Interesting Chinese Jian sword

[RSWORD]

I had a bit of spare time today and with the ease of loading pictures onto this new site, I thought I would share a couple of pieces that are not too commonly encountered. The first for this post is an interesting Chinese Jian. The unusual features of this piece is that the handle and the entire scabbard are carved wood and not something commonly encountered. The second is the quality of the mounts on the hilt. After viewing so many poorly cast fittings on all the new stuff coming out of China, it is good to have an example of good casting to make comparisons. The blade is an early one and has great metallurgical details. Comments or questions?

[Mark]

Beautiful. If I didn't collect dha, I would definately be collecting jian (or yatagan ... or keris ... or ...). I love the detail in the fittings.

[wilked aka Khun Deng]

I've been eyeballing the jians over at Chinese Arms website as I really liked their refurbished jians. I thought those were top grade but they don't seem to have the depth of casting or the carving that yours do. I absolutely love the grain in that blade, something dhas don't give you. Well now that I've seen quality I won't be satisfied with less.

[Jim McDougall]

Rick,
An absolutely stunning example of Chinese jian ! These were the ultimate fencing swords in China, and typically carried and use only by officers and the elite. It is interesting that these were also favored by Taoists because of the extreme finesse enabled in fencing with them, avoiding the overall brutality of the more familiar and heavier dao often used generally by martial groups. Also especially interesting is the pommel which carries the symbol of the eight trigrams. Many of the large 'da dao' ring pommel sabres have this symbol engraved on the blade and are associated with the BaGwa rebellion of 1813. This was a large scale uprising of various religious sects of the 'Millenarian religion' hoping to unseat the Qing rulers. Among the groups were secret societies such as the White Lotus and various 'triad' groups.

Much of the doctrine and teachings of these were literary and maintained by scholars, and it has been noted that the jian was highly favored by scholars. The jian itself is included as one of the eight auspicious symbols of Taoism.
It would be interesting to know if this example may be early enough to have been possibly carried by a well heeled Taoist scholar during these times.
As always, I would defer to Philip Tom for more conclusive observations and corrections as required.
Beautiful sword Rick!!!
All the best,
Jim

[Battara]

I had the fortune of handling this piece and the detailed work is exquisite. It felt good in the hand and well balanced. Impressive piece (and I'm not usually interested in Chinese pieces).

[John]

Nice looking Jian but must acknowledge I know very little about them although there's a fair bit of interest. Provenanced Jians from private collections posted at forums seems to be so few and far in between.

Here's a Jian (with the 7 "stars") which I know next to nothing about except that it has been in the hands of the last owner for the past 10 years. The metal decorations of the scabbard/handle appear to be covered with white and red coating which I have had difficulty removing.