Additional information about 戟
說文解字:
- Criteria
- SAW
1. General term for a saw is jù4 鋸. It can be made of bronze, and since the Warring States period of iron. Saw was used not only like a working implement, but also for mutilating punishments (the oldest evidence dates the Shang period: REFERENCES TO BE FOUND). Besides this, in the Warring States period, the word was in the state of Yan used for a kind of weapon otherwise known as jǐ 戟 (combination of the gē 戈 halberd with a spearhead).
- Word relations
- Object: (LANCE)持/HOLD
The most current general and neutral word for holding something in any way concrete or abstract is chí 持 (ant. shī 失 "lose hold of"). - Assoc: (LANCE)劍/SWORD
Jiàn 劍refers to the weapon with two edges which can be worn on a belt. Sword became common in China relatively late; although short bronze swords were widely used in northeastern China from Shang till early Chunqiu period, there are only few pieces known from the graves of the Western Zhou and Chunqiu aristocracy. In the middle and late Chunqiu period bronze swords came to be wider used particularly in the southern states of Wu, Yue, and Chu; the earliest textual evidence I have found for the word also dates from this period (MOZI and inscriptions on the swords of Wu and Yue). In Warring States times sword became usual weapon. Iron swords for the first time appeared in the late Chunqiu period and by the early Han completely replaced bronze pieces. Note that in Han times both aristocrats and officials worn swords like symbols of their status.