The Swordmaking Legacy of Longquan

The Quest of A King

Legend has it that an ancient ruler of China, King Chu, once called the greatest swordsmith of the land to make him a few masterwork weapons.  That man’s name was Master Ou Yezi.   Ou heeded the King’s command and traveled far and wide, looking for a place in which he could make such weapons.  He finally found a suitable place – one with plentiful iron for smithing, special water for quenching, and suitable stones for grinding.  The name of the place was Lonqquan.

There, Master Ou spent three years of labor, painstakingly crafting the blades the King wished for.  In the end, he created three swords: Longyan, Tai’e, and Gongbu.  The first sword, Longyuan, means “Dragon Abyss”, and was named such because its shape reminded the viewer of someone standing at the top of a tall cliff and looking down.  The second sword, Tai’e, means “Great Mountains”, and was named so because its soul existed in the mountains where the sword was forged before being contained in the sword.  The last, Gonbu, meant “Exquisite Cloth”, due to it feeling as smooth as silk when touched.  The King was pleased with these swords, and Master Ou’s name has been revered among Chinese swordsmiths since that day.

LongQuan

Nestled by the tallest mountain in the province, the town of Lonquan still holds much of its ancient beauty.  Surrounded by forest and a nearby a river, this quiet town contains the top swordsmiths of China.  Supposedly the water in the river has minerals that react with the sword during quenching to enhances its sharpness and resilience.

Getting there is a journey – there are no airports or major transport hubs.  Once there, one can visit the many swordsmithies in the area.  Swordsmaking is a tradition handed down from master to apprentice that has been passed on for centuries.  Unfortunately, this tradition is in danger as fewer apprentices choose to make swordsmithing their career due to the hard work and low pay, instead choosing to look elsewhere for job opportunities.  The quality of Longquan swords is unmatched, with local smordsmiths having made swords for foreign leaders, movies, and for wealthy clients who can afford to pay for the months of work it can take to make just one high-quality sword.  The swordsmithing of Lonqquan has been recognized as an Untangible Cultural Heritage of China.

Fun Facts

The ancient name of Longquan is actually Longyuan (the same name as the first legendary sword made by Master Ou Yezi).  Due to a later leader named Yuan, the name was changed out of respect and to avoid naming conflicts.

The art of swordsmithing was originally imported into Japan from China.  Now history has come full circle, with Chinese smiths having imported the knowledge from Japan for making Katana and other Samurai Swords.

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Many of our swords come from Lonquan, guaranteeing their high quality.  It gives us pride to work with smiths from such a distinguished heritage.

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source https://www.bladespro.co.uk/blogs/news/swordmaking-legacy-longquan

Roman Empire vs the Mongol Empire (Part 1)

Both the Roman and Mongol Empires were juggernauts of their times.  With vast swaths of territory and tens of millions of conquered peoples living in their realms, these Empires would be unrivaled until the late British Empire.

In Part 1 of this 2-part series, we explore, briefly, the rise and fall of these two great powers. In Part 2, we will compare and analyze them on several criteria.

Roman Empire

Tracing its roots to the 6^th century BC with the founding of the Republic, the Roman Empire began humbly.  Consisting of nothing more than the city of Rome and a few outlying towns, it gradually expanded until it began to reach beyond the Italian peninsula around the 3^rd century BC.  In the 2^nd century BC, the Republic of Rome began to suffer internal discord while simultaneously beginning to rapidly expand its borders. This led to the need for a strong central command and, eventually, the first dictator Julius Caesar.

Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC. His adopted son Octavius and Marc Antony divided the Empire between them, then eventually attacked each other.  Octavius won and was given the title of princeps, meaning “first citizen”, and the name Augustus in 27BC.   Augustus was well-liked because he ended a century of turmoil and strife, and his rule began the start of what was called the Pax Romana, a 2-century long peace where the Empire flourished. 

As with all good things, this was not to last, and the Empire eventually fell into turmoil around 180 AD.   After a century, Aurelian managed to stabilize the empire and Diocletian fully restored it.  Rejecting the title of princeps, he became the first ruler to take the actual title of Emperor.  Apparently happy with his deeds, he divided the empire into separate parts, each ruled by its own ruler, then abdicated the throne.  This didn’t work, and it was up to Constantinian the Great to fix the mess. Constantinian established a second capital in the East called, appropriately enough, Constantinople.  After a later ruler Theodosius I died, the Western side of the Empire began to disintegrate due to immigration and invasion problems from the Germanic peoples, and was basically gone after only a short century.  The East side was much more successful and lasted for another thousand years before finally falling.

Mongol Empire

Compared to the slow build up of the Roman Empire, the Mongol Empire hit like a lightning strike.  The Mongols were disorganized nomadic tribes that usually couldn’t get along and were encouraged in their internal strife by their neighbors in order to keep them under control.  That all changed, however, with the rise of Genghis Khan, who united the tribes in 1206 AD and set out to build himself an Empire.

He moved quickly, taking over what is now Northern China, eastern Persia, and Ukraine.   By his death, the Mongol Empire was twice the size of the Roman Empire at its peak.  He died in 1227, a mere 21 years after his conquest began.  Due to questions over the paternity of his oldest son, he was forced to name his third son Ogedei as his heir.  Ogedei expanded the empire, incorporating southern China and southern Persia. He reached as far as Korea, though he did not succeed in annexing the peninsula, instead forced to rule it politically through marriage.  He also invaded parts of India, though he eventually had to withdraw.  After one of his sons died, the Empire lost part of southern China, but managed to expand northward into what is now Russia, taking the capitol Kiev.  The Empire expanded into Europe, reaching as far as modern Poland before being halted by news of Ogedei’s death.

Ogedei’s son Guyuk eventually took power, but the Empire was weakened by a period of division when Ogedei’s widow unsuccessfully tried to rule the Empire and one of the most powerful Mongol military leaders refused to recognize her.  Guyuk tried to reduce corruption, expand, and maintain the empire.  He was sickly and ill, and died during travel, so a man named Mongke became Emperor, marking a switch in power from Ogedei’s line to another son of Genghi’s line Tolui.  Mongke sought to expand the Empire, but made some mistakes, allowing significant opposition and a halt to the Mongol’s advances for the first time.

War and strife followed, and eventually a Mongol leader rose to power who succeeded in fully conquering all of China, founding the Yuan dynasty.  While his and his descendants’ rule was weaker than those that had gone before, with much of the Mongol Empire being ruled independently by others who did little more than acknowledge the Yuan’s rule and send tribute.  The Empire eventually began to collapse due to religious intolerance among its disparate parts, the Black Death, and corruption. Thus marked the end of the Pax Mogolica: a period of piece lasting around a 100 years with great economic growth and relative peace and safety from the Pacific Ocean to the Mediterranean.

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source https://www.bladespro.co.uk/blogs/news/roman-empire-vs-the-mongol-empire-part-1

The Notorious Opera Duelist of Paris - Julie d'Aubigny

Few women have achieved the notoriety throughout their entire lifetime that Julie d'Aubigny acquired in just two short decades.  Famous for her insatiable sexual appetite and martial prowess, two things that regularly got her into trouble, she would have perished early in life if not for her father’s close contacts with the king.

Teenage Duelist

Julie d'Aubigny was effectively raised as a man, the son of the secretary to Horse Master Louis de Lorraine-Guisea.  Her father’s job was to train the court pages, and she was raised under his tutelage as well.  From him, she learned dueling, horseback riding, dancing, and reading, among other traditionally “manly” skills.  Her choice of men’s clothes reflected her upbringing.

Her dress didn’t stop her from attracting the eye of the Count d'Armagnac, who took her as his mistress when she was only 14 years old.  For some reason, the Count decided to marry her off to Sieur de Maupin, whom she stayed married to for life, though ne’er faithful.  When her husband moved to the South of France, she stayed in Paris (possibly at the Count’s request), and began to engage in antics that would make the ears of the noble class ring.

First, the very same year, she hooked up with an assistant fencing master who had similar proclivities as she.  After he killed a man in a duel (dueling was illegal in Paris by the King’s edict), they had to flee.  Making a living by singing duets and demonstrating their fencing skills, they traveled through the countryside.  Because Julie’s fencing skills were so incredibly, she was occasionally accused of being a man pretending to be a woman.  According to a story, she got so tired of this that, one day, she tore open her blouse in order to prove that she was indeed a woman.

For people whose craving for excitement knows no bounds, loyalty doesn’t factor in very high, so it wasn’t long before she tired of her traveling lover and decided to try her luck with a woman.  Her new choice’s parents were less-than-pleased with her decision and sent the woman away to a nunnery.  Undeterred, Julie managed to enter the same convent by pretending to be an initiate, then arranged their escape by placing the corpse of a recently-deceased nun in her girlfriend’s room, setting it on fire, then fleeing during the chaos.

This affair lasted only 3 months, but it was not without consequences.  For her deed, Julie was charged with arson, kidnapping, body snatching, and failing to show up to court. Possibly because of the inability to comprehend bisexuality at the time (“Why would a woman run off with another woman? Only a man would do so.”), she was charged as a man, so the sentence was severe – death by fire.

Opera Singer

During her adventures trouping around the county, she had managed to attract the attention of some opera talent scouts who pushed for her to join the Paris Opera.  She headed toward Paris but first had to first deal with the charges hanging over her head.  Luckily for her, her father was able to contact the King and get the charges cleared.  She joined the Opera, playing some very strong female parts, and her voice attracted renown.

Of course, being Julie d'Aubigny, she couldn’t quite blend in with the other performers.  At one ball, she publically kissed a woman, which attracted the attention of three men who dueled her.  She won every duel.  She had to flee Paris due to the anti-dueling laws, until she was once again able to obtain a royal pardon, with the King rationalizing that the laws only applied to men. Even during all this, she somehow found the time to seduce the then-governor of the Netherlands.

Returning to the Opera, she challenged a man known for bothering female singers, and when he tried to refuse, she mugged him.  Not wanting to admit to the embarrassment, he made up a story that he had been attacked, which she quickly refuted by producing a pocket watch she had taken from him.

True Love And Heartbreak

Julie was fated to die young.  She fell for a mistress Marquise de Florensac, whose death after two years proved too much for the still-young Julie, who had finally found love at long last.  Joining a convent for real this time, she lived there another few years until her death at the young age of 33.

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source https://www.bladespro.co.uk/blogs/news/the-notorious-bisexual-opera-duelist-of-paris-julie-daubigny

3 Legendary European Swordsmen

From the mid-16^th century to the 18^th century, there lived in Europe three swordsmen whose skills were legendary.  What makes these men remarkable is that their skill at dueling was the only commonality these men shared.  They were each incredibly different in their temperaments, skills, and chosen paths in life.

 

Achille Marozzo—The Renaissance Fencing Master

The first legend was Achille Marozzo, an Italian fencing master who followed the fencing tradition of the Bolognese school.  He is remembered today for his treatise Opera Nova dell’Arte delle Armi, which mostly covers how to use various weapons or guards in tandem with a sword.  Today, this work serves as a window into 16^th century fencing styles and theory and is studied by many historical fencing groups.

There is not much known about his personal life.  What little we know about him comes mainly from his esteemed work.  From lines such as “You must never attack without defending, nor defend without attacking” we can discern that he was a fairly calculating individual.  We know he studied under Guido Antonio Di Luca, who trained a great many warriors.  Marozzo became a teacher in his own right, as one contemporary noted that he “had trained an immense number of valiant disciplines.”

Donald McBane—The Scottish Duelist Extraordinaire

Donald McBane was really a character.   He was a womanizer and had the ability to get into trouble almost no matter what he did.  Dueling for him was a double-edged sword – it got him into trouble as often as it got him out of it.  If it weren’t for the fact that he was often well-liked by those above him, he would have been unlikely to have achieved as much as he did.

Donald first learned swordsmanship when the elder soldier assigned to him regularly “dipped” into his wages.  Donald paid for private instruction from a sergeant, then, as was the custom of the time, Donald challenged the elder soldier to a duel, which he then promptly lost.  After taking more lessons, Donald, won the duel and became master of his and the other soldier’s wages. 

His exploits after this are too much to extol here, but suffice it to say, he had many adventures replete with scrapes, scuffles, and close calls.  He did marry and had two kids, but his roving eye never stopped, and he consistently had many adventures with other women and became a brothel owner.  Eventually, at the age of 63, he resolved to stop fighting and “repent of my former wickedness.”

 

Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges—The Gentleman Fencer

Possibly the most interesting of the 3, Joseph Boulogne, better known as Saint George, was notable for being a half-African half-French aristocrat.  Born the illegitimate son of a Frenchman and African slave, he was taken from his birthplace of Guadeloupe (an island in the Caribbean) to France at a young age.  While his maternity disallowed him from being considered nobility, his father acknowledged and supported him throughout his life, an extreme rarity due to the racial divisions of the time.

Saint George grew up with an excellent education, learning not only fencing but also horseback riding, literature, and science.  Accounted a dashing man with a fierce prowess of the sword, he gained skill quickly, with one famed Italian fencer predicting that he would become the best fencer in Europe.  Not skilled only with the sword, he also was an accomplished violinist.  While not considered one of the great composers, one of the greats, Mozart, based a piece on a melody Saint George wrote.

Saint George grew up with close ties to the Aristocracy.  His father was very close to King Louis XV, and George himself developed a close friendship with Marie Antoinette.  However, he developed sympathies for the growing revolutionary movement, though these ties made it difficult for the revolutionary leaders to trust him.  As well as his involvement with the revolution, he also sympathized with the growing anti-slavery movement, which irritated slave owners.  He lived to see slavery abolished but died soon before it was reimposed by Napoleon.

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source https://www.bladespro.co.uk/blogs/news/3-legendary-european-swordsmen