Warriors of Ancient Ba Tribe

Guan Weiliang (Professor, History Department, Chongqing Normal College):

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.

From a painting of ancient Rome, we see Roman soldiers fighting with short swords. In their fighting career, their short swords were inseparable from their strong physique, courage and valour. From them we can probably visualize the figures of the Ba people in ancient times.

The fighters had to be extremely bold, strong and quick in hand-to-hand fighting. The Ba swords probably embodied the gallantry of the Ba people who defied the danger of death and fought to live.

Most of the willow-leaf-shaped swords of the Ba style unearthed in various places are 30-40 centimetres long. A shorter sword is only 20 centimetres long and looks like a dagger. Quite a large number of such swords have been unearthed. Archaeologists have found that most of the longer bronze swords have broken edges, but the edges of dagger-shaped swords are still complete and very sharp. This is another sign of the great bravery of the Ba people.

Guan Weiliang: Short swords were thrown like darts we play today.

Wang Jiayou (Research Fellow, Sichuan Provincial Museum):

It was certainly a weapon to be thrown. According to the book 鈥淭he Story of Sima Xiangru鈥 they were like darts thrown at targets, different from those on the Central Plains.

The Ba people鈥檚 weapons made over 2,000 years ago attained a fairly high level of alloy composition and smelting technology.

Dong Yawei (Director, Cultural Relics Reconstruction and Reproduction Research Institute, Ezhou Museum, Hubei Province):