Qiang (simplified Chinese: 枪; traditional Chinese: 槍; pinyin: qīang) is the Chinese term for spear. Due to its relative ease of manufacture, the spear in many variations was ubiquitous on the pre-modern Chinese battlefield. It is known as one of the four major weapons, along with the Gun (staff), Dao (sabre), and the Jian (sword), called in this group "The King of Weapons".
Common features of the Chinese spear are the leaf shaped blade and red horse-hair tassel lashed just below. The tassel serves a tactical purpose, and is not simply for decoration.
When the spear is moving quickly, the addition of the tassel aids in blurring the vision of the opponent so that it is more difficult for them to grab the shaft of spear behind the head or tip. The tassel also served another purpose, to stop the flow of blood from the blade getting to the wooden shaft (the blood would make it slippery, or sticky when dried). The length varied from around 7 feet (2 m) long, commonly used by infantry, increasing up to the length of 13 feet (4 m) favoured by cavalry (longer varieties would've been lances used by heavy lancer cavalry). Spears used in war are typically made of hard wood.
Martial arts (wushu) spears are typically made of wax wood, a strong but flexible wood. It bends to absorb impact preventing breakage. The bending motion combined with the horse hair tassel makes the spear tip very hard to follow. Below the leaf shaped blade in the tubular section that attaches the head of the spear to the wax wood staff there is a hole drilled, when the spear is spun at speed it generates a whistle, this whistle would serve to distract an opponent. Inside the tubular section a ball bearing moves around freely giving a rattle, this also helped to stop blood from congealing inside the tubular section and help to force blood out of the whistle hole keeping it clear.
Many Chinese martial arts feature spear training in their curriculum. The conditioning provided by spear technique is seen as invaluable and in many styles it is the first weapons training introduced to students. Moreover, some schools of empty handed fighting in China credit spear technique as their foundation, notably Xingyiquan and Bajiquan.