The King of Swords


Today's post features the most famous bronze sword of ancient China.

Figure 1: The Sword of Goujian, Hubei Provincial Museum

You may have seen many ancient swords in museums all around the world, yet this one remains the most distinctive in many ways. Firstly, it is one of the oldest of its kind in the world, dating back to the late Spring and Autumn period (770–476 B.C.). Throughout this period as China remained politically fragmented with dozens of states competing for dominance, the state of Yue on the southeast coast (today's Zhejiang Province) was renowned for making the best bronze swords. The Sword of Goujian, named after its owner, the most accomplished king of Yue, is the cream of the crop.
Figure 2: The chronological timeline from Liangzhu (Neolithic Age) to Eastern Zhou Dynasty (end of Bronze Age)

Figure 3: The map of Chinese states in the Spring and Autumn period

The second special feature of this sword lies in the fact that it was still untarnished and sharp when excavated in 1965. When it was unsheathed, the archaeologists showed that the blade could easily cut through a stack of twenty pieces of paper. The use of sulfur treatment by the Yue craftsmen at that time enabled the sword to stand the test of time despite it being buried in damp conditions for more than two millennia.

The sword is also invaluable in the decorative patterns and the ancient Chinese characters carved on the blade. The two sides of the blade are designed with intricate rhombi patterns with delicate embellishments of blue crystals and turquoise, which remains in excellent condition. One side of the blade engraved eight characters in an ancient writing called bird-worm seal script (鸟虫书) reading “King of Yue, Goujian, made this sword for personal use.”

Figure 4: The delicate patterns on the blade of the Sword of Goujian

Figure 5: The Guard of the Sword of Goujian

Figure 6: The ancient Yue characters and its modern Mandarin Chinese transcripts
"King of Yue Goujian"

Figure 7: The ancient Yue characters and its modern Mandarin Chinese transcripts
"Made the sword for personal use"

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