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A guan dao (關刀, Pin Yin guān dāo) is a type of Chinese pole weapon that is currently used in some Chinese wu shu. It is an ornate version of a plainer Chinese weapon known as a long handled sabre or horsecutter and consists of a heavy blade mounted atop a 5-6 foot long wooden pole with a pointed metal counter weight used to balance the heavy blade and for striking on the opposite end. The blade is very deep and curved on its face; this resembles a Chinese sabre or the Japanese naginata and bisento, or the European glaive and voulge. Often times it will have the edge come to a point on the top for thrusting. The reverse has a spike used for hooking and dismounting victims. In addition there are sometimes irregular serrations that lead the back edge of the blade to the spike. Usually a red sash or tassel is attacked at the joint of the pole and blade. Variations of the theme include having rings along the length of the straight back edge (9 ring guan dao), having the tip curl into a rounded spiral (elephant guan dao) or just being ornate in general (dragon head guan dao).
History
The guan dao (or Guan's big knife/sword) is said to have been invented by the famous general Guan Yu during the early 3rd century AD. As he was a large man, he could wield a very large weapon and developed the guan dao to be a versatile tool. While it could be used from horseback, it could be used by infantry as anti-personnel and anti-cavalry. While it was said that general Guan's original guan dao weighed between 100 and 200lbs, modern guan dao which have been adopted by the martial artists usually weigh between 5 and 20lbs.
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