Sword casting technology originated in the Yin and Zhou Dynasties. During the Spring and Autumn Period, due to the criss-crossing water network and numerous Lin Mang, the sword became a conventional weapon for the armies of southern countries such as Wu Yuechu. During this period, wuyue's sword casting technology far surpassed other countries in the Central Plains. After the destruction of Yue State by Chu State, the exquisite sword-casting technology of Yue State spread to Chu State. Therefore, Wu Yuechu is known as the "hometown of swords". It is said that Gou Jian, the King of Yue, has the largest collection of swords.
The Yuejueshu of the Han Dynasty is recorded as follows:
So, is Chunjun Sword an ancient myth or a real one? If so, where is this sword?
196565438+In February, during the construction of water conservancy project in Jiangling area of Jingzhou, Hubei Province, the Chu tomb was accidentally discovered. When archaeologists carefully opened the inner coffin of the owner of Tomb No.1, they found a bronze sword in a painted wooden sheath on the left side of the skeleton.
After the cultural relics were cleaned up, the staff slowly pulled the sword out of the scabbard, and everyone present was shocked. This Gu Jian has no rust. After thousands of years, it is still as bright as new and chilly. Some people reached out to touch it rashly, and accidentally their fingers were cut by the blade of the sword, and their faces were covered with blood, so everyone joked that this was a sword "bleeding to recognize the Lord."
With the constant identification of archaeologists and scientists, the magic of this sword is more and more surprising.
First, this sword is extremely sharp. In the experiment, researchers used it to cut paper. Twenty layers of paper were cut off with a slight stroke in the middle.
Second, a variety of alloy components ensure the best performance. The sword ridge is made of bronze alloy with low tin content, which has strong toughness and is not easy to break; The blade is made of alloy with high tin content, which is harder and sharper. There are chemical components such as tin, copper, iron, chromium and sulfur in the black pattern on the surface of the sword body, which is stainless for thousands of years, mainly because the sword body is plated with a layer of corrosion-resistant metal containing chromium.
What needs to be emphasized here is that chromium is a rare metal, and the content of chromium in earth rocks is very low, so it is very difficult to extract it. In addition, chromium is particularly resistant to high temperature, and its melting point is around 4000℃. It is hard to imagine that the ancients made chrome-plated swords at such high temperature.
Third, composite metal casting technology and multiple molding technology. It is found that the process of geometric dark lines on the surface of the sword body is more complicated when the ridge and blade are cast twice. At present, there is no conclusion about its method.
Fourth, the concentric circles of the sword head are accurate to the thickness of the hair. Sword jewelry has 1 1 hand-carved concentric circles, only 0.2 mm, which is very regular. It's really scary that no advanced machine tool reached this level more than two thousand years ago.
Experts believe that the ancient chrome plating technology of this sword has been lost, and the current scientific and technological means are still difficult to crack, so this sword cannot be copied by ancient methods.
Judging from the unearthed cultural relics, there are many bronze swords that have been handed down to this day, but among all the bronze swords found, the craftsmanship of this sword is the best. It is the pinnacle of ancient bronze swords in China, so it enjoys the reputation of "the first sword in the world".
According to common sense, this sword appears in the tomb of Chu, so its owner must be from Chu. However, the archaeological results are beyond people's expectation.
This sword has eight words engraved on its body. The Book of Birds and Insects is a variant of seal script, which is difficult to identify. However, six of these eight words appeared in weapons unearthed in the past, and archaeologist Fang Zhuangyou quickly recognized the words "Betty Wong" and "automatic sword". The two illegible words after "Betty Wong" are very important for identifying the owner. According to the past practice of finding inscriptions on swords, it should be a name of Betty Wong. Mr. Fang Zhuangyou thinks that these two words are "Shao Jian", which may be the son of his son, and the history books contain no boundaries.
Later, Tang Lan, an expert on bronze inscriptions, expressed different views. He concluded that these two difficult words were "dove shallow" and "dove shallow" was the general name of the king of Yue "Gou Jian" who had a hard life in history. The eight words on the sword are "Gou Jian, the King of Yue, acts as a sword". Later, after careful study, experts and scholars finally determined that this sword was the sword of Gou Jian, the king of Yue.
Then there is a new question: Why did the sword of the King of Yue appear in the tomb of Chu?
According to archaeologists' inference, the first possibility: when Chu and Yue fought, the Vietnamese army was defeated, and the sword of Gou Jian, the king of Yue, became the trophy of General Chu, who was buried after his death; The second possibility: Gou Jian, the King of Yue, once married his daughter to the State of Chu, and this sword is a dowry. In CCTV's National Treasure, the latter statement was adopted and interpreted.
According to ancient records such as the Spring and Autumn Annals of Wu Yue, Yuejueshu, and Notes on Water Mirror, Ou Yezi, the master of sword casting, cast five peerless swords for Yuewangyun, namely, Zhan Lu, Chunjun, Xie Sheng, Fish Intestine and Juque. Could Gou Jian's unearthed sword be one of them?
Let's analyze it by exclusion.
There are three long swords and two short swords. Among them, fish intestines and Juque are short swords, which are inconsistent with Gou Jian's sword, and can be ruled out.
According to Wu Yue Chun Qiu, the daughter of He Lv, the king of Wu, was named Teng Yu. After her death, she was buried in Jian 'an Tomb.
There are many stories about the whereabouts of Zhan Lujian. According to legend, during the Warring States Period, Li Mu, a famous soldier of Zhao, once wore this sword to fight against Qin. Later, Xue, a famous soldier in the Tang Dynasty, won the sword. Many years later, Yue Fei, a famous Southern Song Dynasty soldier, held this sword to resist gold. After Yue Fei's death, this sword disappeared completely. According to these statements, at least Zhan Lu's sword was handed down by later generations, so it can't be in the ancient tomb of Chu.
In this way, in the Spring and Autumn Period, only the pure monarch sword was missing. If it's the trophy or dowry mentioned above, then this Goujian sword should be a pure military sword. Of course, there is another possibility that Gou Jian, the king of Yue, brought his favorite pure Jun sword into his tomb, but the tomb of Gou Jian, the king of Yue, has not been found in archaeological excavations yet.
Because some of our inferences are based on legends, from a scientific point of view, it is impossible to determine whether Gou Jian's sword is pure Jun sword at present. It can only be said that judging from the degree of coincidence between the inscription and casting process of the sword body and the records in ancient books, the possibility of its identity is still relatively large.
Whether Gou Jian's sword is a pure Jun sword handed down from ancient times or not, this archaeological discovery provides physical evidence for Ou Yezi's sword casting technology recorded in history, and Gou Jian is still worthy of the reputation of "the first sword in China".