The word Tangdao was literally called in the last two years. There are four kinds of knives made in the Tang Dynasty: Yi Dao, Obstacle Dao, Horizontal Dao and Mo Dao. In fact, because weapons buried with the dead were not allowed in the Tang Dynasty, almost no physical objects were unearthed. Although four kinds of knives are recorded in ancient books, the shapes of these four kinds of knives are still inconclusive. Especially in recent years, a strange knife that has been hyped into an artifact has never been unearthed. Generally speaking, the imitation Dao named tangdao on the market now is generally considered as Tang Heng Dao. However, in the fifteenth year of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, the Japanese royal family recorded in the list of treasures dedicated to Dongda Temple:
Take a horizontal knife. The blade is one foot, four inches and seven minutes long, and the leading edge is inclined to the blade. Rosewood handle wrapped rhinoceros horn, made of iron and gilded. The eyes and the tail of the sheath are decorated with iron and gold, but the strap is decorated with silver and gold. Sheathed rattan, purple hanging, purple ribbon holding, black purple ribbon, black purple? In the bag.
This is a true record of the correspondence between the object and the name. At least in Japan at the same time, the horizontal knife was in the shape of a short knife. Some Japanese scholars even think that Yokota is the originator of the Japanese threat theory. As for how, there is no conclusion in the field of history at present.
However, it is generally believed that the difference between straight knives in the Tang Dynasty and those in the Southern and Northern Dynasties lies in the different blades. The straight knife in the Tang Dynasty is an axe blade, which is dull, but suitable for sundering armor. It won't cut the armored blade.
If we want to talk about the advantages of tangdao and Japanese Dao in history, we can't say that there are four kinds of military standard Dao in Tang Dynasty, and the shape is inconclusive. There are also many kinds of Japanese knives, such as punching knives, Taitai knives, wild Taitai knives, poor ribs and so on. To say that the imitation knives on the market now, tangdao is a straight knife without a head, and Japanese knives are piercing knives. Tangdao not only looks good, satisfies some people who don't understand history, but also likes the psychology of national identity. Compared with a knife, it has no advantages. At most, making it simple is an advantage. I have been playing with knives for many years and am a pragmatist. I can definitely tell you that the so-called tangdao in the market is really useless except for pretending. A straight knife shakes the hand, which is not easy to exert force, far from being slightly bent. This is also normal. Japanese Dao is still inherited. There must be a gap between the mature modeling that has been continuously improved for thousands of years and what has been made in recent years to cater to the identity psychology of Xiaobai nationality. I'm not saying this to promote how good Japanese knives are. I don't play Japanese Dao, but that doesn't mean I haven't. I have used real Japanese knives during World War II, Japanese knives made with modern American technology and Japanese knives copied at home. Seriously, a narrow-edged knife is not for fun.