Reconstructing the Hanwei Pudao Part I: Building a beast

It’s difficult to find a historically accurate Guandao for practice, unless you’re willing to fork out the big bucks to have someone make you one by hand. In this video, I talk about converting the Hanwei pudao into a reasonably accurate late-Ming style zhanmadao 斬馬刀, a good stand in for a Guandao. It's a beast of a polearm!

For more information on historical Guandao, check out my video “What is a Guandao? Part I: Shape, length, and weight”:
   • What is a Guandao? Part I: Shape, Length, ...  

Secretly Transmitted Methods of the Guandao is my series for discussing all things Guandao. The Guandao is a weapon that has been used in Chinese martial arts for several centuries. It is a pole weapon with a large crescent blade at one end and a spike at the other end. I examine the Guandao from the perspectives of traditional and historical martial arts, history, performance, and religion.

Plugs:

Chad Ironmonger on zhanmadao
   • SwordLab: Response to Metatron- Chinese lo...  
   • The Zhan Ma Dao resurrected! LK Chen Review.  
https://tplafightingwords.com/2022/03...
Skullagrim’s reviews of the Hanwei pudao
   • A problem with the Hanwei pudao  
   • My Opinion of Hanwei (Swords and Polearms)  
Scholar Gladiatoria on floppy swords
   • The Problem with MASSIVE FLOPPY SWORDS  

Texts:

Cheng Zi Yi 程子頤. Wubei yaolüe 武備要畧. 1632.
Available at Wikimedia commons: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...
The Guandao form is from juan 8.14-21.

Zheng Dayu 鄭大郁. Jing guo xiong lüe經國雄略 (Ambitious Strategies of Statecraft). Longwu tanyang wang jiejue guan she, 1645.
Available from the Curiosity Collections of Harvard Library:
https://curiosity.lib.harvard.edu/chi...
The physical specs of guandao are on seq. 1725 (p.5.7a of 武備攷); the guandao form is on seq. 1684 – 1691 (p.4.1-8 of 武備攷)
This text is also available from Library of Congress: https://www.loc.gov/item/2012402644/ (Guandao is starting Image 1 of Volume 43 https://www.loc.gov/resource/lcnclscd... )