On September 16, hubei provincial museum officially launched the cultural innovation "Yue Wang Jian Traffic Joint Card". The card is based on the "Yue Wang Gou Jian Sword" as the prototype to reduce the scale, and the sword body pattern and the "Yue Wang Dove (Hook) Shallow (Jian), Self-Acting Sword" bird seal inscription are clearly visible. Netizens from other places have expressed their real name envy after seeing this traffic card, but some people are puzzled, wasn't the ancient Yue Kingdom located in today's Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas? Why is the Yue Wang Gou Jian sword unearthed in Hubei and become the treasure of the Hubei Museum?
To answer the above question, we must first understand the territory of the ancient Yue Kingdom. The kingdom of Vietnam lasted for more than 1,800 years, and in such a long period of time, the territory of the territory was bound to change greatly, mainly divided into five historical periods.
1. The initial period of the Vietnamese State. The first monarch of the Yue Dynasty was named Wuyu, and he was the son of Shao Kang, the monarch of the Xia Dynasty, with a fiefdom in Yue (会稽, in present-day Shaoxing, Zhejiang). According to the records in the Book of Yue Extinction, "Wuyu initially sealed Dayue, all Qin Yu looked south", "Qin Shi Huang and Chu, Baiyue rebelled, and the eastern name Dayue was Shanyin ye". Therefore, based on these descriptions, it can be inferred that the territory of the early establishment of the Yue Kingdom was the surrounding area centered on Shanyin (present-day Yuecheng District, Shaoxing City).
2. The period of Yue Wang Yunchang. Yun Chang was the monarch of the Yue state in the late Spring and Autumn Period, and during his reign he developed production internally and expanded his territory externally. At that time, the territory of the Yue Kingdom stretched from Juwu (present-day Zhuji, Zhejiang) in the south, Yu'er (present-day Jiaxing) in the north, Yin (present-day Ningbo) in the east, and Guyu (present-day Longyou) in the west. In addition, Yun Chang was also the first Yue monarch to claim the title of king.
Third, the Yue King's Gouge in the early stage. Yue Wang Gou Jian was the son of Yue Wang Yunchang, who defeated Wu Wang Lu in the early days of his succession, thus expanding the territory of the Yue kingdom to present-day Kunshan and Jiading. However, in the key battle that followed, Gou Jian was defeated by Fu Cha of Wu, the son of Lu Lu. Gou Jian became a prisoner of Fu Cha and lived in the State of Wu for three years, and the State of Yue also became a vassal state of the State of Wu.
Fourth, the Yue King's heyday. After being released back to the Yue Kingdom, Gou Jian tried his courage and revived his national strength, and finally succeeded in defeating the State of Wu. After the yue kingdom destroyed Wu, its national strength reached its peak, and its territory roughly included today's Zhejiang and Jiangsu, as well as northern Jiangxi and eastern Anhui.
Fifth, the period of decline of the Vietnamese country. After the death of King Gou of Yue, there were three incidents of king-killing within the kingdom of Yue, namely "three killings of kings by yue". The turbulent environment greatly weakened the strength of the Yue state, and the Chu state located in the west of the Yue state took the opportunity to send troops to attack the Yue and captured the capital of the Yue state in one fell swoop. Since then, the country has fallen apart, and only some weak forces have survived along the eastern coast of Zhejiang, but they have no importance to the overall situation.
Looking at the changes in the territory of Yueguo, we can easily see that even in the heyday of Yueguo, its territory did not touch today's Hubei. Therefore, it is naturally impossible for Yue Wang to go to Hubei. So how could the "Yue Wang Gou Jian Sword", as the personal sword of Gou Jian, be unearthed in Hubei? (Note: In December 1965, the Yue Wang Gou Jian sword was unearthed in the lacquered wooden sword sheath on the left side of the skeleton of the owner of the inner coffin of the owner of Tomb No. 1 of the Wangshan Chu Tomb Group in Jiangling County, Jingzhou City, Hubei Province.) Later generations have two speculations about this.
The first speculation is that Gou Jian had married his daughter to King Zhao of Chu as Ji, so the sword was likely to have come to the Chu state as his daughter's dowry; the second speculation was that Chu had captured the sword and brought it back to the Chu state when he destroyed Yue.
So which of these two guesses is more likely? I think it's the latter. The Yue King's Gou Jian Sword not only represented the highest level of short weapon manufacturing at that time, with the reputation of "the first sword in the world", but also the king's sword of the Yue monarch. Such a heavy weapon of the country represents extraordinary significance, how could Yue Wang Gou Jian use it as a dowry for his daughter to marry the Chu state? Therefore, only when the country is broken and the family is destroyed, and the Yue people have no choice, the Yue King's sword will be possessed by the Chu people. Therefore, although Yue Wang Gou Jian had never been to Hubei in his life, his sword fell to Hubei and became the treasure of the Hubei Museum.
References: "Yue Zhi Shu", "Wu Yue Chunqiu"