Sword of Gou Jian

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The famed 2500-year-old Sword of Gou Jian, a first-level protected artifact of the People's Republic of China

The Sword of Gou Jian (越王勾踐劍) is an archaeological artifact of the Spring and Autumn Period found in 1965 in Hubei, China. Renowned for its sharpness and resilience to tarnish, it is a first-level protected artifact of the People's Republic of China currently in the possession of Hubei Museum.

1 Discovery
2 Identification
3 Construction
- 3.1 Chemical Composition
  - 3.1.1 Amount of Element by Percentage
4 See Also
5 External links

[edit] Discovery

In 1965, while performing archaeological survey along the second main aqueduct of the Zhang River Reservoir in Jingzhou, Hubei, more than 50 ancient tombs of the Chu State were found in Jiangling County. The dig started from the middle of October in 1965, ending in January, 1966. More than 2000 artifacts were recovered from the sites, the most interesting of which was a bronze sword.

In December, 1965, 7km away from the ruins of Jinan, an ancient capital of Chu, a casket was discovered in Wangshan site #1. Inside, an ornate sword was found on the left of a human skeleton.

The sword was found sheathed in a wooden black lacquer scabbard. The scabbard had an almost air-tight fit with the sword body. Unsheathing the sword revealed an untarnished blade, despite the tomb being soaked in underground water for over two thousand years. A simple test conducted by the archaeologists showed that the blade could still easily cut a stack of 20 pieces of paper.

[edit] Identification

Part of the ancient text, "越王自作"

On one side of the blade, two columns of text were visible. In total there are eight characters written in an ancient script. The script was found to be the one called "鸟虫文" (literally "text of birds and worms"), a variant of zhuan that is very difficult to read. Initial analysis of the text deciphered six of the characters, "越王" (King of Yue) and "自作用剑" (made for (his) personal use).

The remaining two characters were likely the name of this King of Yue. From its birth in 510 BC, to its demise at the hands of Chu in 334 BC, nine kings ruled Yue, including Gou Jian, Lu Cheng, Bu Shou, Zhu Gou, etc. The exact identity of this king sparked an active discussion/debate among archeologists and Chinese language scholars. The discussion was carried out mostly in letters, and it involved famous scholars such as Guo Moruo. After more than two months of exchange, the experts started to from a consensus that the original owner of the sword was none other than Gou Jian, the King of Yue made famous by his perseverance in time of hardship. So the entirety of the text reads "越王勾践自作用剑", meaning "(Belonging to) King Gou Jian of Yue, made for (his) personal use)".

[edit] Construction

The Sword of Gou Jian is 55.6cm in length, including a 10cm hilt. The blade is 5cm wide. In addition to the repeating dark rhombi pattern on both sides of the blade, there are also decorations made of blue crystals and turquoise. The grip of the sword is bound by silk, while the pommel is composed of 11 concentric circles.

[edit] Chemical Composition

After being in water for two thousand years, the Sword of Gou Jian still has a sharp blade and shows no signs of tarnish. To solve this mystery, scientists at Fudan University and CAS made use of modern equipment to determine the chemical composition of the sword, as shown in the table below.

[edit] Amount of Element by Percentage

Part examined	Cu	Sn	Pb	Fe	S	As
Blade	80.3	18.8	0.4	0.4	-	trace
Yellow pattern	83.1	15.2	0.8	0.8	-	trace
Dark pattern	73.9	22.8	1.4	1.8	trace	trace
Darkest regions	68.2	29.1	0.9	1.2	0.5	trace
Edge	57.3	29.6	8.7	3.4	0.9	trace
Central ridge	41.5	42.6	6.1	3.7	5.9	trace

The blade is mainly made of copper, making it less likely to shatter; the edge of the blade has more tin content, making the blade sharper; the sulfur decreases the chance of tarnish in the patterns.

Many experts believe that the chemical composition, along with the almost air-tight scabbard, explains the secret of this sword. However, some people still believe there are other reasons for its ability to resist rust. For more information into this subject, please see the external links.