The sword occupies an important and unique position in ancient Chinese culture.
The sword, the supreme and noble, is the ancestor of the short soldier. Because of its lightness, brilliance, and swiftness, it is proud of the princes and princes of successive dynasties, scribes and warriors, and merchants and commoners.
Swords and art, since ancient times, have often crisscrossed the battlefield, dominated the martial arts, established themselves in the country, and practiced benevolence and righteousness, so they have been handed down to this day, still loved by the world, and also deeply rooted in the hearts of the people with their glorious history.
Today, let's take stock of the ancient swords unearthed and take a look at these swords buried in the ground for thousands of years!
First, the king of Yue Gou practiced the sword - the first sword under the world
In 1965, Tomb No. 1 of the Wangshan Chu Tomb Group in Jingzhou District, Jingzhou City, Hubei Province, unearthed a cold and awe-inspiring sword, which has been buried underground for more than 2,000 years, but it is still intact!
King Yue Gou practiced the sword
This bronze sword is 55.7 cm long, 4.6 cm wide, 8.4 cm long and 8.4 cm long, with a total weight of 875 grams, and the sword body is covered with black diamond-shaped geometric dark patterns, engraved with the eight characters "钺王鴠shun, self-use 鐱", blue glass on the front of the sword grid, turquoise inlaid on the reverse side into a delicate pattern, and the hilt is wrapped with silk rope. According to researchers, this sword should be the self-used sword of King Yue.
Experts tested its sharpness, stacked two dozen A4 sheets on top of each other, and then slashed with a sword, easily cutting through 26 A4 sheets.
2. Yue Wang Zhou Gou Sword - the most surviving sword
There are many Zhou Gou bronze swords in existence, and 11 coexistence have been found so far.
Yue Wang Zhou Gou Sword
Zhou Gou, the great-grandson of Gou Jian and the son of Bu Shou, reigned from 448 to 412 BC. In 1973, a sword was unearthed from Tomb No. 1 of Fujidian in Jingzhou District, Jingzhou City, Hubei Province, with a length of 56.2 cm, the shape is similar to the Yue Wang Gou Jian sword, and there is a row of wrong golden bird seal inscriptions near the grid on both sides of the sword ridge, which are interpreted as: "Yue Wang Zhou Gou" and "Self-acting Sword".
3. Wu Wang Guang bronze sword
There are two extant Wu Wang lightsabers, and a bronze sword was unearthed in Yuanping, Shanxi in 1964, with a round head, a cylindrical stem, two convex edges in the middle, and a ridge section rhombus. The sword grid has animal face patterns on both sides. The sides of the sword are decorated with flame patterns. There is an inscription near the sword grid, which is eroded by itself, and can be roughly identified as two lines of eight characters: "Attack Wu Wang Guang Self-acting Sword."
Wu Wang Guang bronze sword
Wu Wang Guang, that is, King Wu Lang Lu, surnamed Ji, name Guang, son of King Zhufan of Wu, so it is also called "Gongzi Guang".
4. King Yan's sword
In July 1997, Han Rushui, a villager in Longguan Village, Linzi District, Zibo, found an ancient sword when he was taking soil on the beach contracted by the Zihe Beach in the east of the village.
Yan Wang Zhi Sword
The position of the king of Yan, the name Ji position, or the name ping, the character position, is the king of Yan Zhao, the son of the king of Yan Zhao, and when King Yan Zhao reigned, it was when the Yan country was strong.
Yan Wang Zhi Sword
5. Terracotta Army No. 2 pit Qin Jian
In 1994, archaeologists excavated the Terracotta Army No. 2 pit and suddenly found something pressed under the Terracotta Army, the shape was thin and long, and after removing the Terracotta Army, it was found that it was a bronze sword with cold light! After thousands of years, the sword energy is still like a rainbow, and through the sword light, it seems that you can still see the iron horse glacier, and the smoke of gunfire is filled.
What is even more shocking is that 17 Qin swords have been unearthed in the No. 2 figurine pit, each of which is as sharp as autumn frost and cold light. One of the swords was bent by a high-ranking military figure for thousands of years, and after it was unearthed, it was unbelievable that it actually played straight by itself!
6. The jade-handled iron sword - the first sword in China
The jade-handled iron sword is known as the "first sword in China", and it dates back 2800 years, breaking the record of the oldest iron smelting tool in China for 2600 years of the bronze-handled iron sword of the Qin State. Pushed China's iron smelting forward for 200 years. The jade-handled iron sword pierced the Iron Age of Yangyang Wuhua
Although it looks like an inconspicuous "baked sweet potato" after years of fine grinding, the years cannot bury its former glory. It is a bionic sword, and the hilt sits on the ground, like a bamboo that breaks through the earth and is heroic!
7. Eagle head short sword
a bronze sword from the Western Zhou Dynasty unearthed in Changpingbai, Beijing; This sword is 25 cm long and bears the characteristics of steppe culture.
Eagle head short sword
The specific origin of this sword is still a mystery!
8. The king of Yue is intended to give the sword
In October 1995, bronze expert Mr. Ma Chengyuan miraculously discovered a sword rumored to have originated in Zhejiang in an antique shop in Hong Kong, and with the help of Hangzhou Iron and Steel Group, the Zhejiang Provincial Museum successfully obtained this lost national treasure in early 1996 and returned it to the Yue Kingdom.
The king of Yue is intended to give the sword
The Yue King intended the sword to be bronze , with a total length of 52.4 cm. The sword body of this artifact is broad, the middle ridge is lined, and the double blade is curved and narrowed at the near edge. The two sides of the sword grid are cast with double-hooked bird and insect inscriptions, and the obverse is: 戉 (Yue) 王戉 (Yue) 王; The opposite is: He is aiming at the eye.
The owner of this sword is "the king of Yue will to give". "Zhizhi" is pronounced "Zhuji", which is the clan of the king of Yue, and "Yu Ci" is the name. King Yue Yu is the king of Yue, and he is the son of King Gou Jian, the king of Yue, who once "lay down and tasted courage".
There are a total of 7 swords with the same inscription as this sword.
9. Wu Wang Fucha bronze sword
There are 9 known swords of Wu Wangfu in existence. In 1976, the Wu Wangfu sword was excavated in Hui County, Henan Province, and is now stored in the National Museum of China; The Wu Wangfu sword found in Pingdu, Shandong is now in the collection of the Shandong Provincial Museum; Taiwan's Guyue Pavilion has a sword of Wu Wangfu; In 1976, Wu Wangfu's sword was excavated in Xiangyang, Hubei Province and stored in the Hubei Provincial Museum.
Wu Wangfucha sword belongs to the wide grid with hoop sword, the design takes into account both practicality and decoration. The wide-grid sword is easy to hold, conducive to stabbing and can play an effective role in actual combat; In terms of sword body design, ridges, concave arc sections, narrowing front blades, and arc inner adduction blades can enhance the lethality of the sword, making it play a better role on the battlefield.
10. "King Wu's Yu Wei Sword"
At the end of 2014, the Suzhou Museum collected a "Wu King Yu Wei Sword", this sword has a total of 75 characters, which is the longest inscription among the pre-Qin sword weapons seen so far.
In 1997, Lu Xunlu in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province also unearthed a "King of Wu Yu Wei Sword", which mentions that Yu Mo attacked the nest of the Chu state after taking the throne, and later supported the Xu state in the Battle of Chu and Xu, defeating the Chu army and capturing seven Chu state princes.
Most of the above famous swords were unearthed in the land of Wuyue, in the late Warring States period, the smelting technology of Wuyue and Yue can be said to be the best in contemporary times, far ahead of civilizations around the world, and I have to sigh at the wisdom of the ancients!