n 1965, in the No. 1 Chu tomb excavated in Jiangling, Hubei, China, the Yue King Goujian sword was discovered. The sword is 55.7 cm long, 4.6 cm wide, and 5 cm wide. The body of the sword is full of black rhombus geometric dark patterns. The front and back of the sword grid are also inlaid with blue glaze and turquoise to form beautiful patterns. The hilt is bound with silk threads. The grid is engraved with two lines of bird seal inscriptions "Goujian, King of Yue, self-acting sword".

This sword has been buried for more than 2,000 years, and it is still extremely sharp. There is a record at that time: "The sword is drawn out of the sheath, and the cold light is shining. There is no rust, and the blade is thin and sharp. I tried it with paper, and it was broken in more than 20 layers." The question that arises is: why did it not rust over the long years of thousands of years?

In December 1977, experts from the Electrostatic Accelerator Laboratory of Fudan University in Shanghai, together with the Activation Analysis Group of Shanghai Institute of Nuclear Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, carried out non-destructive scientific testing on the Yue KING Goujian sword using proton X fluorescence non-vacuum analysis method and obtained the sword body. The accurate data sheet for bronze alloy distribution ratios. The main components of the Yue King Goujian sword are bronze alloys composed of copper, tin, and a small amount of aluminum, iron, nickel, and sulfur. The black rhombus pattern of the blade is vulcanized, and the level of precision grinding of the blade is comparable to the products produced by modern precision grinding machines. The regular 11 concentric circles are carved with an interval of only 0.2 mm, and there are thin rope patterns in the middle of the circles, which is impossible to achieve with modern lathe technology.

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The most notable of these is the conclusion of "vulcanization". Simply put, "vulcanization" is to dilute some substances and wrap them on the surface of an object. Scholars believe that the Yue King Goujian sword was treated with copper sulfide to prevent rust and maintain the gorgeous pattern. However, many merchants and individuals who imitated "Yue King Goujian Sword" later found after countless comparisons that the closest to the original "coating" of "Yue King Goujian Sword" was only chromium sulfide, not copper sulfide.

In this way, a question arises: Did the Chinese in the Spring and Autumn Period master the technology of "vulcanization"? It is said that "chromium sulfide" was invented in Germany in 1937 and in the United States in 1950, and listed as a patent.

In fact, such incredible technological elements are not alone in China. Yuan Zhongyi's "Study of Terracotta Warriors and Horses in the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang" has this sentence: "A bronze sword in the eleventh hole of Pit No. 1 Terracotta Warriors and Horses, T2, was unearthed and bent due to being pressed by the fragments of the terracotta figurines. When the fragments of the terracotta figurines were removed, The sword immediately rebounded and straightened." This involves a term "memory metal", also known as shape memory alloy, which appeared in the world of material science in the 1970s.

Since there is no detailed description in the original text, people will naturally come to the conclusion that a bronze sword of the Qin Dynasty was bent by the fragments of the pottery figurines for thousands of years. . Because a fire broke out in the early stage of the construction of Pit No. 1, many traces of fire were found during the excavation, which may have something to do with the Chu Bawang entering the pass and burning the Epang Palace. In this way, this sword may have been pressed for more than 2,200 years.

Or some people say: it may just be that the debris accidentally dropped during the excavation hit the sword. But will such a small accident be seriously written in the research report?