Hello and welcome to Chinese Folk Tales.
This is Bei Bei.
Today, I'll be talking about something new.
Famous ancient Chinese weapons.
Do you remember the ruthless king from Shang Dynasty?
Who was all smitten with his concubine, who was actually a crafty fox.
So he ended up jumping into a fire when King Wu invaded his palace.
And then Zhou Dynasty replaced Shang Dynasty.
To thank the ministers and generals who made this possible.
King Wu of Zhou Dynasty parceled out land for them and gave them titles of dukes and princes.
There were at least 71 of them.
Why did the king do that?
Well, besides acknowledging their contribution, it was also to solidify the rule of the new dynasty.
These dukes and princes were either related to the king or have been proven to be reliable, at least for a period of time.
As time went on however, these vassal states became more and more powerful, until the power of some of the big ones surpassed that of King of Zhou.
The Zhou dynasty lasted 800 years, which made it the longest dynasty in Chinese history.
But wars broke out among the vassal states over land and other resources, and this period was called the spring and autumn and the warring state period.
Two of these warring states worth mentioning were the state of Wu and the state of Yue.
These two were neighbors and often fought with each other, sometimes joined by the state of Chu to the south.
In fact, the conflict between these two states defined a period in Chinese history.
The states of Wu and Yue were also known for their sword-making techniques.
And with the Warring Period as the backdrop, they gave birth to some legends related to weapons.
And here is one.
Once, the king of the state of Yue sent three swords to the king of Wu.
These swords each had a name and a story of its own.
One of these was named Yu Chang, which means fish intestine.
Okay, not a pretty name for a sword or for anything, but there is a story to it.
And it started with the father of the king of the state of Wu.
At that time, the throne wasn't passed from father to son, but from the older brother to the younger brother.
The father of the king of Wu was the oldest son of the family.
And then when he passed away, the second brother in the family took over the throne.
And then would be the turn for the third brother.
But the third brother was also the youngest.
So when he died, the throne was passed to his son, King Liao of Wu.
The son of the oldest brother wasn't so happy with this arrangement.
He thought that he should be the next king, given that he was the son of the oldest son.
So he started thinking of ways to take back the crown.
One day, the son of the oldest brother invited the King Liao of Wu to his place for a feast.
Soldiers lay waiting inside the banquet hall, ready to murder.
But the King Liao of Wu came with his squad of bodyguards.
So a direct conflict wasn't going to be easy.
But that was expected. the son of the oldest brother, had fought and planted ahead.
He ordered for a plate of steamed fish with a side order of a short dagger inside the fish's belly.
So one thing about fish dishes in China.
For those of you who frequent Chinese restaurants, you might already know that Chinese people favor whole fish, with the head, body and tail all laid out on a plate.
But no dagger, of course.
Part of the fun in eating fish for the Chinese people is picking the meat off the bones, or spitting out the bones after you eat the meat.
Fish fillets are considered too bland and boring to eat.
So that was how a dagger could be hidden inside a steamed fish.
Anyhow, an assassin dressed like a waiter brought out the fish and presented the dish to King Liao of Wu.
Probably distracted by the smell of the steamed fish, the guards weren't fast enough to stop the flashing dagger.
The King Liao of Wu fell dead on the spot. before he could even taste the fish.
The son of the oldest brother became the king of the state of Wu, and this dagger came to be known as the fish intestine sword.
So that's why the weird name.
The second sword was called Pangying.
This one had to do with a daughter of the king of Wu. the one who murdered the other one.
The daughter was so very spoiled.
One day the king took a few bites from a plate of steamed fish and gave the rest to his daughter to enjoy.
The daughter however, was so offended by the leftover fish that she couldn't stop crying and eventually committed suicide.
Well, someone as spoiled as that would probably go mad sooner or later.
But still, the king was very sad.
He built a huge tomb for his daughter, and loads of gold and jewels were buried alongside the princess, among which was the second sword.
On the day of the burial, the funeral procession went across the city and poured into the countryside.
A mechanical white crane walked among the procession too, all on its own.
Imagine the sight of that some 2,500 years ago.
More and more people were attracted by this white crane and followed the funeral procession as if attracted by magic.
But before they knew it, they had walked into the huge tomb.
And then, before they could get out, a stone gate dropped, trapping all of them inside to be buried with the dead.
Also inside the tomb was the sword Pangying.
I think that's a rather sad story.
And maybe it's a warning for us not to follow big crowds.
So what about the third sword?
Legend has it that this one had a spirit of its own and could choose its master.
The sword hated the king of Wu for murdering the previous king and for burying so many innocent people.
It flew by itself to the state of Chu.
The king of the state of Chu was thrilled to see this famous sword and thought it a very auspicious sign.
Maybe it was a sign that the state of Chu should wage a war and swallow up its neighbor.
The king probably thought.
So war broke out between the two states.
But in the end, the state of Wu took the capital of the state of Chu instead.
So these are the stories of the three famous swords.
But these were not the most legendary weapons in ancient China.
That title belonged to a pair of swords named after a couple that probably lived in the state of Chu.
The couple named Ganjiang and Moye was famous sword makers.
Once the king of Chu wanted some new swords and he ordered Gan Jiang, the husband, to make him a pair of swords that would be peerless in the world.
Gan Jiang and his wife moved into the mountains to concentrate on making these swords.
They must have been perfectionists, for they made sword after sword and tested their methods over and over again.
It took them three whole years to make a pair that they deemed would become legendary.
They made a male sword that was named after the husband and a female sword that was named after the wife.
The swords shone with cold silver light and could cut through iron as though it was mud.
Supposedly, if a strand of hair fell on the edge of the sword, it would be split in two.
The couple knew that they had taken too long to make the swords.
The husband gave the male sword to his wife and told her, The king of Chu won't let me live.
Take this sword and our son and run for your life.
Bury this sword under a tree and give it to our son when he is grown.
Then he went and presented the male sword to the king of Tru.
As he had predicted, the king was furious that it had taken him three years to make a sword and ordered the husband killed.
A decade or so later, a young man came into the capital of the state of Chu.
That was the son of the sword-making couple.
He was a young man then, ready to take revenge for the death of his father.
He succeeded in killing the king, who had killed his father, but he died too.
And after that, no one has seen those swords anywhere.
They lived on only in legends.
It was not a peaceful time in Chinese history and it was rightly named the Warring States Period, and people suffered.
This warring state was brought to a close when the 39-year-old king of Qin conquered all of the other warring states and unified all of China in 221 BC.
The king of Qin became the first emperor of the Qin dynasty, known as Qin Shi Huang, to the Chinese people.
Life for the common people though, was still hard, as we will see in the next story the tragic legend of Lady Mengjiang weeping over the Great Wall.
This is the story for today, and hope to see you next time.
Bye for now.
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