscripts)

This was a helpless choice when the Northern Song Dynasty just perished. Because there was no storage in the state and county armory, I had no choice but to use a stick (called "stick" in the article). It is "long and equal, and can be grasped", which is very easy to take. This kind of weapon with rough texture is simple to make and the value of raw materials is also very low, so it is usually only popular among the people and is not valued by soldiers. From these records, it can be seen that the Song Dynasty court's control of weapons was particularly strict with those that were exquisite, sharp and more lethal. On the one hand, simple knives and sticks are relatively crude, and indispensable in people's daily life; on the other hand, they are not weapons for fighting on horseback, but for walking and fighting, with little lethality, which is not included in the Book of Martial Arts, so they adopt an attitude of opening one eye and closing one eye to the people's possession of these weapons. They are forbidden from time to time, and lack a consistent system. . Song History · Bingzhi Eleven records the emperor's edict in the second year of Emperor Renzong Jingyou of the Northern Song Dynasty (1035): "Guangnan people do not need to put a knife, and the offender will forge people and forge people with a private prohibition of military law theory." First of all, Lingnan holds a knife for the thief, and the cane is light and cannot be forbidden. Therefore, it is an order.

Pu Dao appeared in the Song Dynasty and was widely used around the late Qing Dynasty. Some people think that long weapons were not allowed to be preserved by the people at that time, so some people changed the big knife to a short simple knife and added a handle during the battle. The Song Dynasty prohibited the people from possessing weapons. Song Hui's manuscript said that the "pants knife", that is, the knife hanging on the trousers, cannot be banned because of people's daily needs, so the simple knife can become the only legal folk weapon.

Therefore, in Water Margin, descriptions of heroes using simple knives can be seen everywhere. As far as its origin is concerned, it is more in line with historical reality than shortening the handle of the big knife to meet the needs of close combat. This kind of simple knife is mostly used by the people, but in the Qing Dynasty, it was made an exception to include the designated weapons of the army.

The total length of the simple knife is about 1.5 meters to 1.5 meters. Its blade is longer than that of the big knife, accounting for about half of the total length. It can be chopped, stabbed, cut, and there are many tricks. Martial proverb says: "A single knife looks at the hand, a double knife looks at the hand, and a big knife looks at the hand." When practicing a simple knife, the knife is like a tiger, and the back and blade are clear. If you use any trick, you must hold your hands fixedly. Because Pu Dao is widely used, it is a commonly used weapon for people who travel around the world.

Pu Dao began to be widely used around the end of the Qing Dynasty. During the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, many people in the Taiping Army used simple knives, also known as "Taiping knives".

These simple knives are drawings written by Li Zhong, which are required to be cast by Zheng Hun and Ma Jun. Of course, this is a weapon prepared for the iron knife guard. Li Zhong has made great modifications to this knife. It can be said that he can no longer be called a Pu knife, but Li Zhong did not come up with any good name for a while, so he had to use this name. That's it. On the contrary, this is not a weapon to be used by the whole army, so there is no need to exaggerate it, as long as it is easy to use.

"Lord, 201 Pu Dao has been made according to your drawings. First, it is in the warehouse. Please come down." Li Zhong nodded and then followed Zheng Hun to the warehouse.

"Lord, this is the simple knife that the Lord ordered me to cast." When he came to the treasury, Zheng Hun went to a corner and picked up a knife and handed it to Li Zhong. Li Zhong looked at the knife and was very sharp. The knife handle was longer than the ordinary knife. Li Zhong nodded with satisfaction and said to Guan Hai, "Bo Yong, look at this knife." From Li Zhong He carefully took the Pu Dao in his hand, and Guan Hai immediately started to play. Li Zhong was also very satisfied with this. It is estimated that Guan Hai's current martial arts skills have been much better than before, Li Zhong thought to himself.