Longquan Sword Forging Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
According to the project archive on the China Intangible Cultural Heritage website, the fame of the Longquan sword began with the legends of sword casting, but the technique was truly carried forward through the old sword shops bearing their trade names that have operated since the Ming and Qing dynasties. The founder of the Shen Guanglong Sword Shop, Shen Tingzhang, is the representative figure of modern Longquan sword making; successive generations of his successors have kept the trade name in use, firing the forge and taking on apprentices, and the apprenticeship system has become the fundamental means by which this craft has been carried on.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Longquan sword is representative of ancient Chinese weapons and also a famous traditional craft of China, with a history of more than 2,500 years to date. Legend has it that in the late Spring and Autumn period, the master sword caster Ou Yezi of the State of Yue forged three famous swords — Longyuan, Tai'a, and Gongbu — at Qinxi Mountain in Longquan, naming the locality Longyuan after the first of them, and the technique was transmitted onward from there. The Longquan region holds deposits of the ore "tieying" (iron sand), the "polishing stone" used to sharpen swords, and the hualumu wood used to make scabbards; the springs of Qinxi Mountain can be used to quench the blades, and the dense forests provide ample charcoal fuel. The Longquan sword is celebrated for four great characteristics: a sharp blade, a chilling gleam, an interplay of hardness and suppleness, and exquisite ornament. Its materials are chosen with great care — hence the saying "three jin of rough iron yields half a jin of steel" — and the forging heat is properly controlled, so that the composition is even and the grain fresh; its quenching method is also distinctive, and its polishing most exacting. The forging technique of the Longquan sword contains rich cultural connotations and occupies an important place in the history of Chinese weaponry, metallurgy, and art. The Longquan sword is not only an implement for martial-arts exercise and a prop for film, television, and the stage, but also a national gift presented to foreign guests, treasured by people in China and abroad and by sword enthusiasts alike. However, sword forging has now become fully modernized, dealing a heavy blow to the traditional technique; business strategies that pursue sales and economic returns have affected the quality of the swords, and the environment of the sword-forging region has also been damaged.
Splitting pig iron from steel and forging
The blade needs a set ratio of soft iron to steel, with two sayings current in the trade; correct heat is what keeps the grain even.
Quenching in the Qinxi spring water
Quenching in the Qinxi spring water tightens the edge as it cools, the decisive step behind the sword's cold sheen.
Grinding on the local whetstone
Blades are finished on local bright stone; the angle and width of the edge are worked out by hand rather than by any written standard.
Making the rosewood scabbard
The scabbard is cut from choice rosewood whose surface ripens with age; reading the timber is the whole difficulty of the job.
Wax-model casting of sword furniture
Five fittings are cast in bronze from wax models, the guard often worked with a Qing-style monster-mask pattern that identifies the school of a sword.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The differences among Longquan sword workshops lie chiefly in the furniture (mountings) rather than in the blade: blades forged from the same heat may resemble one another, yet the cast-copper patterns of the pommel, the guard, and the scabbard mouth distinguish one workshop from another. Making scabbards of huali (rosewood) and guards with the yazi pattern are old methods still in use in this region; the "Qing Longquan" line cast by Shen Xinpei completes all five components in the ancient lost-wax copper casting method, and is therefore regarded as the model for sword furniture.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Sword Forging Craftsmanship.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Later, to avoid the taboo on the personal name of Tang Gaozu Li Yuan, the character "quan" (spring) was used in place of "yuan," and Longyuan was renamed Longquan; the present-day Longquan in Zhejiang is famous for its production of swords. The problems described above have left the Longquan sword forging technique in an endangered state, in urgent need of rescue and protection. Shen Xinpei (official archive record of an associated inheritor): Male, of the Han ethnic group, born in 1948, a native of Longquan, Zhejiang. Representative inheritor of the Longquan Sword Forging Craft, a project in the first batch of national-level intangible cultural heritage. Among the old established sword shops (laozihao) of modern Longquan, the one with the most orderly transmission and greatest influence is the Shen Guanglong Sword Shop, founded by Shen Tingzhang. He is most exacting in choosing materials, as the saying "ten jin of rough iron yields five jin of steel" attests; the swords he makes have a dense blade structure with a clear pattern, and are fitted with scabbards of fine huali (rosewood) that grow more lustrous with age; the furniture is exquisite and the ornament distinctive: on the "Qing Longquan" sword, for example, the pommel, guard, scabbard mouth, guard ring, and lanyard knob are all cast in copper by the ancient lost-wax method, the guard being a copper yazi-dragon mounting in the style of the mid-to-late Qing dynasty. Rigorous craftsmanship and the family secrets of sword casting make Shen Xinpei's swords tough and sharp enough to cut through iron as though it were mud, with natural coloring and a frost-like bright finish. In 1995, Shen Xinpei was awarded the title of "Folk Arts and Crafts Master" by the China Folk Literature and Art Association. His representative works include the Supreme Sword, the Qiankun Sword (saber), the Xuanwu Sword, the Nine-Turtle Sword, and the Cold Moon Sword. On the basis of inheriting tradition, Shen Xinpei has also actively developed new products; to date he has created more than twenty new varieties, of which the Sun-and-Moon Qiankun Sword and the Sun-and-Moon Qiankun Saber have been granted national patents.
05 · Associated Representative Bearers
Representative bearers recorded under this item, organized by national nomination batch:
- Shen Xinpei 01-0156
- Gao Qingmin 05-2746
- Chen Ajin
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
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