Daojian Forging Craftsmanship
01 · Historical Records
In the 25th year of the Guangxu reign of the Qing dynasty (1899), General Shoushan of Heilongjiang was stationed at present-day Qiqihar, and Wang Zhengshan, a blacksmith in the army's ordnance workshop, applied the Jurchen iron-smelting techniques he had learned from his master to the production of weapons.
02 · Core Techniques & Process
The Qitaihe sword and blade forging craft is a traditional handicraft transmitted and developed on the basis of the weapon-making techniques of the Jurchen people of the Jin dynasty; it is mainly distributed within the bounds of Qitaihe City, Heilongjiang Province. Qitaihe City lies where the Zhangguangcai Range meets the Wandashan Mountains. The climate is humid with four distinct seasons, and the two river systems of the Woken and Naoli rivers cross its whole territory. Its natural secondary forests and planted forests contain more than twenty species including oak, birch, linden and pine, and its mineral resources are varied: besides coal, deposits of iron, gold and graphite have been found, providing high-quality raw materials for the craft of sword and blade making. Through transmission and development by craftsmen over the generations, the Qitaihe sword and blade forging craft is broadly divided into the following stages. Material selection: carefully choosing the iron ore and coke needed to smelt the sword and blade blanks and the animal hide used for the scabbard. Iron smelting: coke is used to melt the iron ore and refine the required iron bloom. Forging: an appropriate amount of iron bloom is selected according to the specifications of the sword or blade to be made and heated in the furnace to about 1,200°C, then taken out and folded and hammered on the anvil to form the sword or blade blank. This stage requires repeated heating, folding and hammering several hundred times until the impurities in the iron blank have been beaten out completely. Grinding: the finished blade blanks are successively given coarse grinding, fine grinding and precision grinding. Clay-coated edge firing: the ground blade is coated with a specially prepared mineral clay, leaving exposed only a band 1–2 cm wide at the cutting edge, and is then fired in the furnace, the length of heating being judged entirely by the craftsman's experience. When firing is complete the blade is taken out and quickly plunged into specially formulated oil to cool, so that the hardness of the cutting edge is increased while the spine, that is the middle part, remains tough, achieving a balance of hardness and flexibility. The large quantities of Jin dynasty iron objects unearthed over the years in Heilongjiang Province and the surrounding region show that iron smelting had already reached a fairly high level at that time. Swords and blades made with the Qitaihe forging craft are today sold across the provinces of China and in several overseas countries, and their influence is fairly wide.
Selecting ore, coke and sheath leather
Everything begins with selection: the ore and coke that will become the blade are picked for purity, and leather for the scabbard, cowhide in earlier times. Poor selection makes all the hundreds of later foldings pointless.
Smelting the iron
Coke melts the ore into the bloom of iron required; the heat and the carbon ratio decide its hardness and purity — too hot and the flow scatters, too cool and it is incompletely melted — and only sound iron goes on to forging.
Repeated folding under high heat
Iron is heated to about 1200 degrees Celsius and folded on the anvil repeatedly, several hundred times, until the impurities are worked out; each fold both squeezes out impurities and orders the structure of the steel.
Clay coating, hardening and quenching
The ground blade is coated in a special clay slip, leaving only one to two centimetres bare at the edge, heated for a time known only by the smith's judgement, then quenched in prepared oil so the edge hardens while the spine keeps its toughness.
03 · Regional Records & Related Items
The Qitaihe sword and blade forging craft is distributed within Qitaihe City, Heilongjiang Province. The city lies where the Zhangguangcai Range meets the Wandashan Mountains, with the Woken and Naoli river systems passing through its territory; its natural secondary forests and planted forests contain more than twenty species such as oak, birch, linden and pine, and among its mineral resources, besides coal, iron, gold and graphite are found. The materials needed for smelting iron and the wood needed for scabbards can all be obtained locally. The swords and blades produced find markets across the provinces of China and in several overseas countries, with buyers seeking them out from all sides, so that many local blacksmiths take this as their trade.
04 · Cultural Value & Contemporary Safeguarding
Scabbard making: oxhide was mostly used in the past, while today sandalwood and rosewood are more commonly employed. Thereafter the craft was handed down from generation to generation and has been transmitted to the present day in the manner of masters taking on apprentices. The transmission and development of the Qitaihe sword and blade forging craft is of great value for the study of Jurchen history and culture. The sale and promotion of related products has not only increased the inheritors' income but also advanced a deeper understanding of China's cold-weapon culture, displaying the bravery and wisdom of the people living on this black soil.
06 · Authoritative Sources & Bibliography
Sources
China Intangible Cultural Heritage Network (ihchina.cn)
This static English edition is rendered at the edge for search engines, AI crawlers and readers without JavaScript; it mirrors the bilingual dossier. 阅读中文版，或返回 英文名录。