Haining’s Three Knives

Haining’s Three Knives

　　　　Product Name: Haining’s Three Knives

　　Place of Origin: Zhejiang

　　Category: Handicrafts

　　Product Features: Both tough and sharp

　　Product History: “Haining’s Three Knives” originated in the fourth year of the Tongzhi reign during the Qing Dynasty (1835), founded by “Zhou Shunxing Iron Shop” in Yanguan

　　Product Introduction: The “Haining’s Three Knives,” famous for their medicinal knives, tea knives, and kitchen knives, are especially distinctive for the “Shouxin Brand” medicinal knives. These knives are both tough and extremely sharp. They are used to slice pinellia, producing slices as thin as gauze and transparent. In recent years, medicinal herb merchants from various regions have sought these knives to cut American ginseng slices. By using a slanted cutting technique, small roots can be sliced into large pieces, improving the product grade and making them very popular. Recently, a merchant from Fujian specifically sought out the “Shouxin Brand” medicinal knives from “Zhou Shunxing” and placed an order for 100 knives at once, stating that they were requested by customers in Singapore and Taiwan.

　　According to historical records, the founder of the medicinal knives, Zhou Futing, was adopted in his childhood by the female owner of “Zhou Shunxing Iron Shop” and was originally surnamed Cao. At the age of 13, Zhou went to Zhuji to learn the craft of making blue-steel furnaces, and after four years, he returned to the shop. Noticing a great shortage of medicinal knives in the market and their high profitability, Zhou visited a medicinal knife workshop in Hushu, Hangzhou, to observe and secretly learn the techniques. After experimenting, imitating, researching, and improving, he eventually produced high-quality medicinal knives. Since the cutting edge of the knives was made from used German “Shouxin Brand” files, the brand was named “Shouxin.” Additionally, during forging, the knives were hammered thousands of times, quenched using Huainan lump coal, and sharpened on the renowned “Haitang Bricks” from Dantu, Zhenjiang, ensuring top-notch quality. The knives quickly entered the market, attracting customers from Nanjing, Beijing, and even Yunnan, Guizhou, Xinjiang, and Heilongjiang. Renowned pharmacies such as Hangzhou’s Huqingyutang and Beijing’s Tongrentang designated them as their exclusive products, leading to increasingly prosperous business.

　　Among the “Three Knives,” the tea knife is a traditional product of Haining. “Zhou Shunxing” improved the forging process based on local kitchen knives, creating tea knives that are both thin and even, sharp, affordable, and of good quality—perfect for slicing tea leaves as fine as hair strands, ideal for feeding young silkworms, and highly welcomed by silkworm farmers. However, legend has it that during the Guangxu reign of the Qing Dynasty, Empress Dowager Cixi, upon hearing of the “tea knife” from Haining, believed it clashed with her family name “Ye (leaf) Nala,” considering it taboo. Thus, she issued a ban and had the name changed to “mulberry knife.” But this “mulberry knife” shared the same name as the tool used locally for grafting mulberry saplings, causing confusion. As a result, a verb was added before each, turning them into “leaf-cutting knife” and “mulberry-grafting knife,” though still quite awkward. Folk customs, once established as unwritten rules, are hard to change by sheer will. Thus, after Cixi’s death, the “tea knife” and “mulberry knife” reverted to their original names.

　　Traditional Haining kitchen knives mainly come in two types. One is the round-headed broad knife, with the front section honed for slicing meat into thin slices effortlessly, and the rear section capable of chopping bones without leaving marks or even slicing iron like mud—ideal for restaurants and eateries. The other type is the household kitchen knife, with a slightly arched blade and a slight bulge in the middle, allowing smooth use even on slightly concave cutting boards. It is said that the earliest introduction of this kitchen knife to the capital was through the Chen family of Haining (the Chen Yuanlong lineage), as many high-ranking officials from Yanguan Chen family were spread across Beijing. When they returned home, they brought this local specialty kitchen knife into the imperial kitchens. The imperial chefs found it unmatched compared to other knives, and it later became the exclusive knife for the imperial kitchens. Regarding the successors of “Haining’s Three Knives,” there is another legend that “Zhou Shunxing” was actually founded by two brothers, Zhou Shun and Zhou Xing, sons of Zhou Tieshan, a renowned knife-making family from Tengzhou, Shandong. During the Ming Dynasty, the Zhou family was honored by the imperial court for crafting weapons, but after the Manchu army entered the Central Plains, the Zhou family became a prime target. To escape persecution, the father and two sons fled to Longquan, Zhejiang, where they opened the Huaguo Sword Shop, gaining fame for crafting precious swords. Upon learning of their reputation, the Qing government ordered Zhou Tieshan to forge weapons for them, but Zhou, a man of principle, refused to comply and was killed by Qing soldiers. The two sons fled overnight, eventually arriving in Haining, where they were taken in by an iron shop outside the north gate. Based on local demand, and drawing on the strengths of both “Shandong knives” and “Longquan swords,” the brothers created the widely renowned “Haining’s Three Knives.” Hence, the name “Zhou Shunxing Iron Shop” became celebrated across the Jiangnan region under the fame of these two brothers, and it has been passed down to this day...