越王勾践剑

The Sword of Goujian

时代:春秋晚期

出土:湖北江陵望山1號楚墓（1965年）

现藏:湖北省博物馆

越王勾践剑于1965年12月在湖北省江陵县望山1号楚墓出土，1999年中国国庆日后藏于湖北省博物馆，属春秋时代末年青铜文物，相信为越王勾践所使用。

另外，同墓亦曾出土与越王勾践剑极为相似的一把铜剑，长60.6厘米，只是没有铭文，现该剑藏中国国家博物馆。

越王剑实际上有很多，当时春秋晚期，吴越交战，越王曾寻铸剑大师欧冶子到越地铸剑。现在出土的越王剑有四把，其他的分别是越王者旨于赐剑、越王不寿剑、越王州句复合剑。这四把剑曾经在南京博物院一起展出。不过从文物价值来看，越王勾践剑更为知名，称其为“天下第一剑”主要是因为这是勾践的“自用”剑。在剑身上有八个美丽的篆文，而且这种篆文是经过特别美化的，称为“鸟篆”。篆文当时能够明确认出来的只有六个字“越王**自乍用剑”，只能说明为越王用剑，越国有十个越王，但究竟是哪一位越王呢？考古现场专家方壮猷认为这两个字是“邵滑”，是楚国派到越国的“越奸”，最后被封为越王。不过，古文字专家唐兰却认为，这两个字是“鸠浅”，是“勾践”的通假字。这个观点最后也得到了其他专家的认同。

The Sword of Goujian (Traditional Chinese: 越王勾践剑, Simplified Chinese: 越王勾践剑) is an archaeological artifact of the Spring and Autumn period (771 to 403BC) found in 1965 in Hubei, China. Cast in tin bronze, it is renowned for its unusual sharpness and resistance to tarnish rarely seen in artifacts so old. This historical artifact of ancient China is currently in the possession of the Hubei Provincial Museum.

In 1965, while an archaeological survey was being performed along the second main aqueduct of the Zhang River Reservoir in Jingzhou, Hubei, a series of ancient tombs were discovered in Jiangling County. A dig started in the middle of October 1965, ending in January 1966, eventually revealing more than fifty ancient tombs of the Chu State.

More than 2,000 artifacts were recovered from the sites, including an ornate bronze sword, found inside a casket together with a human skeleton. The casket was discovered in December 1965, at Wangshan site #1, 7 kilometres (4.3 mi) from the ruins of Ying (郢, currently called Jinan 纪南), an ancient capital of Chu.

The sword was found sheathed in a wooden scabbard finished in black lacquer. The scabbard had an almost air-tight fit with the sword body. Unsheathing the sword revealed an untarnished blade, despite the tomb being soaked in underground water for over 2,000 years.

On one side of the blade, two columns of text are visible. Eight characters are written in an ancient script, now known as Bird-worm seal script (literally "birds and worms characters", owing to the intricate decorations of the defining strokes), a variant of seal script. Initial analysis of the text deciphered six of the characters, "King of Yue" (越王) and "made this sword for [his] personal use" (自作用剑). The remaining two characters were assumed to be the name of the particular King of Yue.

From the sword's origin in 510 BC to its demise at the hands of the Chu in 334 BC, nine kings ruled Yue, including Goujian, Lu Cheng, Bu Shou, and Zhu Gou. The identity of the king in the sword inscription sparked debate among archeologists and Chinese language scholars. The discussion was carried out mostly via letter, and involved famous scholars such as Guo Moruo. After more than two months, the experts[who?] started to form a consensus that the original owner of the sword was Goujian (勾践), the King of Yue made famous by his perseverance in time of hardship.