A 60-year-old Chinese farmer who found an ancient sword blade digging in the ground used it as a kitchen knife for several years before realizing its value and historical importance. He may have disallowed efforts to determine its exact age by polishing and sharpening it. 
 
 Experts think the sword dates to the Qing Dynasty because the characters for Qing Lang Jian, meaning Green Dragon Sword, are etched into it. 
 
 The farmer, Yi Shouxiang, found the blade minus the handle and the pointed end five years ago while digging on his land in Chengkou County, Chongqing province, says Shanghaiist.com. 
 
 Government officials became aware of the sword while visiting Yi's village in a bid to find items of historical value to put on display. The officials contacted the local cultural bureau to determine the sword's historical value. 
 
 Such swords are still used today in Tai Chi or Taijiquan training, a form of exercise and a martial art. The site White Crane Martial Arts says the double-edged straight sword, or jian, goes back 3,000 years. Before the Iron Age, jian swords were made of bronze and were shorter. But about 2,000 years ago sword makers began to use iron and steel. The length of the jian swords increased gradually. 
 
 Chai Fong Ying of Malaysia demonstrates a Tai Chi sword form in the 2010 Asian Games. 
 
 Jian blades became more refined and more popular among martial artists and martial-arts societies beginning in the Ming Dynasty of 1368-1644 and the Qing Dynasty of 1644-1912. Most antique jian swords one sees nowadays are mid to late Qing Dynasty blades. The White Crane site says excellent swords were also made in China's Republican era until 1920 or later. 
 
 In September 2014, Ancient Origins reported on the case of an 11-year-old boy washing his hands in the Laozhoulin River in Gaoyou County, China, when he felt something hard and metallic. He pulled out the object and found that it was a rusty sword—a 3,000-year-old bronze piece. 
 
 After fishing the sword out from the river, 11-year-old Yang Junxi took the relic home to his father, Yang Jinhai. As news spread around their town, locals began flocking to Yang’s home, with some offering high prices to purchase the artifact. However, Jinhai felt it was best to preserve the sword for its cultural value and sent it to the Gaoyou Cultural Relics Bureau, who rewarded the two for their honor in protecting and donating it. 
 
 A Chinese bronze sword blade similar to the one a boy found in the Laozhoulin River in 2014 (Photo credit: Huhan Provincial Museum) 
 
 The bureau organized a team of local cultural relics experts to identify the sword. Initial identifications found that the 26cm-long (10.2-inch) bronze sword could be dated back to around the time of the Shang and Zhou dynasties, more than 3,000 years ago. It is among the oldest swords ever recovered – the first bronze swords are believed to have first been developed in China around 3,200 years ago. 
 
 Lyu Zhiwei, head of the cultural relics office of the bureau, said the bronze sword, which does not have decorative patterns, is an example of a short sword, which was often used by civil officials for decorative or status reasons. Swords of this period were typically made from bronze with high tin content for the cutting edge and bronze with low tin content for the spine, resulting in a sword with hard and durable cutting edges and a flexible spine to absorb shock. There was also extensive use of copper sulfides as anti-corrosion coatings. 
 
 Featured image: The blade appears to be double-edged straight sword, which would make. [Image via Chongqing Evening News] 
 
 By Mark Miller 

 Government officers from Chengkou county, Chongqing province recently discovered an ancient sword that had been used as a kitchen knife by an elderly farmer for several years. 
 
 The 60-year-old farmer, named Yi Shouxiang, found the sword while digging on his farmland five years ago. 
 
 According to People's Daily, the sword bearing three written characters was rather rusty but its pointed end and the hilt were nowhere to be found. After polishing and sharpening the sword, Li has used it as a knife ever since. 
 
 The value of the sword was revealed when the government officers recently visited Li's village in search of farm tools of historical value for exhibition. The sword is suspected to originate from the Qing Dynasty (1644 to 1912) due to the presence of three Chinese characters which read "Qing Long Jian" (Green Dragon Sword). 
 
 Although the sword is estimated to be very old, by polishing the blade Yi may have hampered efforts to determine its exact age. The officers have contacted the local cultural bureau to evaluate the sword's historical value as soon as possible. 
 
 By Lucy Liu 
 
 [Image via Chongqing Evening News] 

 A 60-year-old farmer in Chengkou county in Chongqing has been using an ancient sword as a kitchen knife since he dug it up five years ago, the Chongqing Evening Daily reports. 
 
 One day out in his fields, Yi Shouxiang found the rusty sword, which had lost its head and handle. Three Chinese seal characters were carved on the blade, but hard to distinguish. Yi became curious and decided to sharpen the blade. He soon recognised two of the characters, for “dragon” and “sword”, the report said. 
 
 Officials at the local cultural heritage preservation centre in the Gaoguan township came across the sword by chance during a visit of the countryside to look for ancient farming equipment or other items for an exhibition. They found the three characters read Black Dragon Sword, and believed the sword was made in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912), the paper cited the officials as saying. 
 
 The value of the sword, cast in red copper, was rumoured by some local people as worth more than a million yuan (HK$1.26 million), the paper said. However, the cultural centre officials said the actual value may be far less as it was a high quality blade. It might have lost value further after Yi sharpened it into a kitchen knife, the officials said. 
 
 The local government said it would try to an accurate evaluation of the relic as soon as possible.
– A farmer in China has been innocently chopping his vegetables with what could turn out to be an ancient and valuable sword. Yi Shouxiang of Chongqing says he found a rusty blade while working in his fields five years ago and decided to sharpen it. He soon noticed the Chinese characters for "dragon" and "sword" were engraved in the metal, but apparently didn't think much more of them as he began using the blade as a knife in his kitchen, the South China Morning Post reports. The blade didn't look precisely like a real sword, as it was missing a pointy head and a handle. When officials from a local cultural heritage center turned up looking for antique farm equipment, however, they realized the 60-year-old had something far more special on his hands. A close look at the blade revealed a third Chinese character, variously reported as meaning "green" or "black." Experts say the so-called "dragon sword," cast in red copper, dates to the Qing Dynasty, which stretched from 1644 to 1912. Locals believe it could be worth as much as $160,000, though officials say Yi may have hurt its value by sharpening it into a kitchen blade, and the polishing he did may have also hindered officials' ability to discover the sword's precise age, Shanghaiist reports; they're still attempting to evaluate its historical value. Ancient Origins notes the double-edged straight sword, or jian, like the one discovered, has been around in China for thousands of years and is still used today in Tai Chi or Taijiquan training. (Read about a similar find, this one from "the dawn of Chinese civilization.")