Mandarin Duck Blades (simplified: 鸳鸯刀, traditional: 鴛鴦刀, pinyin: Yuānyāng Dāo) are a pair of dao, one long and one short, said in the jianghu to hold the greatest secret of the wulin: whoever obtains them will be unmatched in the whole realm. The long blade is the Yuan blade (鸳刀 — yuāndāo) and the short one the Yang blade (鸯刀 — yāngdāo), after the male and female mandarin duck.
History
The Emperor’s search
The Emperor began searching for the blades while still a prince, and on taking the throne ordered the governors and commanders of the eighteen provinces to find them. Their owner was caught, but two scoundrels hid the blades, until they came into the hands of the Sichuan-Shaanxi Governor-General Liu Yuyi. Liu sealed them in yellow cloth and ordered Zhou Weixin to carry them to Beijing in secret.1
Xiao Banhe later tells a fuller story. Sixteen years before, the blades belonged to the heroes Yuan and Yang Bochong. The Emperor seized their families to make them surrender the blades; both men chose death, and their wives were thrown into the imperial prison.2
On the road
Zhou hides the blades on his back while openly escorting a silver convoy, and they pass through many hands. Xiao Zhonghui cuts them from Zhou’s back, and the long blade severs the iron chain that held them as if it were thread. Zhuo Tianxiong takes them from her and shears through the dao of Lin Yulong and Ren Feiyan with a single parry.3 Yuan Guannan bluffs Zhuo into fleeing and takes the pair, but Xiao Zhonghui tricks him out of the short Yang blade.4 The two later wield them together in the Wedded Blades Style.5
Reunited
Yuan presents the long Yuan blade to Xiao Banhe on his birthday.6 Zhuo takes the short blade from Xiao Zhonghui outside the mansion, and she wins it back in the fight that follows, but its tip snaps against Zhuo’s steel whip.7 Xiao Banhe concludes it must be a fake Zhuo switched for the real one. The Four Xias of Taiyue then arrive with Zhuo in a fishing net, and the genuine Yang blade at his waist.2
The secret
Madam Yuan examines the pair and sighs that the Qing Emperor heard rightly: the blades do hold the secret to being unmatched in the world, but even knowing it, could he follow it? Engraved on the Yuan blade are the words “The benevolent” (仁者 — rénzhě), and on the Yang blade “Invincible” (无敌 — wúdí): “The benevolent is invincible”.2
Components
-
Yuan blade (鸳刀) — the long blade, engraved “The benevolent”
-
Yang blade (鸯刀) — the short blade, engraved “Invincible”
Behind the scenes
Mandarin ducks are a Chinese emblem of a devoted couple, which makes the blades a natural match for the Wedded Blades Style and for the novella’s paired couples. 仁者无敌 comes from Mencius, where it describes the benevolent ruler who has no enemy under Heaven.
See also
- Mandarin Duck Blades — the novella in which these weapons appear
- Yuan Guannan — wielder of the Yuan blade
- Xiao Zhonghui — wielder of the Yang blade
- Wedded Blades Style — the paired style Yuan Guannan and Xiao Zhonghui fight with when wielding the blades