Sword Forging Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
The Tangxi sword forging technique is said to date from the Warring States period. The Tangxi iron-smelting site is one of the earliest Warring States iron-smelting sites yet discovered in China and the most completely preserved, with a transmission history of more than 2,700 years. In the 1940s, Gao Xikun, a native of Wuyang County, Henan Province, and a graduate of Beiyang University Hall (present-day Tianjin University), founded the county’s first ironworks in Xiping County and carried the technique to new heights.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Tangxi sword forging technique is a traditional casting craft transmitted by the Gao family of Beigao Village, Wuyang County, Henan Province, in which swords of all sizes are made by hand forging. It takes its name from Tangxi, an important iron-smelting and sword-casting base of the Warring States period. The core area of distribution of the Tangxi sword forging technique is Xiping County, Henan Province, radiating to the whole of Wugang City and to the northwest of Suiping County, the northeast of Biyang County, the southeast of Wuyang County and the southwest of Yancheng County. The Tangxi sword forging technique is elaborate, comprising more than three hundred complex and exacting traditional hand process steps: smelting, forging (hot forging and cold forging), heat treatment (anneal firing, normalising, tempering and annealing), polishing (coarse and fine), grinding (coarse, fine and precision), chasing designs, making the scabbard (baking the timber, selecting the material, forming the sheath, gluing and repeated polishing), carving, spray painting (primer, polishing and protective lacquer) and assembly. The craft carries on the ancient traditional techniques of hand forging and metal modification. The traditional technique of metal modification is its core: a special formula is added to the Longquan water used for quenching so as to alter the metallic properties of the blade. The swords produced are strong, tough, hard and springy; they can cut through nails and iron, can be bent through 90 to 120 degrees, and the blade can withstand blows of all kinds without deforming. They gleam cold as frost and are instinct with spirit. His son learned the traditional sword-casting craft from his father from childhood and founded the Tangxi Sword Factory of Xiping County, Henan Province, dedicated to the excavation, research, production and development of the Tangxi sword forging technique. From then on the craft has been transmitted from master to apprentice, and has now reached its ninth generation. The Tangxi sword forging technique employs special quenching technology in iron smelting and casting, providing solid historical evidence for research into China’s ancient military and scientific-technological history. The sword culture that extends from it has a long history and rich foundations, displaying the positive spirit of fairness, justice, authority, good faith, the vanquishing of evil and the promotion of good, and the warding off of disaster and malign influence, together with the humanistic qualities of the nation.
Archival Record of Process Steps
The Tangxi sword forging technique is elaborate, comprising more than three hundred complex and exacting traditional hand process steps: smelting, forging (hot forging and cold forging), heat treatment (anneal firing, normalising, tempering and annealing), polishing (coarse and fine), grinding (coarse, fine and precision), chasing designs, making the scabbard (baking the timber, selecting the material, forming the sheath, gluing and repeated polishing), carving, spray painting (primer, polishing and protective lacquer) and assembly.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The core area of distribution of the Tangxi sword forging technique is Xiping County, Henan Province, radiating to the whole of Wugang City and to the northwest of Suiping County, the northeast of Biyang County, the southeast of Wuyang County and the southwest of Yancheng County. The Tangxi sword forging technique is a hand-forging craft transmitted by the Gao family of Beigao Village, Wuyang County, Henan Province, and takes its name from Tangxi, an important iron-smelting and sword-casting base of the Warring States period. The Henan Tangxi Sword Group Co., Ltd. is the protecting unit for the project.
Other submitting regions for the same item: Longquan Sword Forging Craftsmanship.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Gao Qingmin (as recorded in the official inheritor archive): Male, Han ethnicity, born in November 1953, from Xiping County, Henan Province. Representative inheritor of the sword forging technique (Tangxi sword forging technique), a national-level intangible cultural heritage item from the fifth national batch. In 1987 he founded the Xiping County Tangxi Sword Factory. In 2004 he established the Xiping County Tangxi Sword Industry Co., Ltd. Over half a century he brought the technique to a state of consummate perfection. In passing the technique on to young people he was frequently on the workshop floor, teaching by word and example; he has trained a backbone team and systematically compiled the written materials on sword casting, Three Chapters on the Sword Casting Technique. For more than twenty years he has actively promoted the Tangxi sword forging technique, organising the construction in the factory grounds of the Tangxi Iron-Smelting and Sword-Casting Culture Park and the Tangxi Museum, and presenting the technique to the general public through pictures and physical objects.
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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