Weaponry was an important part of the period's material culture due to the general turmoil and warfare with various states contending for hegemony. The dagger-axe ge, a type of pole weapon which is mounted by its tang to a wooden shaft, was the primary weapon of the Chinese Bronze Age. In use starting from the Shang dynasty, it eventually evolved during the Zhou dynasty to a dagger blade with a spear head to the top of the shaft. This effective combination was more versatile in allowing the wielder to use it with both a thrusting and swinging motion. |Bronze ge blades would have provided the basis for the form and decoration of their jade counterparts, consider a late Zhou dynasty bronze ge of similar form, also decorated with a dragon, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, accession no.21.144. These jade versions of weapons would have been used for ceremonial purposes and were important objects interred in the tombs of the wealthy and elite, possibly as emblems of their power and authority. |It is extremely rare to find jade ge blades of such high quality and size, with impressively well-articulated pierced decoration. This tedious process would have required: cutting the stone to the shape of the weapon; marking out the patterns using small blades and boring holes with diamond drills; piercing out the marked patterns with a metal string bow saw and fine abrasives. Given the high amount of wastage in such openwork technique, this ge blade would have been extremely expensive to make.|The pierced decoration and the similar stylised chi dragons can be seen from a group of jade plaques excavated from the royal tombs of the Zhongshan State from the Warring States period. Compare with a jade plaque, mid-Warring States period, also with openwork decoration, in the Hebei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics, illustrated by Gu Fang, The Pictorial Handbook of Ancient Chinese Jades, Beijing, 2007, p.212.|See a related example dated to the mid-Warring States period in the Aurora Art Museum collection, illustrated by Sun Qingwei, Jades of Warring States Period, Taipei, 2007, pl.251.|玉質幾乎整體白化，局部見青色玉質。此器包含「援、內、胡」三部分，「援」為戈體，邊緣稍磨為薄刃，「胡」為「援」部向下延伸之處，「內」為尾端部分。此戈「援」部窄而短，前鋒呈三角形，施複雜的鏤空工藝，雕琢出勾狀紋飾，「援」邊框刻雲榖相雜紋，「內」部較寬，並以鏤空雕琢出身體上拱的S形龍紋，「內」部上端為龍首側臉，龍首朝向前鋒，翹鼻，張口，龍尾飾以細扭絲紋，龍紋下方的「胡」部分是一組正面的龍紋，雙眼呈菱形， 此器裝飾手法具有戰國中期的特徵，紋飾豐富，工藝精良，實屬戰國時期玉戈中不可多得的佳作。|此件玉戈以青銅戈為原型而製，但並非實用的武器，而是作為顯示貴族權威的儀仗用具。青銅戈原型，見紐約大都會博物館藏一件東周晚期青銅龍紋戈，博物館編號no.21.144。春秋、戰國時期玉禮器的演變和發展亦是當時社會經濟、政治制度以及意識形態變革和發展的體現。此見玉戈工藝繁複，製作精美，是戰國玉戈中十分罕見的作品。|戰國時期中山王墓中曾出土一組玉雕飾板，其龍紋紋飾及透雕工藝與此玉戈極為相似，參看一件從河北省平山線南七汲中山國3號墓出土的透雕龍紋玉板，時代為戰國中期，現藏河北省文物研究所，見古方，《中國古玉器圖典》，北京，2007年，頁212。震旦藝術博物館藏一件戰國中期的鏤空龍紋玉戈可資比較，見孫慶偉著，《戰國玉器》，台北，2007年，圖版251。