The mystery of the sword of King Goujian of Viet

According to Xinhua, the relic is one of the most notable treasures of the Hubei Provincial Museum, arousing the curiosity of many people. On Weibo, many viewers said that when they came here, they could not help but admire the work. The sword achieved the highest level of carving and sculpture during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States period and is also a highlight of the art of calligraphy, because of the words engraved on the relic.

In June, a research article on the history of the sword on CCTV went viral, attracting millions of views. The work was dubbed "The World's Most Valuable Sword" for many reasons. When excavating at a tomb on Mount Wang in Jiangling, Hubei Province in 1965, archaeologists were stunned because when the sword was pulled out of its sheath, the artifact was still bright, the blade was sharp, and there was no rust even after two millennia underground.

Through research, experts determined that the two lines of inscription on the sword were "King of Yue Goujian made a sword by himself", the script was Bird Seal. The artifact was made mainly from bronze, 56 cm long and 4.6 cm wide. The handle was inlaid with blue lapis lazuli - an ancient gemstone.

One of the questions that many people wonder is that in history, King Viet lived in the Zhejiang region, present-day China, why was his sword discovered in Hubei? According to researchers, the sword was found in a typical tomb of a Chu person. The tomb owner was of noble descent, living during the Warring States period. The sword was one of the treasures buried with this character.

Scholars currently debate two reasons. The first reason is related to the political marriage. The king of Chu once married Goujian's daughter as a concubine, so Goujian may have given the sword to his son as a dowry, so the sword traveled to Chu and fell into the hands of a member of the royal family.

Some scholars believe that the sword was a war trophy that the Chu people captured from the Viet people.

The reason why the sword is sharp is also of interest to many people. After removing the sword from the tomb, an archaeologist was very careful but accidentally cut his hand by touching the blade. To test the sharpness, the archaeologists stacked 16 blank pages on top of each other, and were surprised when the sword cut through the stack of papers with just one chop.

According to researchers, the sword was made of good material with few impurities. The swordsmith created a method of synthesizing metals and forging to a sophisticated level. In addition, the rough lacquer scabbard did a good job of protecting the sword inside, helping to prevent moisture and corrosion.

Furthermore, the soil environment in the tomb has little oxygen, and the plaster layer of the coffin helps separate the sword from the outside world, protecting the artifact. To this day, scientists are still researching the manufacturing method and the factors that make the artifact immortal after thousands of years.

The work was once exhibited abroad, but since 2014, the Goujian sword has been included in the list of antiquities not allowed to leave the country.

King Goujian of Yue ruled from 496 to 465 BC. Yue, also known as Yuyue, was a vassal state of the Zhou Dynasty during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods of Chinese history. Its territory corresponds to present-day Zhejiang. During the Warring States period, the state was destroyed by the Chu State.

There were many Viet kings, among which Cau Tien was the most famous with the story "tasting honey and lying on thorns", which means the king slept on thorns, tasting the bitterness of honey so as not to forget the humiliation of surrendering to the Wu army. Thanks to enduring hardship, Cau Tien defeated the Wu country, avenging the Viet country.

According to VnExpress