Chinese
Nine Tripod Cauldrons
九鼎
The legitimacy to rule all under heaven. They rest with dynasties of virtue.
VesselFirst recorded c. 400 BCE
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Photograph: A Chinese bronze halberd head (ge) of the Zhou dynasty, 1122–255 BCE. A horizontal blade and the part inserted into the shaft form a T.
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3,000 × 2,400 PX3000×2400
ArchiveChinese · Weapon
Sky Piercer
方天畫戟
A halberd with a crescent blade beside the spear point. Lü Bu hit its small branch with an arrow at 150 paces.
- Owner
- Lü Bu
- Maker
- Unknown
- First record
- Luo Guanzhong, Romance of the Three Kingdoms1522
- Gallery
- Chinese
Notes on the photograph 3
Story
Lü Bu in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms fights in a red brocade robe, riding Red Hare and wielding the Sky Piercer. At Hulao Pass he took on the three brothers Liu Bei, Guan Yu and Zhang Fei all at once.
The Sky Piercer is a halberd with a crescent-shaped blade beside its spear point. To stop a fight between Yuan Shu's general Ji Ling and Liu Bei, Lü Bu planted the halberd 150 paces outside the camp gate and said they should stop fighting if he hit its small branch with an arrow. The arrow struck the branch exactly.
This episode of shooting at the halberd also appears in the historical Records of the Three Kingdoms, which says only that what he hit was the small branch of the halberd.
The object in the photo
The photograph shows Halberd Head(Chinese, 1122 BCE–255 BCE), a real museum object that evokes the legendary artifact.
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