The earliest record about the whip mentioned as a weapon was in a conversation between the prince Chonger and the king of the Chu in the Chun Ciu. Chonger, the exiled prince of the country of the Jin, was warmly treated in Chu. So he politely expressed his appreciation to the king of the Chu by saying that after he became the leader of the Jin, if it was possible, he would withdraw his troops when the Jin and the Chu had conflicts. However if there were no reconciliation after his troops drew back, he would not hesitate to hold his whip and bow in the left hand and control his horse in the right hand to "spend time" with the Chu troops. This shows that the whip just like the bow is a weapon. The other story is about Fu Jian, king of the earlier Chin kingdom. Leading his northern troops he intended to crush the southern troops who were arrayed on the river bank of the Feishui River in the Eastern Jin dynasty, so he proclaimed that they could block the river by throwing their whips into it.

       The whip made of steel came on the scene in the Han Dynasty. There were some generals in the Tang famous for their skills in using the steel whip, such as Li Shihmin's General Yuchih Gong, whose whip weighed 130 jin; none of his colleagues could beat him. The General Wang Yanjhang known for his excellent martial arts of the later Liang dynasty used a whip, which was about two meters long.

The whip is also a powerful weapon in the wusia novels. In Yingjhua Wang by Jheng Jhengyin, an evil steel whip with toxic pins is invented. Victims of this weapon are either injyured with broken bones or poisoned to death. In Jianci Mantian Huamanlou by Gu Long, the whip used by the head of the martial arts circle, is called shesingbian, the snake whip. It has scales on it, and the victim of this weapon will suffer with incurable festering skin and flesh.

       The protagonist in the novella, Shen Bian, by the new Mainland novelist Feng Yicai, has an excellent martial arts skill in using his braid, bianzihgong. He is too strong to have rival until his braid is shot to pieces by foreign soldiers in the Boxer Rebellion. In the wusia novel Jianghu Fongyun Lu by a new novelist Guigu Zih, a female character wears thirteen braids, which can whip in thirteen different directions at the same time. This book also creates a whip made of the skin of the python, which had been immersed in toxic liquid before being manufactured. The whip will leave a deep wound on its victim, who will be infected and die soon.