Codex · Weapons
Sanguine
黑伤Hēishāng
Soul’s one-handed starting weapon. Its menu text, as fans read it, describes a blade “shaped like a sword, yet wielded with the force of a heavy blade”; the Chinese name 黑伤 also comes from fan readings of the menus.
What the name means
| Character | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 黑 | hēi | black, dark |
| 伤 | shāng | wound, injury; to hurt |
The real culture behind it
Chinese martial artists sum up the two great blade families in one saying: 刀走黑，剑走青. The dao, the single-edged sabre, “goes black”: direct, committed, crashing through. The jian, the straight double-edged sword, “goes green”: light and evasive. Tradition calls the jian the gentleman of weapons and the dao 百兵之胆, “the courage of all weapons”.
A blade with a jian’s silhouette and a dao’s weight, named 黑, sits right on that line; the link to the saying is our reading. 伤 resonates too: the Chinese store text says Soul’s heart was wounded (心脏受创), and his first weapon is literally a “black wound”. The English “Sanguine”, blood-red, swaps the colour but keeps the blood.
Go deeper
- Jian: The Chinese Straight Sword, ExplainedWhat a jian is, how the double-edged Chinese sword evolved from bronze to steel, its anatomy, how it was used, and why it is called the gentleman of weapons.
- Dao: The Chinese Sabre, From Ring-Pommel to OxtailWhat a dao sword is, how the Chinese sabre evolved from the Han ring-pommel dao to Qing willow-leaf and oxtail sabres, why armies chose it, and how it is used.
- Types of Chinese Swords: Jian, Dao, Miao Dao & MoreEvery major type of Chinese sword, era by era: bronze jian, Han ring-pommel dao, Tang modao, Ming changdao, Qing willow-leaf and oxtail sabres, miao dao and more.
Sources & further reading
- Shacknews: Phantom Blade Zero final preview (Oct 2026)
- Phantom Blade Zero — Steam store page (English and Chinese text)
- Fan readings of in-game menus in official footage (unconfirmed)
Game details come from official material and press coverage; names marked “fan reading” will be checked against the retail build. Anything labelled as our reading is interpretation, not a developer statement.