Late Spring and Autumn Period Cast with a pointed tongue-shaped blade, each side incised with a human figure battling a tiger, sharpened along both edges, the lower edge sweeping in an arc to connect to the hollow socket pierced with a longitudinal hole and decorated with cloud scrolls and surmounted with a phoenix beneath an openwork collared tiger facing in the direction of the blade while grasping the wings of the phoenix with its forepaws and the head with its rear, a smaller tiger on its back biting the collar, the details clearly rendered, the surface with small areas of malachite encrustation. 5 1/8in (13.2cm) long