The first trauma in the history of Chinese cultural relics was left by two robbers. It was a humiliating and unforgettable history, and to this day, when we think of the Yuanmingyuan, our hearts are still unable to calm down for a long time, and a royal garden with the reputation of the Garden of Ten Thousand Gardens was destroyed in a fire. What we are most concerned about is the Chinese cultural relics that were taken away by the great powers in modern wars, and now when we visit the museums of Western countries, we can still see a variety of ancient Chinese cultural relics inside. For decades, we have never stopped recovering lost overseas cultural relics, but because of various historical reasons, very few cultural relics have been recovered, and the work ahead is also difficult.
The sword, one of the ancient weapons, is the "short soldier", the king of the soldiers, known as the "king of a hundred soldiers". "Jun" is a gentleman, which means that the sword is a gentleman in the weapon, and after the late Spring and Autumn Period, the long sword became popular, but nevertheless, the short sword was not abolished. The sword has a long history in the mainland, and it also occupies a considerable position in Chinese culture, and in the long history, China has also formed a unique sword culture. Speaking of famous swords in Chinese history, many people first think of the Yue King's sword, which is a bronze sword, and the famous swords that people can remember are all bronze swords of a relatively old age. It is not that other dynasties do not have famous swords, there is a sword in the Han Dynasty that has been handed down, but it was lost overseas in modern times, so few people know.
The only surviving "Han Sword"
The Han Dynasty is one of the legendary dynasties in the history of the mainland, which is very powerful in military, economic and cultural aspects, and the sword has become a representative weapon at that time. However, the Han sword is different from the previous bronze sword, the Han sword is made of iron, and in terms of toughness and quality, the Han sword is slightly better than the bronze sword. However, the Han sword also has its shortcomings, like the bronze sword, it is extremely easy to corrode and rust, and the bronze sword that has been preserved so far is also preserved because of a special manufacturing process. Iron swords are more difficult to preserve, so much so that we do not see ancient iron swords today. So far, we have also unearthed a lot of Han swords in the archaeological process, but they are all mottled and mutilated, and the only one that is well preserved is stored in the British Museum.
Han Dynasty sword
The sword is by far the best-preserved Han Dynasty iron sword, the sword in the manufacturing process, it is extremely complex, it needs to be a piece of pig iron repeatedly heated and polished, in a thousand hammers and hammers, to achieve such a sword. It often takes a craftsman years or even more than ten years to create a sword, which shows its preciousness. In the Han Dynasty, the sword had already had a good reputation, but after the fall of the Han Dynasty, the manufacturing method of the sword was also lost, and the only remaining sword became a precious object that people competed to collect. After the Establishment of the Yuanmingyuan by the Qing Dynasty, the sword was hidden in the Yuanmingyuan and was taken away by the British and French forces in the ensuing war.
A sword worth far more than 1 billion
The value of the Yue King's sword is already very high today, but the value of the sword is also good. In terms of its preservation difficulty, the preservation of the iron sword is more difficult than the preservation of the bronze sword, and the lethality of the iron sword is greater than that of the bronze, and the well-preserved sword in the British Museum is even more rare. It is said that things are rare and expensive, and the age of the sword is later than that of the Yue King, but its valuation has exceeded 1 billion yuan today. However, in terms of the historical value of the two swords, they are equally important, so they should be priceless treasures.
The UK refused to return it
To this day, we can still clearly see this sword in the British Museum, which is very well preserved, the decoration and carving are very exquisite, and the ornamentation is impressive. The sword in the British Museum is the only known sword, and it can be said that it is the only surviving Han Dynasty sword, but unfortunately, it is now in a foreign country. It is not that we did not think of recovering the sword, but such a sword, the British did not want to lose, so they refused our request for return.