A polearm or pole weapon is a close combat weapon in which the main fighting part of the weapon is fitted to the end of a long shaft, typically of wood, extending the user's effective range and striking power. Polearms are predominantly melee weapons, with a subclass of spear-like designs fit for thrusting and/or throwing. Because many polearms were adapted from agricultural implements or other fairly abundant tools, and contained relatively little metal, they were cheap to make and readily available. When belligerents in warfare had a poorer class who could not pay for dedicated military weapons, they would often appropriate tools as cheap weapons. The cost of training was comparatively low, since these conscripted farmers had spent most of their lives using these "weapons" in the fields. This made polearms the favoured weapon of peasant levies and peasant rebellions the world over.
A spear is a pole weapon consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with fire hardened spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fastened to the shaft, such as bone, flint, obsidian, copper, bronze, iron, or steel. The most common design for hunting and/or warfare, since ancient times has incorporated a metal spearhead shaped like a triangle, diamond, or leaf. The heads of fishing spears usually feature multiple sharp points, with or without barbs.
Yari (槍) is the term for a traditionally-made Japanese blade in the form of a spear, or more specifically, the straight-headed spear. The martial art of wielding the yari is called sōjutsu.
The wodao is a Chinese sword from the Ming dynasty and Qing dynasty. It is typically long and slender, but heavy, with a curved back and sharp blade. It bears a strong resemblance to the Tang sword, zhanmadao, Tachi or Odachi in form. Extant examples show a handle approximately 25.5 cm (10.0 in) long, with a gently curved blade 80 cm (31 in) long.
The traditions of Korean bladesmithing and swordsmanship have served a central place in the military history of Korea for thousands of years. Although typical Korean land battles have taken place in wide valleys and narrow mountain passes, which favor use of spears and bows, the sword found use as a secondary, close-quarters weapon, in addition to far more prominent role during sieges and ship-to-ship boarding actions. Higher quality, ceremonial swords were typically reserved for the officer corps as a symbol of authority with which to command the troops. Ceremonial swords are still granted to military officials by the civilian authority to this day.
The ji was a Chinese polearm, sometimes translated into English as spear or halberd, though they are fundamentally different weapons. They were used in one form or another for over 3000 years, from at least as early as the Zhou dynasty, until the end of the Qing dynasty. They are still used for training purposes in many Chinese martial arts.
Commissioned in 1790 by King Jeongjo, the Muyedobotongji expanded on the eighteen weapons systems identified in the Muyeshinbo of 1758.
Sibat is the Filipino word for spear, used as a weapon or tool by natives of the Philippines. The term is used in Tagalog and Kinaray-a. It also called bangkaw, sumbling or palupad in the islands of Visayas and Mindanao; and budjak among Muslim Filipinos in western Mindanao and the Sulu Archipelago.
The Muyejebo is the oldest extant Korean martial arts manual, compiled by Han Gyo (韓嶠) in 1598 during the reign of King Seonjo. With the addition of material from Japanese martial arts, a supplement, Sequel to the Book of Martial Arts (무예제보번역속집), compiled by Choi Ki-nam, was published in 1610.
The Jixiao Xinshu or New Treatise on Military Efficiency is a military manual written during the 1560s and 1580s by the Ming dynasty general Qi Jiguang. Its primary significance is in advocating for a combined arms approach to warfare using five types of infantry and two type of support. Qi Jiguang separated infantry into five separate categories: firearms, swordsmen, archers with fire arrows, ordinary archers, and spearmen. He split support crews into horse archers and artillery units. The Jixiao Xinshu is also one of the earliest-existing East Asian texts to address the relevance of Chinese martial arts with respect to military training and warfare. Several contemporary martial arts styles of Qi's era are mentioned in the book, including the staff method of the Shaolin temple.
Over time, various types of Korean spears have developed and evolved. The designs are similar to those of spears found elsewhere in Asia and the world, as much due to a process of convergent evolution as to external influence.
The gichang is a Korean weapon which is first described in the Muyesinbo, a Korean martial arts manual published in 1759. It later also found its way into the Muyedobotongji (1791).
The rattan shield was used by the militaries of China and Korea since the Ming dynasty and the Joseon dynasty, respectively. The Chinese general Qi Jiguang described its use in his book, the Jixiao Xinshu, which was reproduced in the Korean Muyejebo that contains the first Korean account of the shield.
The Wubei Zhi, also commonly known by its Japanese translated name Bubishi, is a military book in Chinese history. It was compiled in 1621 by Mao Yuanyi, an officer of waterborne troops in the Ming dynasty. The Wubei Zhi contains 240 volumes, 10,405 pages, and more than 200,000 Chinese characters.
Listed here are the weapons of pencak silat. The most common are the machete, staff, kris, sickle, spear, and kerambit. Because Southeast Asian society was traditionally based around agriculture, many of these weapons were originally farming tools.
Volley fire, as a military tactic, is the concept of having soldiers shoot in the same direction en masse. In practice, it often consists of having a line of soldiers all discharge their weapons simultaneously at the enemy forces on command, known as "firing a volley", followed by more lines of soldiers repeating the same manoeuvre in turns. This is usually to compensate for the inaccuracy, slow rate of fire, limited effective range and stopping power of individual weapons, which often requires a massed saturation attack to be effective. The volley fire, specifically the musketry volley technique, requires lines of soldiers to step to the front, fire on command and then march back into a column to reload, while the next row repeats the same process.
Mughal weapons significantly evolved during the ruling periods of its various rulers. During its conquests throughout the centuries, the military of the Mughal Empire used a variety of weapons including swords, bows and arrows, horses, camels, elephants, some of the world's largest cannons, muskets and flintlock blunderbusses.
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. Dagger-axes were originally a short slashing weapon with a 0.9–1.8 m long shaft, but around the 4th century BC a spearhead was added to the blade, and it became a halberd. The spear is also sometimes called a mao (矛), which is sometimes used to designate polearms with a wavy snake-like spearhead. There was another polearm weapon known as the pi (鈹), translated into English as either sword-staff or long lance, that was used from ancient times until the Han dynasty. It was essentially a short sword attached to a stick. From the Warring States period onward, the length of Chinese polearms varied from around 2.8–5.5 m, however there is no specific designation for a pike in the traditional Chinese lexicon. A very long spear is just called a long spear.
A kudi or kudhi is a bladed tool from Banyumas, Indonesia.
Tàizǔquán is a style of Chinese martial arts whose name refers to Emperor Tàizǔ of Sòng, the founder of the Sòng dynasty.
