In a TV series called "Burning Afang Palace", a famous actress played the swordsman Mrs. Xu. In Hebei Zizi's "Absolute Singing", there is also a Zhao Guo casting sword woman Lady Xu. In the TV series "Legend of Jingke", Madame Xu jumped into the furnace and used her life to cast a sharp dagger for Jingke to stab the King of Qin.
The prototype of Lady Xu is Lady Xu, the maker of the "Jing Ke Thorn Qin King" dagger. However, what caused an uproar in the historical circles was that these Xu ladies were invariably changed their genders. As everyone knows, Mrs. Xu in history is "he" not "she", but a genuine man with the surname "Xu" and the name "Lady".
01 Mrs. Xu, a sword casting expert
According to the "Warring States Policy", "The prince pre-sought the dagger of the world, obtained the dagger of Lady Xu of the Zhao people, and took a hundred gold, so that the workers could quench it with medicine." Lady Xu in the text is a sword caster in the Zhao Kingdom, and the prince gets the "Lady Xu Dagger". There are also such descriptions in the Chronicle of History.
Mrs. Xu, introduced in the ancient books, is a sword casting master who has studied collecting daggers. Before Jing Ke's action, Prince Dan had been trying to find the sharp dagger in the world, and later heard of Lady Xu's name, so he spent a lot of money to buy his sharp dagger.
Prince Dan ordered the dagger to be soaked with severe poison, and first experimented with living people, and found that Madame Xu's dagger was indeed worthy of the name, even if it was only a little cut through the skin, it would also see blood sealing the throat. After the experiment was successful, the dagger was safely handed over to Jing Ke.
Unfortunately, Jing Ke's action failed, and this dagger naturally fell into the hands of the King of Qin. It is said that the dagger was given to the best sword-casting master by the King of Qin, re-cast, became sharper and more powerful, and gave it to a meritorious swordsman. Although Jing Ke's assassination of Qin ended in tragedy, Lady Xu and Dagger became famous.
02 Dagger brand Mrs. Xu
In the Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai's "Three Gifts to Friends, Two", there is a verse that reads, "The dagger of Zhao in the sleeve is bought from Lady Xu", and he carries a dagger made by Zhao Guo in his sleeve and buys it from Lady Xu's house. The Northern Song Dynasty poet He Zhu also mentioned Lady Xu's dagger in "Climbing the Yellow Crane Tower Huaigu and Sending Pan Feng Lao Kunzhong": "Lady Xu's dagger is safe, and Ding Ling Weihua returns."
The "Lady Xu" brand dagger has become a well-known trademark in the dagger industry and has been respected by generations of literati and inkers. Prince Dan of Yan, who purchased Madame Xu's dagger, became the best advertiser for this brand.
So, Prince Dan of Yan paid a hundred gold to buy Lady Xu's dagger, was it expensive or cheap? In many occasions at the time, the use of "gold" actually meant "copper", but when used in the name of the unit of money, it more often referred to "gold". Because according to the technical level of the Warring States period, it was already capable of mining precious metals such as "gold". Therefore, this shopping experience of Prince Dan is indeed worth the money.
Daggers, also known as short swords. Used for close-quarters assassinations, or one-handed throws. Jing Ke's assassination of the King of Qin is a difficult task, and the short dagger is conveniently hidden in the map. As for how short this dagger is, it can be judged by comparing it with the standard bronze swords of the same period. Modern people will find that the standard bronze sword of the Spring and Autumn Warring States period is not long, generally only 50 or 60 centimeters, and the width of the grip is only 7 or 8 centimeters. So Madame Xu's dagger will only be smaller.
Look at the material of Mrs. Xu's dagger. The end of the Warring States period was the era of bronze weapons, as a sharp weapon in the world, was Madame Xu's dagger also a bronze product?
Taizidan requires repeated quenching with a poison, and in the metallurgical process, bronze is not suitable for repeated quenching. Obviously, Madame Xu's dagger is not an ordinary bronze product. It can become sharper during repeated quenching, indicating that it is an alloy of bronze and iron, and its toughness is similar to that of steel. The State of Yan attached great importance to the preparation of Jing Ke's assassination of Qin, and would spend great efforts to create a top-level weapon, and Lady Xu's dagger was probably one of the earliest steel weapons at that time.
Of course, when Sima Guang recorded the incident of "Jing Ke's Assassination of Qin" in the Zizhi Tongjian, he did not mention that the dagger came from the State of Zhao, nor did he say that it was Lady Xu's dagger. Sima Guang deliberately removed these two pieces of information, reflecting the professionalism of this historian.
Mrs. Xu's dagger can become a brand-name product, in addition to its own excellent conditions, it is inevitable to have a certain exaggerated publicity component. Just as the historical records describe the King of Qin who tried to draw his sword several times, but did not pull it out, the dagger is so short, is this kind of situation reasonable? It is likely that literary and artistic processing techniques were adopted here.
In the selection of information, the Zizhi Tongjian attaches great importance to the reliability of its data sources. Perhaps Sima Guang could not find evidence of the origin of the dagger and the original owner in black and white, and avoided these contents in order to make the book more scientific and rigorous and avoid causing unnecessary controversy.
03 Mrs. Xu's gender question
All along, not no one has ever doubted, saying" Why can't Madame Xu be a woman?" "Because in ancient times, there were indeed female sword casters. For example, during the Spring and Autumn Period, Mo Xie, the wife of the Sword CastEr General of the Wu Kingdom, the husband and wife forged swords for the King of Chu, and spent several years and a lot of painstaking efforts to cast the two Excalibur swords of "Gan General" and "Mo Evil".
However, it should be known that Mo Xie himself was born in a family of sword casting, and her father was famous, and he was Ou Yezi, the originator of ancient Chinese sword casting, and this family basically monopolized the market for top-level equipment and fine swords at that time. Moreover, in the era of pure handmade, it is difficult to bear the heavy physical work of casting swords with only the strength of women, and Mo Xie also assisted her husband to work together.
Looking back at Madame Xu, neither said that the sword-casting master had a wife nor a husband, and that it was unlikely that a woman could complete the sword alone, and it was obvious that the statement that he was a man was more valid.
During the Tang Kaiyuan period, the historian Sima Zhen wrote the "History of Suoyin", directly posing his views: "Xu, surname; lady, name." Say men also. ”
The "lady" in some ancient contexts is different from the modern "lady" because ancient and modern names are very different. China's surname culture has a long history, and the "surname" in ancient times originated from the matrilineal clan society and is generally associated with a certain totem. Later, as the population increased, the surname began to branch out, so that there was a "clan".
Clans arise from patriarchal societies and are closely related to status. A person has only one surname, but can have several clans. During the reign of Qin Shi Huang, surnames gradually merged, and by the Han Dynasty, surnames basically defaulted to one thing.
At the beginning, "name" was only a symbol, used to distinguish between people, can be more arbitrary, with the development of society to give the meaning of status symbols on it. Therefore, some ancient names that modern people think are very strange are actually very normal in the eyes of the ancients.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, in addition to Lady Xu, there were also some names that now seem very unique, such as the King of Qin Wu called Yingdang, the King of Qinzhuang Xiang called Yin Yiren, the male favorite of Empress Qin Xuan called Wei Ugly Husband, and so on.
As for the name "Lady", there was another one in the Han Dynasty, called "Lady Ding", whose gender was male. Like Lady Xu, Lady Ding was also a capable figure, and at that time he was shouldering the task of "curse the army".
The "Curse Army", as the name suggests, is a curse army, which was commonly used in the wars of the Han Dynasty. When Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty attacked the Xiongnu, the Xiongnu "tied the feet of horses" and "buried cattle and sheep" and exercised the art of cursing the army. The Han army will also apply this sorcery in battle, sending special people to curse the enemy. The object of Lady Ding's curse was the Great Wanguo kingdom in the Western Regions, and he made a great contribution in this battle.
04 Assassin Spirit
The dagger's owner, Lady Xu, provided a lethal weapon, and the dagger's user, Jing Ke, failed to kill the King of Qin. For the parties involved, there are indeed too many regrets, but that thrilling story makes future generations always remember an extraordinary assassin.
Assassins and daggers often appeared at the same time, and were written again and again in literary works. Such an action of "stabbing" carries too many emotional colors, is to fight hard, is a dexterous response, is righteous, is sacrificing life for righteousness, and under the beauty of exuberance and majesty, it is smeared with a little taste of sadness.
The assassin Jing Ke, heroic and fearless, with a sharp blade in his hand, came from the lady. Maybe the right time, a good weapon, can change a piece of history, but also save a life.
Author: Our special guest author Shinobu
References: Warring States Strategy, Yan Ce III, Chronicle of the Assassins, Zizhi Tongjian Qin Ji II, "Witchcraft of the Curse Army" in the Han-Hungarian Western Regions War