The era of cold weapons is often accompanied by the popularization of superstitious culture, or it is precisely because science has not yet developed, which has led to many people's ignorance and superstition, especially those who forge swords, who think that weapons are spiritual when forging swords.
These swordsmiths believe that the swords they create will carry some of their own breath, and this breath determines the nature of the sword, and the ancient people always liked to attach their will to the weapon, and it was precisely because of superstition and scientific coincidence.
For example, in the war, when the blacksmith opens the furnace to forge the sword, he will always carry out sacrifice activities, and the sacrifices used are usually cows, chickens and the like. However, according to ancient records, many people even use living people when casting swords, and they believe that the swords forged in this way will be sharper.
Sword casting ceremony during the Spring and Autumn period
A big climax of cold weapons appeared in the Spring and Autumn Warring States period, during which the Central Plains was divided by large and small princely states, each country had its own army, no matter how big or small, in order to survive this death game, the craftsmen of the big countries were often good at forging iron, of which the forging of weapons was more important.
The State of Qi was the most elder of the Warring States period, and also the head of the Seven Heroes of the Warring States, and its sword-casting ceremony was very civilized, and before the blacksmith opened the furnace, the civilian officials in charge of the ceremony would begin to work, and their task was mainly to select sacrifices.
According to the size of the scale of the sword casting, the choice and number of sacrifices are not the same, many people think that a big country like the State of Qi will often have many sacrifices, which is also very incorrect, the sword casting furnace of the State of Qi, generally can accommodate seven swords at a time to be cast at the same time, so it will choose seven sheep as sacrifices, plus a bucket of chicken blood.
After the ceremony begins, the blacksmith burns the furnace where the sword is forged red, and the person in charge of the sacrifice throws the blood of the sheep and chicken as sacrifices into the fire, and the flame will burn more and more, which means that the furnace sword will be the sharpest sword.
During the Qi period, under the rule of the Duke of Qi Huan, many private blacksmith shops were nationalized, they were incorporated by the state, and then received their own casting tasks from the state every day, and at the end of the month, the wages were uniformly settled, that is, the blacksmiths were the most primitive civil servants.
In the Warring States period, or in the cold weapon period, a blacksmith was equivalent to an arsenal, he could forge swords, guns, swords and other weapons by himself, and the blacksmith also had the need to maintain internal stability for the country.
The cult of cold weapons also directly led to the cult of blacksmiths, and people firmly believed that cold weapons would inherit the temperament of blacksmiths, so a good blacksmith, the sword he made must be good.
This is also the reason why many ancient blacksmiths were also martial arts masters, and it was precisely because they mastered the technology of weapon manufacturing that these people had the ability and conditions to practice, and for most civilians, they did not have such conditions.
The legend of the dry general Mo Evil
The story of Mo Xie forging a sword is well known, Wu Wang Fucha originally wanted to unify the Central Plains, first defeated the Yue State, and then prepared to attack the Chu State, so he wanted to find the Gan General and Mo Xie to build a sword for himself.
Although the two generals Mo Xie were ordinary blacksmiths, they both had the world in mind, and they thought that Wu Wangfu had a perverse and violent personality, and if he let him get the world, this common man was still uncertain about what kind of life he would live, so they didn't want to build it at all.
King Wu also understood in his heart the arrogance of the two generals, so when he made a request, he asked a group of guards to follow the emissaries to the residence of the general Mo Xie, which meant that you two must forge swords for me well, otherwise neither of them would survive.
There was no way, the general Mo Xie could only obediently forge swords, and the king of Wu's request was two unique swords, he would give these two swords to his great general to kill the enemy and seize the city, after the general built the sword body, he was taken away by the soldiers of the King of Wu, and at the same time ordered Mo Xie to continue to forge the sword.
It turned out that King Wu was afraid that General Gan would flee on the day the sword was forged, so he threatened the life of the General Gan, and as long as Mo Xie took out two swords at that time, he would let the couple have a way to live.
Without the help of the general, Mo Xie could only forge the sword alone, but in the later stage, Mo Xie found that the sword could not be melted, and it turned out that in order to create the sword, The sword would be added a lot of iron to the sword.
Mo Xie thought that the sword could only be successful if it was sacrificed, so he jumped into the fire in front of everyone.
Miraculously, when Mo Xie jumped into the sword casting furnace, a sword with cold light and frost was directly completed, and King Wu's men immediately sent this sword into the palace of King Wu, and King Wu was overjoyed when he saw it, and his heart was even more convinced of the sacrifice.
When the generals in the Wu King's palace learned of Mo Xie's death, their hearts were full of grief and tears, and he returned to his residence with the promise of The King of Wu, at this time surrounded by all the soldiers of the King of Wu, and they had to stare at him and forge another sword.
With sorrow for his wife, the general raised his hammer and hammered the body of the sword, and after the last quenching, the general jumped into the sword casting furnace without hesitation, at this time, a sword like a stream of fire suddenly flew out of the furnace, which stunned the people present.
After these two swords came out, they were named Gan general Mo Evil, and at the same time became synonymous with divine weapons.
Scientific explanation
So, can a sword forged by blacksmiths really inherit the will of its master? The answer is naturally no, but when sacrificed in the flesh, the sword must be more tough and sharp, which is true.
In the Spring and Autumn Period, although metal weapons have become popular, most of them are bronze weapons, such as bronze halberds and bronze spears, and these weapons are difficult to have a huge sword body, because bronzes are easy to break.
Therefore, King Wu asked Gan to cast a sword that cut iron like mud, which actually meant casting a sword that was not easy to break, so in the process of casting the sword, Gan would use iron ore, because iron is not only harder than bronze, but also more resilient, and not easy to break.
However, the temperature of the flame burned by the wood fire during the process of casting the sword is far from the degree of melting iron, so when people jump into the furnace and use the flesh as the burning material, the phosphorus in the hair and the fat in the body become the co-solvent of the metal, which melts the iron.
The carbon element in our bones can react with iron to produce an effect similar to steel, that is to say, the gan general Mo Xie actually cast a steel sword in the Bronze Age, and when the bronze sword is used to fight with the steel sword, it is natural that steel takes advantage.
Therefore, the seemingly magical sacrifice is actually a scientific principle that plays a role behind it, and the progress of generations of cold weapon forging technology is behind the blood and tears of countless blacksmiths, and science has also been developed in ignorance and superstition.