What is the "Wu Hook" brought to you by today's editorial? Interested readers can follow the editor.
In ancient poetry, the image of "Wu Hook" often appears. For example, Li He of the Tang Dynasty said: "Why not use Wu Gou as the fifty states of Guanshan?" Song Dynasty's "Shuilongyin Deng Health Banquet Pavilion" said: "After reading it, the railings were photographed everywhere, and no one could reach the purpose. "Ground." In this way, "Wu Hook" should be a weapon. "The Romance of Sacrifice" is even more obvious: "There are two swords on the back of the wooden cha, called 'Wu Gou'. These swords belong to 'Jiang Gan' and 'Ye Yi', divided into male and female." So, Wu Gou is a wooden sword. A sword owned by Cha. But why is the sword called "hook"? It's really hard to understand.
What exactly is "Wu Gou"? Guo's "Meng Qian Bi Tan" has long explained: "There are many words about it in Tang poetry. Wu Gou, the name of the sword, is also a kind of scimitar. This is the one used in Southern Manchuria today. This is called Dangge Road." At that time, The Wu Gou is a curved sword-shaped weapon also called a "hook". It is said that "it is like a knife hooking the Qin Dynasty", which stands side by side with the sword. When the weapon is correct, Yan Shigu of the Tang Dynasty explained: "A hook is also a weapon, like a folding knife, so a hook can also kill people."
Among the "Eighteen Weapons" of later generations, there is indeed an "iron hook" , "Slaying the dragon by relying on the sky", Zhang Cuishan's weapon is the "iron-grip silver hook". However, "" is Wu's "hook" after all, not an ordinary "hook". So, is there any record of "Wu hook" in the history of Wu in the pre-Qin period?
There is such a story in "The Biography of Han Shu and Han Yanshou" and "Wuyue Spring and Autumn". According to legend, after King Helu of Wu put away his sword, he ordered craftsmen to make a golden hook and said: "Anyone who can make a golden hook will be rewarded with a reward of one hundred taels." There were many craftsmen in Wu, but only one of them, in order to get a reward from the king, killed his two sons, smeared their blood on the metal, and made two golden hooks. The man took the golden hook and went to ask for a reward for martial arts. Wang Helu said: "There are many people with golden hooks. Why do you want to ask for a reward alone? What is the difference between your hook and other hooks?"
This man is really not shy at all, telling what happened told the prince. Helu showed him many golden hooks and asked, "Can you tell which two are yours?" Wang had many golden hooks with very similar shapes, which could not be seen from the surface. So the man loudly called out the names of his two sons: "Wu Hong, Ji Hu, I am here. The king does not know your elves!" Just as he finished speaking, two golden hooks flew came out and hung on his chest. Helu was shocked and said, "Oh! I almost let you down!" He gave the man platinum and then put on a gold hook.
This is the end of the story. In this story, the father is too shameless and the brother is too pitiful. Of course, this story won't be entirely true. Human blood makes a beautiful golden hook that will fly when it hears a person's name. This story is somewhat similar to the story of Gan Jiang and Mo Ye, reflecting the ancients' worship of bronzes and primitive witchcraft thinking. This story is obviously the source of "Wu Hook". However, "kings with many hooks and similar bodies" should exist in large numbers, but has this "weapon" been found in archeology?
Among the Wuyue bronzes unearthed, there are ritual vessels, musical instruments, weapons, chariots and horses, agricultural tools, utensils, etc. And most of the weapons reflect the military traditions of Wuyue and China. Among the large number of weapons, there are swords, spears, halberds, swords, and arrow clusters, all of which are not hook-shaped weapons!
Then the problem arises. Since Wu hooks were very common in the Spring and Autumn Period of Wu and Yue, why are there no hook-shaped artifacts among the unearthed cultural relics? Therefore, the two bronzes unearthed from Pit No. 1 of the Terracotta Warriors and Horses are believed to belong to Wu Gou. The official website of the Qin Shi Huang Museum holds this view. This bronze is relatively rare. It looks like a machete and consists of two parts: 65.2cm long, 2.2-3.5cm wide, 11.1cm long handle, and 1.045kg in weight. However, these two so-called "Wu hooks" have neither the front features of swords nor the ridge features in the middle, so they cannot achieve the effect of hooking and killing. It's more of a tool than a weapon.
In general, it is a bit rash to call the two bronze statues of Qin Ling "Wu Gou", so the evidence for the existence of Wu Gou is indeed very weak. It is an unofficial history novel from the Eastern Han Dynasty, which contains many myths and legends. So, is this story completely fictional? This possibility does exist. However, as long as we change our thinking, it is easy to find another more reliable answer, that is, the so-called "Wu Hook" does exist, but it is not a weapon at all, but a hook!
What is a hook? As we all know, Guan Zhong shot Duke Huan of Qi to death with a hook, but Duke Huan of Qi pretended to be dead to deceive Guan Zhong. This belt buckle is equivalent to today's belt buckle and belt buckle, which is a daily utensil for fastening the belt around the waist. This is very common in pre-Qin literature. For example, "The Biography of the Lu Family" says that "the gentry has no hook belt." The "hook belt" is obviously a kind of clothes belt and a kind of clothes hook. Said: "Whoever steals the hook will be punished; whoever steals from the state will be punished." This sentence is also famous, but have you ever thought about why stealing "hook" has become a situation and whether stealing weapons has become a common Phenomenon? If it is said that theft is a daily use, it is obviously more convincing.
In fact, in Wu Yue's "Wu Yue Chun Qiu", the "golden hook" was not mentioned as a weapon, but was very similar to some daily necessities. For example, the double hooks "flyed to my dad's chest", Helu's "raise all the hooks to show them" and "take them away without leaving your body", which are all different from the big article.
The description of "double hooks" in "Xunzi and Li Lun", immediately after "double swords", also has an incredible color, so it gives the reader the feeling that it is about an article, and later generations just have another one. The weapon is called "double hook", so there was a misunderstanding! This view is not only enlightening, but also proven by archeology.
The names Wu and Lu are about He Lu. Just a private name. In bronze inscriptions, it is often called "Wang Wu". "Martial" has many hooks. In the article "Zhuang Huang Zi Zhu", Teacher Cao published three newly made copper hooks unearthed from Shaoxing Mountain in recent years. One of the three bronze hooks is in the Shaoxing Yue Culture Museum, one is in the Shaoxing Ancient Yue Museum, and the other is in the hands of a collector. The inscriptions on the three bronze hooks are exactly the same. Content: The Kings got 'em and they threw one. It is obvious that these three hooks are the artifacts of King Helu of Wu.
The Xishigou Mountain unearthed today is said to be the Yue Jueshu and Tucheng from the Spring and Autumn Period of Wu and Yue. It is named after the beauties Gou Jian cultivated here. However, archaeological findings indicate that Mount Xishi should be the site of a bronze smelting workshop. In 1959, many bronze agricultural tools and weapons were unearthed, and later many bronze hooks were unearthed. However, most of it flows into the human body. The Shaoxing Museum alone collected as many as 45 pieces at one time. These hooks are usually about 2-8 cm long. Shaoxing was the capital of the Yue Kingdom during the Spring and Autumn Period. Wu Yue and Helu were mortal enemies. King Gou Jian of Yue killed King Yue and Fu Cha. During this period, Gou Jian surrendered to Fu Chai.
So, why did the three hooks of Wu and Lu flow into Vietnamese handicraft workshops? Judging from the fact that most of the Yue bronzes came from Wu, these three hooks should not be tributes from the Yue people, but Wu samples of hooks made by the Yue people. As a tool of King Helu of Wu, Fu Chai is unlikely to send samples to the Yue people, so it is most likely that they are the spoils of Gou Jian after he destroyed Wu. Its shape is completely consistent with the inscription, which can be confirmed by many theories that the shape of the king hook is similar.
There is no title of "Hook" or "Golden Hook" in the inscription, only a simple word "Sentence". It can be seen that "hook" was the general term for hooks at that time, but "hook" did not appear as a weapon at that time. It was not until the Western Han Dynasty that the weapon "hook" appeared, which was confused with the "hook" since the Zhou Dynasty. As a result, the "Wu Hook" was misunderstood by the public as a weapon.