Chixiao Sword

Blade of the Serpent-Slayer

Sword of Liu Bang who slew the white serpent, later listed among China’s ten great blades.

Chixiao, the “Crimson Sky” sword, is the blade with which Liu Bang, the future founder of the Han, cut a great serpent in two during the night march. An old woman’s lament named the serpent the son of the White Emperor and Liu Bang the son of the Red — a prophecy written in steel. The sword was kept in the Han treasury as the relic of the dynasty’s founding.