Tool history of seven-star sword

In the early Qing Dynasty, Taoism rose. Since ancient times, Taoist priests have regarded the "Seven-Star Sword" as a utensil, and even regarded it as the treasure of the town gate. At that time, Buddhism and Taoism were in harmony, and both advocated the rise of Wushu. Therefore, Buddhism and Taoism have greatly promoted the vigorous development of Wushu in China. At that time, Buddhists, Taoist priests and chivalrous men demanded more swords, and Longquan Sword naturally developed. According to the newly compiled Longquan County Records (1994):

In the 13th year of Qianlong (1748), Zheng Yisheng set up a sword casting station in Dong Qian Street, Longquan Town, and cast swords by "casting steel" (melting pig iron and casting wrought iron). The cast sword has a good steel front, but it is not elastic. But very sharp.

Around 1830 (light-years of the Qing dynasty), Liao Taihe and Jian Pu of Longquan created the technology of digging holes and embedding copper in the sword face. At this time, the inlaid copper can only be inlaid with seven stars (Beidou constellation, marked with seven wells in the sword pool), which is called the seven-star sword.

In the fifth year of Xianfeng in Qing Dynasty (1855), the fourth generation swordsman Zheng Yishan, Sun Zhengsan, inherited and promoted Liao Taihe's sword-refining technology, and officially opened a "Thousand-character Sword" shop in Tian Fei Gongmen, Dongjie. He changed to earth steel forging and followed the method of "water quenching", which was harder and sharper than the sword forged by the old method. But the sword surface is still rough and easy to break.

In the eighth year of Xianfeng in Qing Dynasty (1858), the Taiping Army was stationed in Longquan for ten days, and it was necessary to supplement a large number of swords as weapons for officers and men, so the sword shop with thousands of characters was overwhelmed. In addition, thousands of swords are also used for the decoration of Buddha statues.

In the early years of Guangxu, the brothers worshipped Zheng Wenxuan (the son of Zheng Sangu) as their teacher on Wednesday. After completing his apprenticeship, Zhou Guohua opened a "Wanzi" sword shop next to the "Qianzi" sword shop.

In the 20th year of Guangxu (1894), Shen, the blacksmith master of Bihu, Lishui, moved to Longquan, and opened the "Shen Guanglong Renzi Sword Shop" in the west street of the county, teaching the sword-casting skills to Wuzi, Huanwu, Huanquan, and Huanquan, and was called "Zhou Qingquan, Wu Wen City, Shen Shi, the hometown of sword-casting". 1965438+From February 20th, 2005 to February 4th, 2005, Longquan sword cast by "Shen Guanglong Renzi" was listed as an award-winning handicraft, which was world-renowned.

During this period, craftsmen began to experiment with embedding better quality steel (Fujian native steel) in the blade, which enhanced the toughness of the blade to a certain extent, but it could not be bent or bent. In terms of modeling, there are ordinary single swords and double blades (divided into long blades and short blades), as well as male and female double swords (double swords with sheaths). In terms of decoration, the sword surface is carved with copper, that is, the pattern is carved on the sword surface first, and then the copper piece is put. After heating, copper flows into the notch and the pattern is inlaid with copper. But only a simple mode can be set.

The copper-clad process of scabbard began in 1924 Jiang Yuanda (originally from Wenzhou) Bronze Shop, where patterns such as cloud hooks and ancient coins were carved and colored tapestries were hung on the hilt. The appearance of this sword is much more beautiful than before.

1927 On the first day of the first lunar month, an army entered Zhejiang from Fujian and passed Longquan. Liu, a battalion commander, asked Shen Guanglong if he could forge a sword out of steel. He said: "wrought iron forging swords can be quenched with water, but pure steel can't be quenched with water, otherwise it will be brittle and easy to break." Shen Shi brothers quickly asked him for advice. He said: "I can quench small parts such as handles and springs in guns, but I can't quench big parts." . He also said that in order to make the sword shine blue, it is necessary to "nourish the light" on the surface of the sword with steel harder than the body. On Wednesday, after hearing this, Shen, Wen, and Huan brothers immediately set about the experiment.

In the next few months, I learned from countless failures and finally succeeded in the experiment. In the past, wrought iron was easy to bend when quenched in water and easy to break when quenched in molten steel. Therefore, Gu Jian can't bend. The pure steel process is quenched by a new method, and the blade is sharp and flexible, and then the hard steel is used to "nourish the light", and the blade flashes with cold light. Since then, the sword made by Shen Guang Longjian has gradually formed three characteristics: sharpness, tenacity and green light. The Shen family kept it a secret, but after it was leaked by Shen's wife, the two technologies of "quenching body" and "filling light" were spread to other sword shops.

Anyway, this is a big leap in sword practice. Physically, the blade was changed from "same width" to "calamus leaf", which was suitable for dancing. In terms of decoration, one side of the sword body is changed from seven round stars to seven pentagrams, which is more appropriate. On the other hand, auspicious patterns such as "auspicious dragon and phoenix", "Yuanyang playing in the water", "flying crane" and "fairy descending to earth" were created. The scabbard inlaid with copper adds traditional exquisite patterns such as "Eight Diagrams". During this period, the production technology of the whole set of swords has made remarkable progress. After the founding of New China, the Party and the government attached great importance to restoring the production of traditional handicrafts. After 1950, the "Shen Guanglong" Baojian Store at No.21Xinhua Street in Longquan resumed business. At this time, although Shen Guanglong's sword was of high quality, because China was in the economic recovery period and the people's life was still poor, the sales of swords were not much, and Shen Guanglong's family could not make a living by producing swords. Therefore, they also produce some hand-made farm tools and plant several acres of farmland at the same time, leading a poor life.

1956, the sword-casting artists in Longquan formed the sword production cooperation group in Longquan Town, which belongs to Longquan Iron Works Society, and the address is 2 Xinhua Street1. At that time, there were seven old artists, including Shen, Shen Huanwu, Shen and his disciples Ji Yangchun, Ji, Jiang Hua and Kong Qingbiao, with Shen as the team leader.

After three years of economic recovery and land reform, China suppressed counter-revolution, maintained social stability, improved people's life, restored sword market, ensured the livelihood of sword makers, and had a high enthusiasm for production. The cooperation group gathered the strength of each family. Out of gratitude to the Party and New China, a silver sword was cast for Chairman Mao during the Eighth National Congress of the Communist Party of China. Later, Chairman Mao remitted 200 yuan money to Longquan county government, which was handed over to the sword production team, which was a great encouragement to artists.

Since then, Longquan's sword production, with the sword production team as the mainstream, has begun to flourish. In order to make it convenient for customers to use and keep Longquan sword, and also for advertising, the sword production team asked Chen to write and Shen to provide information, so the first manual of Longquan sword was born.

Later, the sword production team was separated and merged with the iron works and state-owned iron works. Finally, Longquan Baojian Production Cooperative was established in September 1963, with Shen as the director and Ji Yangchun and Jiang Huawei as the directors. At this time, the annual output is 420 swords. 1965 in order to expand the sword production, the factory site was moved from No.2 Xinhua Street1to No.74 Hualou Street.

During the period from 1956 to 1966, the name of the sword produced by the cooperative was either Longquan Sword or Longquan Gu Jian. In terms of technology, it is completely made according to the traditional 28 manual processes such as forging, shoveling, filing, engraving, quenching and grinding. The patterns of dragon, phoenix and seven stars are carved at will, and there is no certain standard. The four characteristics of Longquan sword, such as combining rigidity with softness, combining rigidity with softness, shining cold light and ingenious ornamentation, remain unchanged. Longquan sword market is gradually expanding, mainly in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Henan and other places. However, Longquan Sword, which has just entered a period of vigorous development, suffered bad luck at the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. Being criticized as "four seniors", the cooperative stopped production, and the sword-casting artists were driven to the countryside to work as firewood knives and hoes. Until the end of 197 1, the sword production cooperative was rebuilt again and the revolutionary Committee was established. 1978 was renamed Longquan sword factory.

Because Longquan sword is exquisitely made and famous all over the world, the state lists it as a "national gift". Therefore, in 1972, Longquan swords were customized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and four high-grade Longquan swords were carefully made by sword maker Shen and his descendants Shen Xinpei, and presented to visiting US President Nixon and his party as national gifts, which contributed to the resumption of diplomatic relations between China and the United States. At this time, the staff of Baojian Society has grown to 14, with an annual output of 827 swords, double that before the Cultural Revolution.

After the Third Plenary Session of the 11th CPC Central Committee, Longquan sword industry ushered in its own brilliant spring. Longquan Baojian was upgraded to a county-owned large-scale collective enterprise and renamed as "Baojian Factory in Longquan County, Zhejiang Province". At present, it has 43 employees, with an annual output of 3,079 swords and a profit and tax of more than 50,000 yuan. It has successively obtained two registered trademarks of Longquan and Longfeng Qixing. Since then, the full name of Longquan sword has been fixed as "Longquan sword with dragon, phoenix and seven stars", and Longquan sword industry has taken a step of rapid development.

In the early 1980s, Shen Xinpei, a sword casting technician, developed the Yunhua Sword and the antique fishbone Sword, and Chen developed the Huamajian, among which Yunhua Sword won the Excellence Award of International Tourism Commodities in the China International Tourism Souvenir Appraisal, and Huamajian was listed as "four new products" in Lishui. Moreover, at the National Sports Equipment Exhibition held during the Fifth National Games in the same year, there were also long swords, short swords, rattan swords, male and female swords produced by Longquan Sword Factory, and 18 weapons imitated in Ming and Qing Dynasties.

With the rise of martial arts fever and the improvement of people's living standards, Longquan sword is in greater demand in the market. Longquan sword can't meet the market demand only by relying on county sword factory and manual production. Under the situation of reform and opening-up, there are villages and towns and sword merchants in Longquan. 1In April, 984, Long Yuan Town "Wanzi Sword Factory" was established, and Zhou, a descendant of the original "Wanzi Sword Shop", was hired as a consultant. Thus, it broke the situation that "Longquan County Sword Factory" monopolized the whole country and produced exclusively in Longquan County. This is a milestone in the development of Longquan sword making industry.

Longquan sword has never been standardized. However, with the rapid development of modern science and technology, Longquan sword production has the conditions of scientific management. Therefore, in 1987, Longquan Baojian Factory did a lot of basic work in industrial production and management, accepted the entrustment of Zhejiang Bureau of Standards and Metrology, and formulated Zhejiang Baojian's quality standard "Zhejiang Q/SG45-84 Standard". At the same time, according to the technical level of the factory, higher requirements than "Zhejiang Q/SG45-84 Standard" were formulated and implemented. This is the first quality standard of sword in history, which makes the sword production in China enter the era of quality standard.