Tieqin Bronze Sword

Changshu Tieqin Tongjian Building is one of the four major libraries in the Qing Dynasty. Five generations of the Qu family protected 100,000 volumes of books, spanning two hundred years. In 2023, Lin Yan, an ancient book restorer, discovered a Ming Dynasty notebook in a secret compartment on an old table. The eight characters on the last page were: If this book is found, the Qu family will be destroyed. The notes contained a map of the secret room. She and Qu Wan, a descendant of the Qu family, explored it at night and found a line on the back of "The Picture of the Return of the Rainbow Moon": "The sound of the iron piano is hidden, the edge of the bronze sword is hidden, and the book is hidden all over the world." The story traces back to the Taiping War in 1860, when brothers Qu Bingyuan and Qu Bingqing moved their collection of books seven times, and their wife Liu, who protected the books, had an abortion without any regrets. The fourth generation Qu Qijia refused the high official salary and moved his books to Shanghai under fire. On his deathbed, he said: "Do not scatter the books. If you cannot follow the rules, return them to the public." In 1950, descendants obeyed the order and donated books, and the collection of books was returned to the public. Others destroyed the book, but the Qu family protected it. Where the book is, the context is there.