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The dagger-axe (Chinese: 戈; pinyin: gē; Wade–Giles: ko) is a type of polearm that was in use from the Longshan culture until the Han dynasty in China. [1] It consists of a dagger -shaped blade, mounted by its tang to a perpendicular wooden shaft. The earliest dagger-axe blades were made of stone. Later versions used bronze.
The three most common types of Chinese polearms are the ge (戈), qiang (槍), and ji (戟). They are translated into English as dagger-axe, spear, and halberd. [1] Dagger-axes were originally a short slashing weapon with a 0.9–1.8 m (2 ft 11 in – 5 ft 11 in) long shaft, but around the 4th century BC a spearhead was added to the blade, and it became a halberd.
Ji. (polearm) Eastern Zhou bronze ji. The ji (pronunciation: [tɕì], English approximation: / dʒiː / jee, Chinese: 戟; pinyin: jǐ) was a Chinese polearm, sometimes translated into English as spear [1] or halberd, [2] though they are conceptually different weapons. They were used in one form or another for over 3000 years, from at least as ...
Emperor Jing of Han (r. 157–141 BC) set up 36 government pastures in the northwest to breed horses for military use and sent 30,000 slaves to care for them. By the time Emperor Wu of Han (r. 9 March 141 BC – 29 March 87 BC) came to power, the Han government had control over herds of roughly 300,000 horses, which increased to over 450,000 ...
[8] Iron weapons also gave Chinese armies an edge over barbarians. Han Fei recounts that during a battle with the Gonggong (共工) tribe, "the iron-tipped lances reached the enemy, and those without strong helmets and armour were injured." [9] The effectiveness of bronze axes and shields may have been superseded by new iron weaponry and armor. [9]
Weapons carried on the chariot consisted of close-combat and long range weapons. The most important close-combat weapon aboard the chariot was the dagger-axe or gē (戈), a weapon with a roughly three-meter shaft. At the end of the double-headed device there was a sharp dagger on one side and an axe head on the other. [17]
The ancient dagger-axe (ge) made of bronze was still used by Han soldiers, although it was gradually phased out by iron spears and iron ji halberds. [27] Even arrowheads, which were traditionally made of bronze, gradually only had a bronze tip and iron shaft, until the end of the Han when the entire arrowhead was made solely of iron. [27]
Though the weapon saw frequent use in ancient China, the use of the dagger-axe decreased dramatically after the Qin and Han dynasties. The ji combines the dagger axe with a spear. By the post-classical Chinese dynasties, with the decline of chariot warfare, the use of the dagger-axe was almost nonexistent.