In 1982, a Qin dynasty bronze dagger-axe was discovered in Tianjin, inscribed with seventeen characters: "Seventeenth year, Prime Minister Qi, Zhuang manufactured, Heyang Jia, warehouse month falcon, common evil."
According to the laws of the Qin dynasty, weapons manufacturing required marking the person in charge, the production date, the place of manufacture, and the workers involved. If any weapon malfunctioned, officials could quickly trace it back to the responsible party based on these details.
However, among these seventeen characters, what shocked the archaeological community the most was "Prime Minister Qi, Zhuang manufactured." The meaning of these words is not difficult to understand: this batch of weapons was produced under the charge of Prime Minister Qi and a person named Zhuang.
Chapter 689