The pommel was historically peened onto the tang of the blade thereby holding together as one solid unit the blade, guard, handle, and pommel. The end of the handle was finished with a pommel for balance, to prevent the handle from sliding through the hand if the hand's grip should be loosened, and for striking or trapping the opponent as opportunity required-such as in "withdrawing" techniques. Grips are usually of fluted wood or covered in rayskin, with a minority being wrapped with cord. The longer two-handed handle could be used as a lever to lock the opponent's arm if necessary. Two-handed jiàn of up to 1.6 meters (63 inches) in length, known as shuangshou jian, existed but were not as common as the one-handed version. The jian's hilt can accommodate the grip of both hands or one hand plus two or three fingers of the other hand.
A minority of jian featured the disc-shaped guards associated with dao. From the Song and Ming periods onward guards could feature zoomorphic shapes, or have crossbars and quillons. Early jian often had very small, simple guards. Guard shapes varied, but often had short wings or lobes pointing either forward or backward, the latter sometimes having an "ace of spades" appearance. Parts of the jian Ī guard or hilt protects the hand from an opposing blade. These swords are also sometimes referred to as taijijian or " tai chi swords", reflecting their current use as training weapons for taijiquan practitioners, though there were no historical jian types created specifically for taijiquan. In Chinese folklore, it is known as " The Gentleman of Weapons" and is considered one of the four major weapons, along with the gun (staff), qiang (spear), and the dao (sabre). 'sword guests' or "swordsmen" a term dating from the Han dynasty). Professional jian practitioners are referred to as jianke ( Chinese: 劍客 pinyin: jiànkè lit. There are also larger two-handed versions used for training by many styles of Chinese martial arts. The weight of an average sword of 70-centimetre (28-inch) blade-length would be in a range of approximately 700 to 900 grams (1.5 to 2 pounds). Historical one-handed versions have blades varying from 45 to 80 centimeters (18 to 31 inches) in length. The first Chinese sources that mention the jian date to the 7th century BCE, during the Spring and Autumn period one of the earliest specimens being the Sword of Goujian. The jian ( Mandarin Chinese:, Chinese: 劍, English approximation: / dʒ j ɛ n/ jyehn) is a double-edged straight sword used during the last 2,500 years in China.
Single-handed jian and scabbard of the 18th–19th century
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