There were many things in ancient times that seemed superstition to modern people. But some things are not all superstitions, and they also have a certain scientific basis. For example, when the ancients forged swords, why did they use living people to "sacrifice"?
Gan Jiang and Mo Xie are one of the ten famous swords in ancient China, and the origin of the two swords is touching. According to the "Wu Yue Chunqiu" at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Gan will be an excellent sword casting master in the State of Wu, and the swords created are extremely sharp. Therefore, King Wu ordered him to build a sword that was unparalleled in the world. When The dry general forged the sword, the gentle Mo Xie was on the side to wipe the sweat and fan for him.
Three months have passed, and the general has still not been able to build a sword. He sighed, and Mo Xie knew why her husband sighed, and he also left tears. It turned out that the material that Gan would use to cast the sword was the essence of gold and iron collected from the five mountains and six combinations, and it could not be melted. If Tie Ying does not melt, there is no way to forge swords, and there is only one way to die when he waits for the general.
One night, Gan Will sighed again, but Mo Xie smiled at him. The general knew what the meaning of his wife's smile was, and quickly stopped: "You must not do that!" To this, Mo Xie did not answer, still maintaining a smile. When gan will wake up again, he finds that his wife is not around, and his heart is shocked and sad, and he rushes to the boiler room. Sure enough, Mo Xie was here, but she was standing on the towering wall of the forged sword. The cadre will know what his wife is going to do, and he will tear his heart out and shout her name, trying to stop his wife. Mo Xie smiled and smiled and left tears in her eyes, and the last words she said to her were: "General, I am not dead, we will still be together." ”
Mo Xianyi jumped into the sword casting furnace without hesitation, and a magical scene appeared, Tie Ying melted, and Gan Ji smoothly cast into a sword. The sword is two, one female and one male, and he named it "Gan General Mo Evil". Then, he dedicated the "Gan General" to King Wu, and "Mo Xie" was not handed over. When King Wu learned of this, he was very angry and ordered the samurai to kill the general. The samurai surrounded the generals, opened the sword box, and said, "Mo Evil, how can we be together?" Suddenly, the "Mo Evil" sword jumped out of the box, transformed into a beautiful white dragon, and flew away. At the same time, the Gan General also disappeared, and King Wu's "Gan General" sword was also gone.
Although the general Mo Xie is a legendary story, whether it really exists remains to be examined. But there is a certain truth in casting swords with living people.
At that time, many craftsmen used bronze to cast swords, and it was possible to melt them and smelt them successfully by conventional means. But the dry will use iron, its melting point is 1538 ° C, higher than the melting point of bronze, with ordinary charcoal can not be melted. With a living person casting a sword, the fat and carbohydrates in the human body will produce carbon elements. It just so happens that carbon will release heat during combustion, thereby increasing the temperature of the sword casting furnace. Once the temperature required for the iron to melt is reached, the iron naturally melts, and the craftsman can build the sword according to his own ideas or drawings. Of course, this effect can also be achieved by using animals such as cattle and sheep when forging swords. But the ancients thought that the swords forged by the living were more spiritual, so they used the very cruel way of sacrificing the living.