Striking with jian

Chinese jian are single-handed forged steel weapons that were used both for offence and defence.

Jian

The top jian [cf. Japanese sai ] is lozenge-shaped in cross section and the bottom one is square.

The orientation of the guard suggests that it was used to strike with the arris [edge] rather than the flat face of the blade. This approach would be likely to cause more damage as the impact energy would be concentrated along the arris [left pic above], whereas striking with the flat face would cause the energy to be dissipated over the larger area of the flat face [right pic above].

From this it would follow that the most effective way of using any such jian is to strike with the sharp arris. The following examples though, have cross sections which are rectangular [above] and circular [below]. Octagonal cross sections are also found.

These do not have a sharp arris to inflict damage but were no doubt still very effective as testified by the  many antique examples still in existence.