In ancient China, there were many famous divine weapons, such as fish intestines, Tai'a and other swords. In legend, these swords are not only divine weapons, each sword is spiritual. The ancients usually believed that there is animism, so in order to forge these famous swords, there have been many "martyrdom of swords" in history. For example, the two swords of the most famous gan general in history, Mo Xie, were forged in legend by using the sword of the living sacrifice.
Ancient times belonged to the era of cold weapons, so sharp divine weapons were the best treasures in ancient times. The ancient mainland was the earliest country of smelting origin, and it was already able to forge iron swords as early as the late Western Zhou Dynasty. For example, the "Jade Handle Iron Sword", the treasure of the town courtyard collected by the Henan Museum, has a history of more than 2800 years. At that time, it was still in the Bronze Age, and the power of an iron sword could be imagined, and it was definitely a veritable divine weapon.
So, since iron swords have appeared 2800 years ago, why has it not been popularized? This is because earlier smelting techniques were so backward that they could not effectively melt iron ore. The way the ancients "sacrificed the sword with the body" and sacrificed the sword with a living person occurred during this period. Of course, this was not a superstitious act for the ancients. The ancients believed that the golden stone of sincerity was opened, and in the face of iron ore that could not be melted, in order to show their sincerity, they chose to sacrifice the sword with a living person.
In folklore, the two legendary swords of Gan general Mo Xie were used to sacrifice the sword of the living when casting. It is said that King Wu ordered the generals Mo Xie and his wife to forge swords, and gan would work hard to collect the best quality iron ore, but he was never able to melt the ore. Seeing that the time stipulated by King Wu was getting shorter and shorter, Mo Xie, the wife of the general, was afraid that her husband would be punished by King Wu for this, so she voluntarily threw herself into the furnace and forged the two unique swords of the general Mo Xie.
Of course, folklore has some exaggerations, and if you want to know the truth about the casting of the cast of the guild, you still need to look for answers in the history books. According to the records in the "WuYue Spring and Autumn", the general Mo Xie also encountered the problem that the ore could not melt in the process of forging the sword. So the wife of the general, Mo Xie, "cut her hair and claws and threw it into the furnace", and finally forged a sword. Whether it is a sword sacrificed by a living person or a sword with fingernails and hair, what is the secret in between? Why The gan general Mo Xie used a living person to sacrifice the sword is actually not a superstition of the ancients, and modern scientists have given an explanation.
According to scientists, ancient smelting techniques were relatively low, and the fuel used for smelting was usually charcoal. Although charcoal was the best fuel available at the time, it was still not enough to melt iron ore. Because the temperature of charcoal under ordinary combustion is only 700 degrees, even if it is fueled by a blower, the maximum temperature can only be more than 1100 degrees. However, if you want to melt iron ore, you must at least have more than 1535 degrees.
The ancients sacrificed swords to the living, not because the ancients were superstitious. Rather, because the human body contains a large amount of oil, it can play a very good role in fueling combustion, and when smelting ore, the sword of the living person can greatly increase the temperature of the charcoal. The human nails and hair contain trace elements, which can also indirectly increase the quality of iron ore and increase the carbon content in it. Iron, which usually contains 0.05%-2% carbon, is called steel. In history, those legendary divine weapons in the Spring and Autumn Period were most likely steel swords. Steel swords unearthed from the late Spring and Autumn tombs of Yangjiashan in Changsha, Hunan Province, prove that the mainland already had steelmaking technology as early as 2500 years ago.
Because the ancients did not understand the reasons for this, they also thought that it was the role of the golden stone that was sincere, and mistakenly thought that it was the living sacrifice of the sword to improve the quality of the sword. In fact, this is all because the ancients knew too little about science and did not understand the truth. However, all this is because the smelting technology before the pre-Qin Dynasty was too backward, and it was forced to adopt this method. Since the Qin Dynasty, after the widespread popularization of iron tools, there has never been a case of living people sacrificing swords.