Misplaced Pages

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Monk's spade" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (May 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

A monk's spade (simplified Chinese: 月牙铲; traditional Chinese: 月牙鏟; pinyin: yuèyáchǎn; lit. 'Crescent Moon Spade'; also, traditional Chinese: 禪仗; simplified Chinese: 禅仗; pinyin: chánzhàng; Japanese: getsugasan; lit. 'Zen Staff'), also called a Shaolin spade, is a Chinese polearm consisting of a long pole with a flat spade-like blade on one end and a smaller crescent shaped blade on the other. Neither blade was designed to be sharpened. In old China, Buddhist monks often carried spades (shovels) with them when travelling. This served two purposes: if they came upon a corpse on the road, they could properly bury it with Buddhist rites, and the large implement could serve as a weapon for defence against bandits. The crescent was designed as defense against small to medium-sized predators such as wild dogs and leopards. The way it is used is to hold the animal at bay by positioning the crescent at the animal's neck and pushing it away if needed. Over time, they were stylised into the monk's spade weapon.

See also

• Khakkhara
• Sasumata

References

• Holmes Welch, The Practice of Chinese Buddhism 1900—1950, Harvard University Press, 1973
• Chlumsky, Nathan (Sensei). (2023) 'Inside Kungfu: Chinese Martial Arts Encyclopedia.' (2nd ed.) Amazon Publishing, ISBN 979-8561743771

This article related to the martial arts is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

• v
• t
• e

This article relating to polearms is a stub. You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it.

• v
• t
• e

• Weapons of China
• Edged and bladed weapons
• Chinese polearms
• Ritual weapons
• Ceremonial weapons
• Martial arts stubs
• Polearm stubs