After the worship and morning tea, the sword maker of the Baoan clan was building a furnace, and the flames quickly reflected his face. The temperature of the furnace gradually rose and fine sweat oozed from Ma Zizheng's head.

When Ma Zizheng took out the knife blank from the furnace, the two metals mixed together, iron and steel, were already red. With a clanging sound, the boxy steel was stretched and thinned, and a billet gradually revealed the shape of a knife in the craftsman's hand.

The Baoan people believe in the first religion and are one of the unique ethnic minorities in Gansu, northwest China, with a population of about 20,000 people, mainly living in Dahejia Town, Dongxiang and Salar Autonomous County, Jishishan Baoan Mountain, Linxia Hui Autonomous Prefecture. The Baoan waist knife is a traditional handicraft product of the Baoan people, because of its exquisiteness and durability, it is known as the three famous knives of China's ethnic minorities together with the Yunnan Husa knife and the Xinjiang Yingjisha knife.

According to historical records, at the beginning of the 13th century, Genghis Khan led the Mongol expeditionary force to conquer Central Asia, and the army was supplemented with a large number of people who believed in the religion of the Central Asian countries. These people were later stationed in the Tongren area of Qinghai, and most of them made iron and knife tools for the legion. They live next to each other with the local Mongolian, Han, Hui, Tibetan, and Tu ethnic groups, communicate with each other and blend together, and gradually form the Baoan clan.

More than 140 years ago, the Baoan people moved eastward through Jishi Pass and came to today's Dahejia Town. Locally, the Baoan people rely on the knife fighting skills passed down from their ancestors to make a living. The waist knife was exchanged for cattle, sheep and other daily necessities, so that traditional craftsmanship and economic development were closely linked. "It can be said that the security waist knife is the skill that the whole nation depends on for survival, and the history of the waist knife is the history of the nation." Ma Zizheng said.

The hot knife blank was immersed in cold water, and the surface of the water instantly jumped, rising white smoke. "It's a knife's life twist." Ma Zizheng told Lan Eucalyptus that quenching is the most important process in the production of security waist knives, which determines the hardness and toughness of the knives.

Grinding, sheathing, after hundreds of processes, a real security waist knife is completed. Although modern machinery such as air hammers and grinders have replaced some of the procedures in traditional processes, it is difficult for machinery to completely replicate the exquisiteness produced by tedious handwork. Because of this, the production process of the security waist knife was included in the first batch of national intangible cultural heritage list in China.

The complexity of the skill also determines the authority of the master, and if you want to learn the art from a teacher, you have to go through a period of mental and physical training that is difficult for ordinary people to accept. In the courtyard of Ma Zizheng's house, his nephew Ma Peng's daily work is mainly to polish knives. He started learning knife fighting at the age of 12, and now he has been in the industry for 13 years, and strictly speaking, he is still just a beginner.

Ma Peng said that in the past, apprentices could not approach the furnace or use knife-related tools for three to five years, and the test of the learner's morality and understanding was also carried out during this period. After completing the study, the master gave the apprentice a set of tools and prepared the stove for the apprentice himself, so that the apprentice could set up another portal.

The consideration of the "virtue" of the waist knife craftsman, the concept and the water that dips the knife during quenching must come from the plateau, and the cold and clean water of the Yellow River is in the same vein. In the eyes of the security people, such persistence and harshness have a unique cultural connotation, "The knife is pure, a tool, not a murder weapon." Ma Peng said.

Nowadays, the industrial mass production and the control of knives have severely impacted the market for waist knives. A large number of artisans abandon their crafts and choose other ways to make a living.

In the Dahe family, there were three or four hundred craftsmen in one village alone in the heyday, and now there are only more than 100 people in total. Many of Ma Zizheng's fifth-generation heirs are around 50 years old, while there are very few sixth-generation heirs like Ma Peng. In addition, some accomplished old swordsmiths have passed away one after another, and the survival of many unique skills is worrying.

Not long ago, Ma Zizheng gathered local craftsmen to form the Dahejia Security Waist Knife Chamber of Commerce, hoping to find a market through joint efforts, so that more people can return to the stove and inherit the craftsmanship passed down from generation to generation. "Because without a waist knife, there will be no security guards."

Dating back to ancient times, the Tibetan Plateau gradually uplifted and eventually shook hands with the Loess Plateau, with the Yellow River flowing between the fingers of the two plateaus...... Tens of millions of years later, China's earliest geography book "Shangshu Yu Gong" recorded: Yu "guide the river from the stone, to the Longmen, into the sea", "Historical Records Xia Benji" recorded: Yu water control "guide the river stone, as for the Longmen. ”

The "Jishi" in the text is the earliest record of the location of today's Jishi Mountain Baoan Dongxiang Salar Autonomous County in Gansu Province (the historical records are much older than those of the Salar people). And the famous waist knife people, the Baoan clan, mainly live in this place.

The most famous specialties of Mt. Seishi are the peppercorns and the security knife, which are also most eye-catching in the local shops. According to the record of Jishishan County, the security waist knife is because the people of the Baoan tribe who live in Ganhetan Village, Meipo Village, Dadun Village and Gaoli Village, Liuji Township, are good at knife fighting technology, and the knife structure is exquisite, the quality is high, and the craftsmanship is unique, so it is called "security waist knife".

Among the eighteen traditional Chinese weapons, the first is the knife, which is one of the earliest and most commonly used cold weapons in human beings. Historically, the vast majority of what the knife has brought to mankind has been bloodshed and killing, but in Gansu, China, there is a nation that has been able to thrive and develop because of the knife.

This is the famous waist knife nation - the security clan. The security waist knife and the Uygur Yingjisha knife and the Achang Husa knife are known as the three famous knives of China's ethnic minorities, and the production process of the security waist knife is the most important intangible cultural heritage of the Baoan people. The security waist knife has a beautiful shape, bright lines, exquisite decoration and exquisite craftsmanship.

It is not only a household utensil, but also a chic ornament and a great gift for relatives and friends. Therefore, it is very popular with the people of all ethnic groups in the northwest and is also quite famous in Arab countries.

The Baoan people have a history of smelting steel and making metal utensils for more than 800 years, which is related to the military activities of Genghis Han in the Yuan Dynasty. According to the 14th century: "History of the Yuan", "Secret History of the Mongols", and "History of the World Conquerors" all recorded: "Taizu conquered Hui for seven years", Genghis Han led the Mongol expeditionary force to conquer Central Asia from 1219 to 1225 AD.

The Iranian historian Zhifeni recorded in his History of the Conquerors of the World: "More than 100,000 craftsmen and craftsmen were separated from the rest of the people, and children, women and children were reduced to slavery and driven away." "The Mongols ended the battle in Khorezm, plundered and drove slaves, carried out looting and massacres, bloody suppression, and then divided the artisans among the inhabitants and sent them to the eastern countries."

In 1225, Genghis Khan returned to the Central Plains, and the army was supplemented with a large number of people who believed in the religion of the Central Asian countries. In 1227, it occupied Hezhou, Taozhou and Jishi Prefecture, which belonged to the Jin Dynasty (under the jurisdiction of Jishi Mountain, Gansu, Xunhua, Tongren, Guide and other places in Qinghai).

In order to consolidate these newly unified areas, the Mengyuan army formed a "Tanma Red Army" with the participation of the ancestors and craftsmen of the Baoan tribe, and sent it to the security area of Tongren County, Qinghai. They are also soldiers and workers, and they are still engaged in the work of craftsmen. These Semu people who believe in the religion of *** religion live next to each other with the local Mongolian, Hui, Tu, Tibetan, Salar and other tribes, communicate with each other, and form the Baoan clan in the Ming Dynasty.

The history of security guards making waist knives is long, and the emergence of security waist knives is closely related to the military activities of the Yuan Dynasty. In 1227, when Genghis Khan went on his expedition to the east, he left some of the officers and craftsmen from Central Asia in the Tongren area of Qinghai. This part of the Semu people lived next to each other with the local Mongolian, Han, Hui, Tibetan, Tu and other ethnic groups, and gradually formed a security nation.

After settling in Baocheng, many of them were engaged in handicraft production, and blacksmiths, goldsmiths, carpenters, shoemakers, and other trades appeared. At that time, blacksmiths mainly made earthen guns, bows and arrows, etc., and the same iron-smelting technology gave them strong skills in knife making.

After the Baoan people migrated to Dahejia, affected by the living conditions, the waist knives they made themselves had the nature of commodities while being used for self-defense, so the Baoan people began to exchange the waist knives for the herdsmen's cattle, sheep and other daily necessities. Since then, the security clan waist knife and economic development are closely linked.

There are many legendary stories and legends about the security belt knife. According to legend, in the Southern Song Dynasty, the ancestors of the Baoan clan blacksmiths, in a Song army garrisoned outside the city gate to open a blacksmith shop, that era, in the territory of China coexisting in the Southern Song Dynasty, Western Liao, Mongolia, Jin Dynasty, Western Xia, Dali six regimes, the cruel war between them for many years, the Song army believes that the blacksmiths at the city gate to make farm tools and knives is not safe, so they sent troops to drive away the blacksmiths.

The blacksmiths said, "Why are we driving us out of the way of the people when we keep the rules and regulations for the people, and they don't stand in your way?" After a quarrel, there was a fight with the Song army, and the blacksmiths had strong hands and tools, so they blinded the eyes of a Song soldier officer, and then rode for a few days, and came to the gate of a city garrisoned by the Mongol army.

Because, the Mongol soldiers were all from the steppe tribes, and there was a lack of various craftsmen. Let them open a blacksmith shop in the city. Later, because of his good craftsmanship, he was incorporated into the military household by the Yuan Dynasty, and made cavalry sets and weapons for them, and later followed the Yuan Dynasty army to settle in a safe place. This story reflects the history of the security clan as a soldier and craftsman from another side.

The origin and formation of the Baoan clan are based on legends and their linguistic characteristics, ethnic characteristics and living customs

It is generally believed that the Baoan people are a group of Central Asian people who believe in the best religion since the Yuan Dynasty, and they have been cultivating the border in the Tongren area of Qinghai, and have long-term contacts with the local Mongolian, Tibetan and other ethnic groups, and have naturally integrated and gradually formed a nation. The Baoan people have their own language but no written language, and according to the 1954 language survey, they were identified as the Mongolian language group of the Altaic language family.

In the Hezhou Chronicles of the Qing Dynasty, it is recorded that "the ancient people have the Gol people", indicating that in the Yuan and Ming dynasties, the "Guoer" (craftsmen) had formed a social group called the "Gol people". In the language of security, the craftsman who makes metal utensils still uses the ancient name of the craftsman "Goer".

In modern times, the security clan "Goer" has been divided into six types of work:

1. Black craftsmen, making all kinds of agricultural and animal husbandry utensils, the security language said: "Black life is also Sijun", the main products are axes, sickles, shovels, shovels, brains, horseshoes, etc. Because the product is not polished, it is called a black craftsman.

2. Knife maker, the security guard said: "Shidu is also Sijun".

3. The locksmith, the security guard said: "The lock is also Sijun".

4. The shearmaker, the security language: "Hai Qi Ye Sijun", mainly makes wool shears, especially popular with herdsmen.

5. Spoon maker, the security language: "Special spoon is also Sijun", making all kinds of copper and lead spoons.

6. Silversmith, the security guard said: "Ming is enough and Sijun". These craftsmen have facilitated the production and life of various local tribes and promoted the economic development and social development and progress of the Baoan area.

There are many kinds of security waist knives, each with its own characteristics, the more famous waist knives are: "Assorted brocade", "Assorted brocade double knife", "Yawangqi", "Bo Riji", "one knife line", "double fall", "full handle", "flat sheath", "Mongolian knife", "Kazakh knife", "fish knife" and so on.

On the knife surface, various patterns such as hands, dragons, and plum blossoms are engraved respectively, which is the main symbol of distinguishing different styles and styles of waist knives. Among them, the most beautiful is the "assorted assortment". This waist knife has beautiful shapes, bright lines, exquisite decoration and exquisite craftsmanship.

The most striking thing is the handle of the waist knife. The colorful handle, colorful and magnificent, is inlaid with bright assorted brocade. Golden, emerald green, blue, purple, black, silvery, pink...... Colorful and sandwiched with plum blossoms. The silver-white scabbard, wrapped with three jujube-red copper hoops, is particularly dazzling.

At the upper end of the scabbard, there is a small hole, inserted into a bright and unique copper ring, the knife is drawn out of the sheath, the blade is shining, and the cold light is pressing. This kind of waist knife can also be used as slaughtering animals and tableware, cutting mutton, which is more convenient and hygienic.

Among the nearly 20 series of security waist knives, the most representative is the "folding knife", which is known for its complex process, the rigidity and softness of the knife body, the elasticity is not easy to break, the texture of the knife body is peculiar, and the blade is sharp.

This kind of craft has been lost since the 50s of the 20th century, and in 2006, Ma Shengfu, Ma Zizheng and Ma Zhijun of Ganhetan have been painstakingly researched and repeatedly tried to fully restore the process that has been lost for half a century. This process is similar to the "Mixi knife" in the Western Regions of the Yuan Dynasty. Zhang Xian, a poet at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, wrote in his poem:

The Tang people's treasure knife exaggerates food, and the sharp weapon is called Mixi today.

Ten years of soil shabu pine grain raw, when the king of Rong was eclipse.

The traditional security waist knife making process is quite complex, such as a ten kinds of brocade waist knife There are more than 40 processes. In the knife making process, there are two key technologies to ensure quality. One is "steel back iron" (i.e., steel clamping process), and the other is "water dipping" (i.e., quenching process). The knife with these two passes is sharp enough to shave the head and shave; Tough enough to cut cast iron without curling the edge.

In the poem, "ten years of soil shabu pine grain life" removes artistic exaggeration, and its craftsmanship and texture are the same as those of the Baoan clan folding knife. The folding knife process includes:

1. Preparation of hearth materials: go up the mountain to burn the charcoal of sea buckthorn wood, dig a thermal insulation hearth, and install an inverted bellows.

2. "Fried iron": Put the pieces of pig iron in a clay pot (container) made of refractory materials, put them on the hearth, and smelt them with charcoal fire, commonly known as "fried iron". When the furnace temperature rises to about 1300C, the pig iron plate begins to melt, and impurities emerge when the cast iron becomes liquid, which improves the purity of the iron.

3. Wrought iron sheet: Pour the molten liquid iron into the pre-dug soil trough to form a strip of wrought iron. Then put the wrought iron sheet on the stove and burn it red, and forge it into a thin iron sheet two fingers wide. The above three processes were replaced by linear round steel and soft iron in the 50s of the 20th century.

4. Forging steel sheet: Put the steel with high hardness into the furnace and burn it red and forge it into a thin steel sheet.

5. Add steel back iron: as the saying goes, "good steel is used on the blade", generally speaking, the cutting edge mainly plays a cutting role, and there is a higher hardness to ensure the sharpness of the knife, so choose the steel with higher carbon content and greater hardness to clamp it on the knife body.

"Add steel back iron", that is, a layer of iron sheet and a layer of steel sheet, so that 6 layers of iron sheet sandwich 5 layers of steel sheet a total of 11 layers of superposition, bundled with metal sheet or iron wire as a whole, put on the furnace to calcinate, when the furnace temperature rises to 1300C, the pig iron bar begins to melt, and when the steel flower is splashed, the iron part is clamped with fire tongs and rotates left and right, so that the soft iron is evenly poured into the steel bar around; Clamp the iron parts with tongs and take them out and forge them with a hammer, so that repeated burning will produce a good carburizing effect and a violent oxidation effect, so that the iron and slag are separated, and the wool Pi with less slag and different soft and hard steel is produced.

6. Folding: Craftsmen make peculiar patterns on the knife body. Put the wool Pi into the furnace and calcinate, take it out when the steel flowers are splashing, clamp it firmly at both ends with fire tongs, first screw right and then screw left like twisting twist, so that the firing is screwed once and screwed once, and finally reaches 8 turns of right screwing and 7 turns of left screwing, the purpose is to finally present various textures on the cutter body. How to twist what pattern appears depends on the experience and skill of the craftsman.

7. Whole knife Pi: Twist the twisted Pizi on the stove and repeatedly forge it into a knife Pi.

8. Whole Pizi: After the knife is cold-forged, the knife chamber is smoothed with a self-made pick, the knife is flattened, the blade is made with a coarse file and a fine file respectively, and the surface of the knife chamber is polished with a grinding stone.

9. Quenching: commonly known as "dipping water", after burning the knife to black and red, grasp the angle and quickly insert it into the cold water, which can make the blade obtain special properties, and the method is not appropriate for the knife to be deformed. The heat, the angle and the speed at which it enters the water are all based on the experience of the craftsman.

10. Press the knife handle and make the scabbard: make the knife handle first. Make scabbards according to the size and variety of knives.

11. Polishing: first polish the surface of the knife chamber with a grinding stone. Then the cut fresh ephedra grass is tied to the stake, the knife is inserted into the bale of straw, twitched back and forth and rubbed repeatedly, and the chemical reaction and friction of ephedra grass juice are used to achieve the polishing of the knife body, revealing the Taoist pattern, this process has reduced the labor intensity and improved the production efficiency than the "soil shabu" of the Yuan people.

12. Cooking knife: prepare a pot according to the size of the knife, put in an appropriate amount of alum and water, put the knife into the water to boil, because the alum has the effect of removing rust and staining, so after boiling for a period of time, it is melted into a piece of steel with different softness and hardness, showing its own true color, iron is white, steel is green. The knife hall presents a green and white flowing linear texture, some like flowing clouds and flowing water, and some like pine branches and leaves, which is very beautiful. The craftsmen said, "Our folding knives have been hammered into one knife." ”

The "folding knife" is tough and sharp, not easy to break, not only has to maintain its actual combat characteristics in the era of cold weapons, but also easy to sharpen the blade in daily life, and will not roll the blade for durability.

The security guard's waist knife is extremely sharp, and it can be easily shaved and shaved, and most of the sheep slaughtering and skinning knives used by local residents are forged by the knife craftsmen of the security clan. The traditional production process is very complex, with more than 80 processes and 30-40 processes. Generally, the selected iron is forged repeatedly, then split and steeled, and finally quenched. Among them, the addition of steel during billet making and quenching after smelting are very important, and the right treatment can ensure the rigidity and toughness of the tool.

Only to make the handle of the knife, it is necessary to process different materials such as brass sheets, red copper wires, white iron wires, horns, plastics, etc., and then rivet them into clever superimposed glue, carve and paint all kinds of lifelike exquisite patterns, polish and polish them, and suddenly give birth to colorful and dazzling eyes.

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