Famous Longquan Swordsmiths and the Workshops Behind Them
Legends like Ou Yezi gave Longquan its fame, but its reputation was built by real people: family workshops that passed their skills from father to son, and modern masters who kept the craft alive through the twentieth century. Here are some of the names every Chinese sword fan should know.
The old sword shops of Longquan
Traditional Longquan sword shops were known by a brand mark, or zi hao (字号), stamped on their blades. One of the earliest recorded is Qian Zi Hao (千字号, "Thousand Mark"), said to have been opened by the smith Zheng Yisheng on Longquan's East Street in 1748. Other marks, such as Wan Zi Hao (万字号, "Ten Thousand Mark"), followed. Blades with these marks still turn up in collections and museums today, and they show how established the trade had become by the Qing dynasty.
Shen Guanglong: a family workshop since 1894
The best-known name in Longquan is Shen Guanglong (沈广隆). The Shen family began making swords professionally in Longquan in 1885 under Shen Chaoqing (沈朝庆). In 1894 his son Shen Tingzhang (沈庭璋) opened the Shen Guanglong sword shop, and it has stayed in the family ever since.
The shop's blades soon made a name far beyond Zhejiang. Shen Guanglong swords won a gold medal at the 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, and in 1930 the shop took the best-sword award at a national martial arts competition in Nanjing. In 1972, a Longquan sword made by the family was chosen as a state gift for the visiting US delegation led by President Nixon.
The craft passed down the generations: Shen Tingzhang's son Shen Huanzhou (沈焕周), then his son Shen Xinpei (沈新培), and today Shen Zhou (沈州), the fifth-generation head of the shop. Shen Guanglong is recognised as a "China Time-honoured Brand" (中华老字号).
Shen Xinpei: national master
Shen Xinpei was born in Longquan in 1948 and started learning the trade from his father and uncles as a boy. Over a long career he became one of the faces of Longquan sword making. In 1963 the Shen family helped found the Longquan sword production cooperative, which kept the craft going through difficult decades. Shen Xinpei was later named a master of arts and crafts, and he was among the first national representative inheritors of Longquan sword forging after the craft was added to China's intangible cultural heritage list in 2006. Inheritors are responsible for teaching the full traditional process to the next generation.
Shen Zhou: the fifth generation
His son Shen Zhou has been forging swords for more than twenty years and now heads the family shop. He still shapes and grinds blades by hand and follows the traditional sequence of around 28 processes, from casting and forging through quenching to the final polish. He is also known for recreating classical sword designs and for bringing new decorative techniques, such as filigree inlay, into Longquan sword making, with hundreds of designs aimed at modern collectors.
Zhang Yesheng and the Longquan Sword Factory
Not every Longquan master comes from an old sword family. Zhang Yesheng (张叶胜) started as a 17-year-old apprentice at the state-owned Longquan Sword Factory, opened his own workshop in 1988, and later bought the factory itself. He mastered what he describes as the 72 steps of sword making and was an early adopter of modern rust-resistant steels. His story shows how Longquan has adapted: traditional hand skills combined with modern materials and a much bigger market.
Thousands of smiths today
Today Longquan has hundreds of workshops and thousands of people working in the sword trade, from small family forges to larger makers. Some specialise in traditional jian and dao; others make Japanese-style katana, European swords or anime-inspired designs. Many of the swords in the LQForge range come from these workshops.
Want to understand what these smiths actually do at the forge? Read How a Longquan Sword Is Made.
