The Magic Swords

(An ancient Chinese tale)

In ancient China, Kan-chiang the wondrous swordsmith took three years to forge a matched pair of swords (called male and female swords) angering the King of Ch'u who vowed to slay the smith when the blades were delivered. As the smith completed his task, his wife was nearing her time of birth, and her husband told her he feared that the King would kill him; he told her that if her child was a son, then when this son came of age, to have him go to the south hill where on a stone, stood a pine with the sword in its back. Then he set off, bearing the female sword, to deliver to the King - who had been warned by divination that the swordsmith would cheat him of the male sword - and who killed him in a rage.

When the swordsmith's son Ch'ih came of age, his mother told him this terrible story and sent him out to find the sword. Leaving the house, the boy faced south; there he saw no hill, but a pillar of pine on a base of stone; with his axe he hewed open the back and found the male sword. Then he burned for revenge day and night.

The King dreamed that a youth was coming to kill him, and offered a thousand in gold for the lad's head; Ch'ih heard of this and fled into the mountains, singing a sad song as he did. There, he met a stranger and told his tale; the stranger said, "I hear the King offered a thousand in gold for your head. Give me the sword and your head! And I will avenge your father."

"Excellent!" cried the youth. Then and there he slit his throat; then, still standing upright, he offered the sword with one hand, his own head with the other.

"I shall not betray you," promised the stranger, and only then did the boy's body topple; carrying the head, the stranger then went to the King . . . who was delighted. "Reward me!" said the stranger, "but first, remember: this is the head of a brave man. You had best boil it in a cauldron."

The King did so. But for three days and nights the head would not perish, but leapt up angrily in the boiling water whenever it beheld the King. The stranger said then, "I fear the boy's head will never cook until Your Majesty comes close to rebuke it!" But when the ruler drew near, the stranger drew the male sword and swopped the royal head off with a single blow, letting it fall in the cauldron; then he cut off his own head, and it too fell into the soup. All three heads cooked into one, and therefore the King's people divided the whole into three portions and buried them in the place now called the Tomb of the Three Kings.

According to some versions, Kan-Chiang Mo-yeh was the swordsmith's name; others say these were two names, those of the swordsmith and his wife, or else those of the male and female sword.

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