Modern Master Maker of Ancient Weapons

The year 2010 is Ji Shaocong’s bumper harvest year for his art of ancient weaponry making， for since early this year his swords have been in the national limelight.

“The Secret Story of Lady Yang”， a historical television series that portrays the ups and downs of Lady Yang of the Tang Dynasty (618-907)， caused a sensation across the country. It catapulted to the top of the rankings within a few days after the screening of its first episode in April. Most people were deeply impressed by both the splendors of the distant dynasty in its prime time and the star-studded cast. On the other hand， many noticed the swords in the play. These swords were manufactured by Ji Shaocong， one of the founders of Quan Ji Sword Studio.

The Tang Dynasty is said to have produced the best swords in ancient China. To avoid the anachronism of using swords of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) in the stories of the Tang Dynasty， director You Xiaogang engaged Zhang Hai， a master of ancient weaponry， to design three swords which feature the characteristics of the Tang. With the designs in hands， You Xiaogang tripped to Longquan， a city in southern Zhejiang to find an ideal sword maker. Longquan is both the name of the best swords in China and the eponymous county where the sword marking art was perfected in very ancient times and where now many sword makers operate their businesses.

After viewing designs and swords by various masters， You Xiaogang decided that Ji Shaocong was the right one. It took Ji six months to finish making the three swords. The results impressed everyone in the industry. Orders came in from directors of several other big television productions based on ancient Chinese classics or legends. The largest order was to make more than 600 ancient weapons for “Outlaws of the Marsh”， a novel written in the early years of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). Hong Kong-based international film star Jacky Chen ordered three swords， which are now used as anchor treasures for his Martial Arts Center in Shanghai.

At the end of August， 2010， his two swords won top awards at the Fifth China Folk Crafts and Arts Expo held in Yantai， Shandong Province.

Ji Shaocong is from Longquan， a county in southern Zhejiang famed for sword making from immemorial times. He is from a family of sword making masters. His grandfather was a master sword maker. His brothers are sword makers too. Since modern firearms were first introduced to China， cold-steel weapons such as swords have become handicraft products.

Though Longquan has had a lot of sword manufacturers， over a long time in history their products were largely simple swords made with neither art nor craft to speak of. They were largely used as gifts or used by old people in simple health exercises. Most sword manufacturers in Longquan were content with their conventional low-end products and most consumers believed that was what they could get from Longquan.

But the ambitious young man thought he could make much better swords. After spending eleven years making swords in Longquan from 1994 to 2005， Ji decided to explore and restore the ancient art of sword making and manufacture swords as great as those praised in history. The first step was to travel and learn various techniques from sword masters or masters involved in other crafts and arts.

Ji Shaocong first came to Hangzhou， the capital city of Zhejiang Province. He studied how to carve on metals under the tutelage of a few masters. The procedure of metal carving is complicated and sophisticated， which， Ji believes， helps make good swords. He tripped to Shanxi， a province in central China where there are many masters specialized in carving in wood， brick and stone. He studied under these masters. These studies under tutelage of great masters have helped him combine art， philosophy， appearance and practicality into a single work of art. These studies have helped him make much better sword sheaths.

He also tried to improve his sword making. After the Qing Dynasty came to grief， sword making in China for a long while remained a very simple craft. The cutting edge was made of clean steel. Craftsmen in Longquan made such simple blades. The swords made of refined alloy steel were unheard of. So when Ji Shaocong ran into the swords made in Dalian， a port city in northeastern China， he was greatly surprised and went there to take a look. He mastered a new method of heat treatment， which is widely used by sword makers in Japan and Taiwan.

These studies have helped him improve his sword-making art. Today， his swords are viewed as top-class masterpieces in China. All his swords are made manually. He never uses any machine. At his workshop， it takes 28 major steps to turn a piece of raw iron into a sword. Some of these steps are very time consuming， contingent on how refined and sophisticated he wants the final sword to be. It may take days to polish a sword until it shines a metallic luster. If he folds the steel and forges it into layers， it can take him a lot of time to make a sword of steel more than 10，000 layers. A sword he made and won a silver medal at a national arts and crafts expo in 2009 was hammered into the shape with 720，000 layers. It takes him a few months or even more than a year to make such a sword.

Since 2006， Ji Shaocong has won many top honors as sword-making master. The most important one is the gold medal he won at the West Lake Expo in 2009 for a sword made of meteoric iron. The award has recognized him as a national master. With this award， he believes he is really a master.