As we all know for several weeks, the sword is one of the most common weapons in ancient China, it opens a double-edged body with a straight head, horizontal and vertical can hurt people, and attacking with the tip of the sword can easily penetrate the armor, which is a weapon that exists simply for the purpose of killing. According to the "Guan Zi Di Several Articles" document: "The mountain of Xi Ge Tianlu, sent out gold, Xuan You was controlled, thinking that the sword armor, the beginning of this sword also", it is believed that the sword was invented by the Great Demon King Xuan You in the ancient times. The sword as a weapon belongs to the "short soldier", is the king of the soldiers, and is known as the "king of a hundred soldiers". Especially in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, it was very popular, not only as a weapon handy for infantry and cavalry, but also as an ornament for the upper nobility to show their identity.
At that time, the imperial monarchs all hoped to have enviable famous swords, and some even paid a lot of money to invite people to specially forge special swords for themselves, so many famous swords were handed down in later generations, such as Cao Cao's sword leaning on the heavenly sword during the Three Kingdoms period, and the fish intestine sword dedicated to assassinating Wu Wang. But now when it comes to the famous bronze sword, I am afraid that everyone will think of the treasure of the Hubei Provincial Museum, the Yue Wang Gou Jian Sword, which is known as the "first sword in the world". But in fact, in addition to the Gou Jian sword, China also has a Yue Wang sword that can be compared with the Yue Wang Gou Jian sword, that is, the Yue Wang's sword in the Zhejiang Museum.
The story of this national treasure-level cultural relic, which was aimed at the sword by the king, is also told to an expert who has been engaged in bronze collection for many years, that is, Mr. Ma Chengyuan, who was the director of the Shanghai Museum. Ma Chengyuan worked at the Shanghai Museum as deputy director of the Preservation Department, director of the Bronze Research Department and director of the Shanghai Museum. He is mainly engaged in the research and identification of bronze and jianmu. Over the decades, Mr. Ma Chengyuan has not only written books, but also cultivated a pair of eyes to identify bronzes.
At that time, it was said that Ma Chengyuan was the first person to identify bronzes in China today, and with this pair of eyes, Ma Chengyuan collected tens of thousands of precious bronze artifacts for the Shanghai Museum in the past 50 years. Through the hands of Ma Chengyuan, a large number of precious cultural relics have been rescued for the country, and more than 300 scattered cultural relics such as bronze, stone carvings, ceramics, jades and so on have been collected in Hong Kong alone, of which more than 1,200 Pieces of the Warring States Chu Bamboo Book, which is known as the "National Heavy Treasure" twice in 1994, are of immeasurable value.
In 1995, Ma Chengyuan, then director of the Shanghai Museum, went to Hong Kong again to participate in an archaeological activity, and then while wandering around the Hong Kong antique shop, he accidentally found an ancient bronze sword on the shelf. This bronze ancient sword not only looks very similar to the Gou Jian sword, even the sword body is also engraved with eight big characters, if it is changed to ordinary people may deny it as a fake at first sight, but Ma Chengyuan is after all a bronze practitioner for many years, he confirmed that this is a sword of the same period as the Gou Jian Sword after careful examination.
Such a sword of the Warring States period is no less precious than the Yue King's sword, and Ma Chengyuan decided to redeem the cultural relics after repeatedly examining the bronze sword. But the owner offered a price of 1 million Hong Kong dollars, which is undoubtedly a sky-high price for Ma Chengyuan, who lives on a salary, and although he is the director of the Shanghai Museum, the shanghai museum, a non-profit organization, cannot raise this money for a while. However, the more important thing is that the news of the sudden drop of a Yue Wang sword in Hong Kong has not gone away, and when the Japanese learned of the preciousness of this sword, they wanted to buy it for a high price of 1.5 million. In such a dilemma, Ma Chengyuan once fell into despair.
For the merchants, the high price is the winner, and at that time, Hong Kong had not yet returned, and it was reasonable for the store to sell the bronze sword to the Japanese at a high price, but what was unexpected was that the store not only did not sell the cultural relics, but also said out of patriotic feelings: "I am Chinese, and Chinese cultural relics are not sold by foreigners!" Ma Chengyuan was contacted by the staff of the Zhejiang Provincial Museum not long after returning to the mainland, and they began to appeal to local enterprises in Zhejiang to donate to the national treasure, and finally the Hangzhou Iron and Steel Group invested 1.36 million Hong Kong dollars to redeem the sword, and then donated it to the Zhejiang Provincial Museum as the treasure of the town museum.
So who is the owner of this sword? Later, experts identified it as the sword of The Sword of The King of Yue, which was named "The Sword of the King of Yue" because of the eight characters engraved on the sword body, "The King of Yue, the Will of the King". The Yue King's intention is that the sword is 52.4 cm long, reaching 4.1 cm at its widest point, and the ridge protruding in the middle is in a straight line until it reaches the sharp tip, and the swords on the left and right sides of the sword ridge are uniformly and evenly proportioned, and the whole body of the sword is yellowish-white. As far as the color is concerned, the Yue King's intention to open the sword is not at all inferior to the Yue King's sword.
Cao Pi of the Three Kingdoms period once said that "the Yue people forged swords, and the box spit out cold mang", and highly praised the sword casting skills of the "Yue people", and "Yue Min" referred to the people of the Yue kingdom during the Spring and Autumn And Warring States period. According to the "Records of History", during the 6 years of his reign, the smelter forged a number of weapons for him, and the bronze sword alone has been found, and the most well-preserved is this Yue King's sword. This sword is intact, shiny as new, cold and glowing, although it has lasted for more than 2,400 years, it is still not rusty, and the style is still the same. In addition, the sword scabbard is complete and the entanglement is complete, which can be described as the best in the sword and a rare treasure.
Finally, we have to say that without the insight of Mr. Ma Chengyuan, an expert in cultural relics appraisal, it is very likely that this national treasure will be exiled from Hong Kong and will be difficult to return to. In the years of treasure hunting in Hong Kong, Ma Chengyuan also rescued a large number of precious cultural relics in the Hong Kong antique market, including Jin Houding and Warring States Bamboo Jane, as well as the "Wu Wang Fu Cha" given to Xi Shi by Wu Wangfuchai, the gorgeous Warring States Silk, the Tang Dynasty's plump figurines and so on. Rare treasures were rescued one by one, which not only enriched the collection of the Shanghai Museum, but also saved a few more keys to open the door of the ancestors' secrets, Mr. Ma Chengyuan is indeed worthy of the respect of future generations!