Hi. I made an account on this website just to respond to this. I have a matching shortsword of the star-engraved blade. From my research it is likely a Jian (double edged sword) from the Qing dynasty at the earliest (mostly due to the tassel hole on the scabbard), more specifically a seven-star Jian. There seems to be some cultural significance in regards to Taoism for that. I can't remember for the life of me where I got the thing. Either my dad bought it off of Ebay or it was my grandfather's and I found it when going through his things (he was in the USAF so he had a lot of stuff the traveling he had to do). I'm not sure how to link pictures on here (or if you can even do that in replies), otherwise I'd have a pic of the sword