Philip Tom has provide some wonderful insight and references in to these swords in years past including provenance'd examples dating to 1762.
These swords were mainly swords for Taoism exorcism and also those of the ruling gentry, dating back far earlier in the single form.
I do have somewhere on file, a 19th century line drawing of a Taoist priest using these swords for ritual exorcism.
Gavin
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