Iron mace head

 This a rather odd item. It is a Chinese mace head of archaic form. Date of manufacture is uncertain, but given the extent of the patination, I would say that it is not a recent item. I am not aware of other examples that would help to date it. It could be from the Qing dynasty or it could conceivably be much, much earlier. Surprisingly, it is made of cast iron, a material which is notoriously brittle and unsuitable for tool or weapon manufacture. The picture below shows some damage, the most likely cause of this is that the points have chipped off due to impact damage. Possibly suggesting that this mace head has been used to strike with.

Chinese iron mace head of archaic form

Why would a mace head be made in an unsuitable material like cast iron? Well, one can only wonder, perhaps it was a test piece? perhaps it was a decorative item? Whatever the reason, it is a very nicely made item, and much time and care has gone into its manufacture.

Oblique view showing arrangement of 'panels' and points

Irrespective of why it was made, it stands on its own as an inherently beautiful sculptural item.

View through the eye of the mace head

It weighs 360g. It is 60mm in diameter and 40mm tall. The eye is almost perfectly circular, 27mm in diameter. The head would have been mounted on a wooden haft.

 For comparison of form, bronze mace head.

 Reference: ' Zhong Guo Gu Dai Leng Bing Qi'  -  ISBN 978-7-807040-220-6

Bronze mace head

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.

Chinese wooden axe head

This antique wooden axe head is a substantial item, it weighs 1.4 kg and measures 560mm [22'] across.

Originally, this would have been fitted to a short haft, or given the large size of it, it may well have been fitted to a long shaft to make a pole arm. A decorative piece, possibly used for feng shui in a building, possibly used as a prop in Chinese opera. Made of carved hardwood with a thick red-brown lacquer finish:

The motif is Yazi, the seventh son of the Dragon. He is always described as being bloodthirsty and ferocious and so has long been associated with Chinese weaponry.

Yazi, the seventh Son of the Dragon

This particular Yazi is slightly unusual because it has a a fish-like body and tail.....similar to Chiwen, the second son of the Dragon, who has a fishes body and tail but no horns. Also interesting is the snout of this Yazi, which appears to be a long thin proboscis curled in a tight downward-pointing spiral.