of reality nor entirely separate from it. The requirements offiction–poetic
license, if you will–took precedence over realism, subordinating real-world
martial arts to the visual and narrative needs of a good story.
Outside of the realm offiction, there were some differences in weapon
use during the Yuan Dynasty. Wefirst see mention of double swords being
used in battle in north China in the thirteenth century. One of the earliest
recordedfighters to use paired swords was Yang Miaozhen, the wife of the
Shandong bandit and warlord Li Quan. In addition to her skill at riding
and shooting, she also used paired swords and was proficient with the
“peach blossom spear.”^12 Several other notablefighters are mentioned
using paired swords in battle. It appears that warriors using these swords
were particularly effective in confined terrain, where they were able to break
through deadlocked troops. At least in the case of Yang Miaozhen, of
course, thefighter in question was Chinese, not Mongol. Our last mention
of someone using double swords–in that case, double long swords–was
the female long sword dancers in the Tang Dynasty. Reports of this partic-
ular set of weapons on the battlefield in more than one instance attest to
its real-world use, however, rather than purely a performance martial art.
Mongol weapon use had two distinct aspects. The primary martial art
of the Mongols was horse archery, but they did have recourse to close
combat weapons as well. They were distinct in their use of the long sword
and the employment of the double-headed spear. Unlike the Chinese, or
indeed most of eastern Eurasia, the Mongols still made extensive use of
long swords. The reason for this is unclear. Where Chinese armies were
professional forces armed by the state with uniform weapons, Mongol
soldiers were essentially militia men who brought their own weapons to
the battlefield. At the same time, the Mongols did not themselves have a
very strong manufacturing base, and many of their iron combat weapons
would have been obtained from trading and raiding. Under these circum-
stances, it is possible that large numbers of long swords had found their
way into the steppe and continued to circulate there long after Chinese
armies stopped using them.
The second somewhat distinctively Mongol weapon was the double-
headed spear. Mongols appear to have preferred spears with metal spear
points at either end. Chinese spears, with a few exceptions, generally had
only a single head to them. Some Chinese double-headed polearms had
blades at either end as cavalry weapons for slashing rather than thrusting.
In the case of the Mongols, it may have had something to do with the short
ponies they rode into battle (though most Asian horses were small by
modern standards). Not only did they need to thrust at standing targets
148 The Yuan Dynasty