Talk:Miao dao

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I'm currently going through the print and online writings of Philip Tom, Scott Rodell, and others to get more hard info about the miaodao; in the meantime I've deleted the debate over Japanese influence (irrelevant to an early 20th century sword, and the general topic has been covered in other Chinese sword articles) and clarified that this is a historically recent sword (which I believe the previous edit was trying to state). Ergative rlt 02:38, 5 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] The name

When I was learning the sword, I was told the name meant "young rice shoot", or something like; the sword being curved like the shoot. I've no reference for this. — Johan the Ghost _seance 15:13, 9 July 2006 (UTC)

That sounds odd. "Miao" is a generic name for various minority groups in southern china, thus I suspect it really means "as used by those minority people". Note that this sword style is rather recent, and differs from older, more typical Chinese style weapons. Fittingly, swords of Tibetan style are called "Zang Dao (藏刀)", where "Zang" is Tibet. -- Ledrug 23:50, 14 July 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Changdao?

The article on the Changdao says that Miao dao is a mistaken term for it. It doesn't say anything about such being a real weapon. I think one page is in need of, if not correcting, at least clarification.

Using miaodao to refer to changdao is a mistake, but the miaodao was/is a real weapon, albeit one that postdates the changdao. The changdao article only mentions the confusion between the two weapons, and says nothing about the miaodao itself being nonexistent. Ergative rlt 01:27, 22 January 2007 (UTC)

Is it a mistake? According to this article, 'miaodao' was just a new name for 'changdao', whereas the changdao page says that the miaodao is a different sword. Did more than just the name change? Niten 21:30, 26 September 2007 (UTC)

From what I've heard, the Miao Dao is a modern variant of the Changdao, very similar but not necessarily completely identical. --Aldis90 —Preceding unsigned comment added by Aldis90 (talk • contribs) 00:34, 12 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Name?

The article currently has two (well, three) explanations for the name "miaodao". First it says it comes from "sprout", and that 'miao' should not be confused with the Miao people. Later it says that it either comes from a grain leave, or from the Miao people. Does 'grain leave' mean 'grain leaf/sprout'? Anyway, the two sections should be merged. Niten 21:29, 26 September 2007 (UTC)