Exhibition of Wu and Yue States opens in Xi'an

An exhibition to show the history and culture of Wu and Yue States in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770 – 256 BC) kicked off on Thursday in Emperor Qinshihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum in Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi province.

Co-sponsored by the museum and another 9 museums in Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Shaanxi, the 3-month-long exhibition displays 115 pieces of cultural relics made in the Wu and Yue States to show Wu and Yue's history and culture and how the natural environment and social structure influenced the formation and development of regional culture.

Among the displayed relics, the bronze sword of King Fuchai of Wu State is a national-level treasure and is one of the only such swords that have been fully preserved in the world.

The sword, 58.3 cm in length and 5 cm in width, is also incomparably sharp and as good as new after more than 2,400 years.

According to Cheng Yi, deputy director of Suzhou Museum in Jiangsu province and archaeologist, the sword is still sharp because of its foundry process in which the sword body and the sword edge were cast two times.

"The secret of the sharp sword is the proportion of copper and tin during the casting, the proportion of copper was higher than tin for the sword body, making the tough and not easy to break, and the proportion of tin was higher than copper for the sword edge to make the edge very hard and very sharp," Cheng said.

It is the first exhibition to show Wu and Yue history and culture in an inland province, helping visitors here better understand the history and culture of ancient times in the country's eastern coastal areas.