The bian () or tie bian () and gang bian (), also known as Chinese whip or hard whip, is a type of tubular-shaped

club Club may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Club'' (magazine) * Club, a ''Yie Ar Kung-Fu'' character * Clubs (suit), a suit of playing cards * Club music * "Club", by Kelsea Ballerini from the album ''kelsea'' Brands and enterprises * ...

or rod

weapon A weapon, arm, or armament is any implement or device that is used to deter, threaten, inflict physical damage, harm, or kill. Weapons are used to increase the efficacy and efficiency of activities such as hunting, crime (e.g., murder), law ...

designed to inflict blunt damage with

whipping Flagellation (Latin , 'whip'), flogging or whipping is the act of beating the human body with special implements such as whips, rods, switches, the cat o' nine tails, the sjambok, the knout, etc. Typically, flogging has been imposed on ...

motion. Despite having a rigid construct, the bian whip shares its name with the horsewhip and

chain whip The chain whip, also known as the soft whip, is a weapon used in some Chinese martial arts, particularly traditional Chinese martial arts, Chinese disciplines, in addition to modern and traditional Wushu (term), wushu. It consists of several met ...

. Thus, the weapon is sometimes translated as the hard whip to distinguish it from the others. According to the book ''The Chain Whip'', a whip in historical text may refer to the both soft whip and hard whip due to the ambiguity in the

Chinese language Chinese ( or ) is a group of languages spoken natively by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and List of ethnic groups in China, many minority ethnic groups in China, as well as by various communities of the Chinese diaspora. Approximately 1.39& ...

. "Both the hard whip and the soft whip can both be referred to simply as ''whip'' (鞭) in Chinese." A typical whip is made with

metal A metal () is a material that, when polished or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electrical resistivity and conductivity, electricity and thermal conductivity, heat relatively well. These properties are all associated wit ...

and has a length of around . Bamboo node-like protrusions are attached to the weapon body at regular intervals to reduce the contact surface and enhance the striking effect. The whip is stiff and does not bend. It weighs ef? The weapon is used mainly on horseback with one hand, sometimes with two whips in both hands. Comparing to the top-heavy Chinese hammer, the whip has better reach and balance. The weapon is also compatible most forms of

sword A sword is an edged and bladed weapons, edged, bladed weapon intended for manual cutting or thrusting. Its blade, longer than a knife or dagger, is attached to a hilt and can be straight or curved. A thrusting sword tends to have a straighter ...

techniques, including parrying. Whip is functionally similar to the

jian The ''jian'' (Mandarin Chinese: , , English approximation: , Cantonese: ) is a double-edged straight sword used during the last 2,500 years in China. The first Chinese sources that mention the ''jian'' date to the 7th century BCE, during the S ...

, a type of blunt weapons in ancient China.

Gallery

File:Ming whip, blade, and truncheon.jpg, Hard whip of

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...

(top and bottom) File:Ming Iron Sword and Whip (19791306721).jpg, Hard whip of Ming dynasty File:Qing Steel Sword and Whip (19217908494).jpg, Steel whip of

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

(bottom) File:Wujing Zongyao flails.jpg, A

flail Flail may refer to: * Flail (tool), an agricultural implement for threshing * Flail (weapon) A flail is a weapon consisting of a striking head attached to a handle by a flexible rope, strap, or chain. The chief tactical virtue of the flail i ...

-like iron whip (right) in ''

Wujing Zongyao The ''Wujing Zongyao'' (), sometimes rendered in English as the ''Complete Essentials for the Military Classics'', is a Chinese military compendium written from around 1040 to 1044. The book was compiled during the Northern Song dynasty by Ze ...

'' File:武備志茅元儀明朝兵器 21.jpg, Two types of iron whips (middle and right) in military compendium '' Wu Bei Zhi''

References

Clubs (weapon) Chinese martial arts Weapons of China {{Blunt-weapon-stub

Gallery

See also

References