JianQiTang

At the age of 21, Yang Junquan clutched a bronze sword tassel engraved with "Guo Jiaxing" and traveled over a thousand miles to Longquan Town, in search of the legendary swordsmith. Inside the blacksmith shop, Guo Jiaxing was forging a steel billet. When he heard Yang wanted to learn swordsmithing, he only pointed coldly at the pile of firewood: "Chop firewood for three months first to temper your impatience."​Yang Junquan picked up the axe before dawn every day. Even when his palms split, he wrapped them in cloth and kept chopping—until the firewood pile grew from waist-high to roof-high. After three months, he began learning to tend the furnace. It was common for him to burn through the crucible by stoking the fire too vigorously when operating the bellows, or to get blisters on his wrists from slipping steel billets during forging. Yet he never uttered a word of complaint. Guo Jiaxing rarely spoke, but would pass him a bowl of ginger soup when he was most exhausted, saying softly: "Swordsmithing is like being a person—you can't rush it; you must be patient and wait for the right heat."​In the first three years, Yang was constantly stuck in "failure". During his first sword-forging attempt, he failed to control the water temperature during quenching, leaving a fine crack on the sword body. On his fifth try, he applied uneven force while polishing, dulling the sword's edge. He squatted by the furnace, eyes red with frustration. But Guo Jiaxing picked up the broken sword and polished it on the grinding wheel: "A cracked sword can be repaired, but if your heart shrinks back, you'll never forge a good sword again." Later, to master the ancient "clay-tempered quenching" technique, Yang stayed by the furnace for a whole month, recording how the steel billet changed at different charcoal fire temperatures. Seeing Yang's densely filled notebook, Guo quietly gave him a family heirloom copper sheet used for measuring temperature.​In the seventh year, Yang finally mastered the "hundred-refined steel" process independently. When he handed the forged sword to his master, the blade reflected the morning light and emitted a clear, resonant hum. Guo drew the sword and flicked its spine with his fingertip—his furrowed brows finally relaxed: "This sword has a soul." But he didn't stop teaching. He went on to instruct Yang in carving interlocking lotus patterns on scabbards, teaching him to identify the quality of over twenty types of iron ore. He even taught Yang to distinguish between "morning water" and "night water" for quenching: morning water cools evenly, making the sword more durable; night water, rich in dew, sharpens the blade better.​In the spring of the tenth year, a sword-forging competition was held in Longquan Town. Yang participated with a sword co-forged by him and his master. On the final day, he followed his master's teachings: when the charcoal fire turned "pear-blossom white", he began quenching. The sword body stirred up white mist in the cold water, and once finished, it could cut through iron like mud. Even the judges praised it as "possessing the charm of ancient craftsmanship". When accepting the award, Yang passed the trophy to Guo Jiaxing: "Without my master teaching me to 'uphold the craft' for ten years, this sword would never have existed."​That night, Guo Jiaxing solemnly handed Yang a yellowed swordsmithing manual: "Ten years have passed—you're no longer the young lad you were. Remember: swordsmithing is not just a craft, but a matter of conscience. If someone wants to use your sword for evil, you must refuse, even for a thousand pieces of gold."​Years later, Yang Junquan became a renowned swordsmith in Longquan Town, yet he still kept the shop's name as "Guo Jiaxing". When asked why he clung to traditional craftsmanship instead of adopting new technologies, he would always point to the ten-year-old tongs by the furnace: "What my master taught me was not just swordsmithing, but the virtue of 'endurance'—enduring ten years of loneliness to forge a sword worthy of time." On spring days, the sound of him hammering steel billets was exactly the same as the sound that echoed in the blacksmith shop ten years ago.​