These legends typically tell of a difficulty arising at a critical point in the sword's making, as with the famed swords Mo Xie and Gan Jiang, both of whose makers fed their own bodies to their forges to complete the swords.
寶劍鑄成不易，威力遂容易被神話，傳說中的名劍，總是在鍛造的最後關頭遇到瓶頸，也才有莫邪、干將雙雙跳入劍爐，以身煉劍的故事。