Engineering:Podao

Short description: Type of pole weapon

Podao

Podao or pudao (Chinese: 朴刀; pinyin: pōdāo) is a Chinese single-edged infantry weapon which is still used primarily for training in various Chinese martial arts. The blade of the weapon is shaped like a Chinese broadsword, but the weapon has a longer handle, usually around one to two meters (about three to six feet) which is circular in cross section. It looks somewhat similar to the guandao.

The pudao is sometimes called a "horse-cutter sword" since it is speculated to have been used to slice the legs out from under a horse during battle (like the zhanmadao). It is somewhat analogous to the Japanese nagamaki, although the nagamaki sword may have been developed independently. The pudao also resembles the Korean hyeopdo.

An example of the Chinese pōdāo.