Judging from documentary records, China entered the Iron Age around the Western Zhou Dynasty. In "The Book of Songs Qin Feng", there is a poem "Si Si Kong Fu". Some scholars believe that "驖" is the earliest word for "iron", which means the color of the horse is like iron. "Guoyu Qiyu" says that Guan Zhong suggested to Duke Huan of Qi: "U.S. dollars can be used to cast swords and halberds to test dogs and horses; bad gold can be used to cast buttons and jins to test the soil." Some people think that "US dollars" here refers to Bronze, "evil gold" refers to iron, and is used to cast agricultural tools. Guo Moruo believes, “If Duke Huan of Qi had already used iron as a farming tool, iron must have appeared earlier. It would take a long time for a valuable substance to be effectively used, especially It was in ancient times, so the first appearance of iron must have been long before the Spring and Autumn Period."
Archaeological discoveries and research in recent years have confirmed the above conclusion. According to the 1984 "Chinese Archaeological Yearbook", an iron tool was found in the Western Zhou Dynasty ruins in Yaozhuang, Mancheng, Hebei, but the results of analysis and identification have not yet been seen; in 1978, an iron tool was unearthed from the Chunqiu No. 1 tomb in Jingjiazhuang, Lingtai County, Gansu. The iron leaf sword with a copper handle dates from the early Spring and Autumn Period. The iron sword was sampled by the Beijing Iron and Steel Institute for metallographic analysis. Because it was all severely rusted, no results were obtained from the observation. Among the earlier ones are four iron tools unearthed from Tomb No. 1 of Qin Gong in Fengxiang, Shaanxi Province. This tomb was determined by 14C and dated to 870±150 BC, which also belongs to the early Spring and Autumn Period. The age of the iron tools unearthed in Lingtai and Fengxiang is also close to the Western Zhou Dynasty, which undoubtedly shows that my country has initially entered the Iron Age during the Western Zhou Dynasty.