Green Dragon Crescent Blade

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The Green Dragon Crescent Blade (青龍偃月刀) was a legendary weapon wielded by Guan Yu in Romance of the Three Kingdoms. It is a guandao, a type of traditional Chinese weapon.

It is also sometimes referred to the Frost Blade (冷艷鋸), from the idea that during a battle in the snow, the blade continuously had blood on it; the blood froze and made a layer of frost on the blade.

Contents 1 In Romance of the Three Kingdoms 2 Real or not? 3 Rumoured origins 4 In popular culture

[edit] In Romance of the Three Kingdoms

In the novel by Luo Guanzhong, the blade was forged by a local blacksmith using steel sponsored by Zhang Shiping (張世平), a merchant sympathetic to Liu Bei's cause. When Guan Yu met his end at the hands of Lü Meng in 219, the blade was given to Pan Zhang by Sun Quan for his role in capturing of Guan Yu. Later, when Guan Yu's son Guan Xing soon sought revenge on Pan Zhang, Pan Zhang was startled by a vision of Guan Yu's spirit and was killed by Guan Xing. Guan Xing took back the Green Dragon Crescent Blade and thus the blade was passed down from father to son.

[edit] Real or not?

It is uncertain whether Guan Yu actually wielded the Green Dragon or whether it was merely part of the myths surrounding him. Because the guandao was known not to be widely used until the Song Dynasty, there is some doubt as to whether the guandao existed during Guan Yu's time. The guandao may not have been very widely-used because it was both difficult to wield, because of its heavy weight, and difficult to forge. This causes many to believe that it existed after Guan Yu.

According to Romance of the Three Kingdoms/Chapter 1, the Green Dragon Crescent Blade was said to weigh 82 catties. During the Eastern Han Dynasty and Three Kingdoms periods, one catty was approximately 220 grams, so 82 catties would have been approximately 18.04 kilograms (~39.7782 pounds).[1] A weapon weighing about 100 pounds purported to be the Green Dragon Crescent Blade is on display at the Purple Cloud Temple in China today.

[edit] Rumoured origins

Legend says that Guan Yu invented the guandao. He had it forged after he met Liu Bei and Zhang Fei but before he made the Oath of the Peach Garden.

The story of the blade was that there was a blacksmith forging the blade when suddenly a green dragon passed by. The dragon was cut up and the body became part of the pieces therefore making the dao a magical weapon.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] In popular culture

The sword appears in several video games made by Koei, but under incorrectly translated names. For example, it is called "Black Dragon" in Kessen 2.

In the card game Magic: The Gathering, the sword is portrayed in the card "Wielding the Green Dragon"[2] from the set Portal: Three Kingdoms