Gan Jiang (干将) and Mo Ye (莫邪) were a legendary swordsmith couple in Chinese tradition, said to have lived during the Spring and Autumn period. They are credited with forging a pair of famous swords that took their names: the male sword Gan Jiang (干将) and the female sword Mo Ye (莫邪). The legend is often linked to the State of Wu and sometimes to Ouyezi (欧冶子) and the lore of legendary blades.
Legend
In the most famous version of the story, a king ordered Gan Jiang to forge a pair of swords. The forging required great sacrifice; Mo Ye helped complete the work, and the couple produced two swords. Gan Jiang gave the male sword to the king and hid the female sword; the king had him killed. Their son later used the female sword to take revenge. The story appears in Records of the Grand Historian and later texts and has been retold in literature and drama.
In Sword of the Yue Maiden
Goujian names Gan Jiang and Mo Ye as the swordsmiths of Wu, the equals of Yue’s Ouyezi, and all three are dead by the time of the novella. Wu Zixu recalls how Mo Ye threw herself into the furnace to complete their sword, the reason he gives for not asking Feng Huzi to forge prized blades.1
See also
- Ouyezi — Another legendary swordsmith of the period
- Zhanlu, Yuchang — Other legendary swords
- Sword of the Yue Maiden characters
External links
- Gan Jiang and Mo Ye on Wikipedia
- 干将莫邪 (Chinese) on Chinese Wikipedia