Two famous lines made
横刀 a byword for courage. In a 1935 poem praising
彭德怀,
毛泽东 asks
谁敢横刀立马 (who dares hold the sword across, astride his horse?).
谭嗣同, the reformer executed in 1898, wrote
我自横刀向天笑 (I hold my blade and laugh at the sky) on his prison wall.
