Warriors of Ancient Ba Tribe

The temperature of smelting must be well controlled. So must the proportion of metals in the alloy The casting must be done by skillful craftsmen. After it was processed, it was sharpened. It could split plates, jars and other sacrificial vessels of bronze.

Long ago, the fiery molten liquid rushed and gathered in the same way as we seen today.

One day 2,000 years ago, the warriors seemed to see the spirits inscribed on the edge of swords at last. The tigers revived this day.

Today it is noticed that most of the excavated bronze swords each measure around 40 centimeters long except the particularly short ones. The broken edges of the swords indicate that they were used for fighting instead of throwing. This map describes the situation of the Warring States Period. At that time, the two states of Qin and Chu near Ba were very powerful. This is a sword used by Qin warriors, which measures almost one metre long. These are Chu and Ba swords. When the three types of swords are placed together, it is clear that the Ba sword is the shortest. In the age of steel, the length of weapons and their killing power were in direct proportion. We wonder why the Ba cast such short swords?

Guan Weiliang:

Characteristically the Ba people were brave and good at fighting. They dared to fight hand-to-hand. So they sought the killing power of swords, not their length.

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The unique structure and shape of the willow-leafed bronze sword ensures its killing power. The main body of the sword is three-squared (what does three-squared mean?). The central ridge is raised rather high and the grooves are rather deep. Researchers believe that this particular structure provides the strongest killing power. Were these warriors as skillful as the ancient Roman gladiators in the use of short swords? When fighting hand-to-hand, long and heavy weapons are useless. For warriors living amid gorges and jungles, short swords are handier.

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So far, the actual images of the Ba warriors are still unclear to us. Everything about them remains a mystery. Apart from the bronze weapons, no complete set of remains has been found for archeological study. However, research continues.