Did the ancients really use fans as weapons?

There were no weapons such as "fans" and "iron fans" in ancient times. It is said that "art originates from life and is higher than life".

However, the romance novels that appeared in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the case-solving novels such as Three Heroes and Five Righteousness, Stone Case, Hai Case, Gong Liu Case, and the compilation of stories and anecdotes about the Qing Dynasty, such as paper money, did not mention the weapons made by practitioners with fans, indicating that there was no such thing in ancient times.

Huamanlou

On the contrary, since the 1950s, the new martial arts novels headed by Jinwen have become popular, in which many heroes use paper folding fans or special iron fans. Chu Liuxiang, the thief in The Three Sons of Gu Long, is an expert in using paper fans. Zhu Cong, an "expert and scholar" in The Legend of the Condor Heroes and The Seven Monsters of the South of the Yangtze River, looks like a broken paper fan, but his weapon is actually cast iron. In the legend of Lu Xiaofeng, Man Hua, a charming son, used a paper fan to defend himself.

Huo Dou

Many friends said that hidden weapons could be hidden on the fan. In The Condor Heroes, Prince Huo Dou, the third disciple of King Jinlun, defeated the scholar of Deng's subordinate "Agriculture and Fisheries". Because he couldn't beat "a Yang Shuzhi", he fired a poison nail with the organ in the iron fan and turned the defeat into victory.

Judge Peng

However, "isolated evidence does not stand", what's more, all the above are said in modern martial arts literature works, and there is no historical record or material evidence. Moreover, the technology is limited. As the saying goes, "it is better to live at home than to be handy." In ancient times when there was no milling machine, the fan ribs were handmade. Can iron fans be opened and closed freely?

Moreover, the subtlety of short musical instruments is that they are short, flexible and easy to carry. If the weight of an iron fan exceeds 10 kilograms (heavier than the actual individual weapon unearthed), isn't it exhausting and contrary to the original intention to use it to fight?

The so-called "stabbing, chopping, picking, pressing, mixing and stabbing" tactics of the iron fan can be completely replaced by the judge's pen, Emei stabbing (the weapon of Pingjiang in the novel), penholder fork and iron ruler in reality, and it is more economical than the iron fan in technology and cost.

Chopping is not as good as sword, hidden weapons is not as good as flying knives and darts, and the judge's pen is not as light and handy. It is too light to fight (the ancient forging technology is limited), too heavy and too conspicuous. Therefore, iron fans and folding fans were completely unnecessary in ancient times, and no one would use them as weapons.