SoA Forums

The oracle - my son, a chinese reader & speaker and current researcher into Qing history - provides the following:

The Liao Shi does indeed render the two characters as the single phrase 斧鉞 fuyue, but as Classical Chinese texts were not usually punctuated, there is no particular reason to assume either way as to whether these were supposed to be two separate words or a compound. There also seem to be two slightly different definitions: one which specifically denotes a form of heavy battle-axe, and another where it refers more generally to all sorts of axe-like weapons. Either way, it would seem that the term translated 'halberd' by Wittfogel and Feng perhaps should have been grouped with the preceding one instead of taken in isolation, and that the Liao cavalryman was expected to possess some form of battleaxe.


I hope this is helpful.

https://www.medievalists.net/2025/04/medieval-lance-strike/

Over to you...

Shakes head in disbelief
comments were made elsewhere on the forum about charities etc

https://youtu.be/PeiSuW5jTiY?si=mSlgT0vokzEGOrgB

 

OK.  Slight hitch.  Can't find the Assyrian book.  Doh!

Three hardbacks & one paperback.  £6.00 each plus postage.  The Cassell books are quite heavy.

PM for details & multibuy deals ( ).

If not for some of today's politicians.

 

Rome did not fall until 1922, as any fule knowe!

Quote from: Erpingham on April 12, 2025, 09:40:03 AMIncidentally, it did seem to me that an event dated to 540 AD and after could be the cause of the fall of the Western Empire was a bit odd.

Presumably the aliens warned them that it was about to happen.

Quote from: stevenneate on April 12, 2025, 03:17:03 PMWeren't the Vikings the good guys?

Another chance to trot out this sketch, which should be compulsory viewing for any budding historians...