Codex · Weapons
White Shadow
白影Báiyǐng
A late-game primary whose English name is unconfirmed (“White Shadow” is a literal gloss of 白影). Soulframe Liang calls it “a slender miao dao” and says late-game weapons like it only come into their own on a second playthrough.
What the name means
| Character | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 白 | bái | white |
| 影 | yǐng | shadow; image, reflection |
The real culture behind it
The miao dao (苗刀), “sprout sabre”, is a Chinese two-handed long sabre, about 1.4–1.5 m overall in modern versions. Its ancestor is the Ming changdao (长刀), which General Qi Jiguang adopted after fighting Japanese-led raiders; the Wubei zhi (1621) frankly calls it “a Japanese design… which the ancients did not have”, and Cheng Zongyou learned the two-handed sabre from Liu Yunfeng, who “had received the true Japanese transmission”. The name miao dao itself only appears in the Republican era, from the 1920s.
The Chinese name is pure poetry: 刀光剑影, “the flash of sabres and the shadows of swords”, is the stock idiom for a fierce fight. A long, pale blade that leaves a white shadow in the air fits it well; that reading is ours.
Go deeper
- Miao Dao vs Katana: History of China's Long SabreMiao dao history, sourced: Qi Jiguang's Ming changdao, Cheng Zongyou's 1621 manual, the 1920s name, measured lengths of 1.4–2 m, and how it compares with the katana.
- 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
- Soulframe Liang’s long post on weapons and difficulty (9 Sep 2026), via Gamersky
- Kung Fu Tea: Old or New? The Miaodao and Invention in Chinese Martial Arts (2021)
- Cheng Zongyou, Gengyu shengji, incl. Dandao fa xuan (1621)
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.