Chinese dadao

[Yu-Ming Chang]

Hello,

This being my first post here, I'll try to make a good impression by not making any tired jokes about you guys being gentle with me

I was wondering if anyone could help me with what is probably a fairly trivial bit of dating. It has been over a year since I bought this piece, but only recently (when I tried to sell it on E-bay during a fit of monetary concerns) have I really paid any attention to it. As far as I can tell it is a typical Boxer rebellion dadao, or perhaps it is of later manufacture circa WWII/Civil War. In anycase, the dadao has an inscription at the guard on one side and an engraved flower on the other (Pics below). The translation of the characters are a little problematic for me: nan giang he cun. The individual characters mean South/Southern, Strength/Force/Rebel, Combine, Village. So I'm translating is it pretty much as United Southern Strength. Of course He Cun may be the actual name of a village.

Does this slogan sound familiar to anyone; can we use it to date the age of the dao? Also what is the significance of the flower engraving?

I did post this question at another forum so I apologize if some people get hit with this twice.

[RhysMichael]

Welcome to the forum. I know next to nothing about Dao so I fear I am no help here but there are people on the forum knowledgeable on these so I am sure they will see this and answer

[Mark]

Hey, that's a nice piece. The blade looks a lot more refined and graceful that what my mental image of a dadao. I have always wanted a dadao, so let me know if you have another fit of monetary concerns .

Zip actual information for me, too. Hopefully Philip or Scott will help out. They don't pop up here very much anymore, though. If you haven't already, post something in the Chinese forum on SFI. That's pretty active in this area, so you should at least get a lot of opinions.

[Yu-Ming Chang]

Thanks for the welcome!