WHAT IS THE GE?

A dagger ax, the characteristic weapon of the Chinese Bronze Age during the Shang dynasty and then made from iron from the Zhou/Chou dynasty onwards. The dagger-shaped bronze blade, usually with a flat tang but occasionally with a shaft hole, was mounted perpendicular to the wooden shaft. The blade had a cross-piece parallel to the shaft to help hold it in place. Bronze Age blades and nonfunctional jade replicas of blades often appear as mortuary gifts in Shang tombs. The earliest ge yet known have come from Erlitou, c. mid 2nd millennium bc. In the Eastern Zhou/Chou period the ge was sometimes combined with a spear, the ge blade at right angles to the spearhead, to form a ji. The ji was in existence by the late 6th or early 5th century bc. They are chopping implements.