Explain that the handicraft industry in ancient Jincheng was very developed, and the original words of "nine heads and eighteen craftsmen". According to legend, the "craftsman" and "head" who took the surname as the village name were all skilled craftsmen who made weapons for the army of the later Zhou Dynasty. At present, there are 24 village names such as Gangtou, Chunshutou, Ershengtou, Yaotou and Huayuantou, and 26 village names such as Xiajiang, Donglu, Xima, Niujiang, Xixie, Wu Dong and Jiang Shen.
Jincheng people have developed smelting industry. Smelting prevailed in the Warring States period more than 2,000 years ago. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, "Nine Heads and Eighteen Artisans" became famous all over the country, "Dade" steel needles sold well at home and abroad, and "Taishan Yi" scissors became famous all over the world. A large number of iron goods went north to Inner Mongolia, south to Guangdong and west to Gansu. Even the humble steel needles can go abroad and sell to Southeast Asia.
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Shanxi, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces were also reimbursement areas, and merchants from Zezhou entered the Shaanxi-Gansu reimbursement trade with their belongings, which emerged one after another in history. The second is to establish a military state and craftsman system under the head. The state of Jin developed rapidly from tribal system to feudal system, and its feudal system had strong traces of slavery. During the Jin Dynasty, Zezhou was one of the richest areas in the Jin Dynasty, and it was also the frontier of the military confrontation between Jin and Song Dynasties. In order to ensure the need for iron weapons in the war, the slave owners of Jin brought craftsmen from all over the country to Zezhou, where they established a military country headed by them. When the Great Yuan Empire confronted the Southern Song Dynasty, Zezhou became the border of the Yuan and Song Dynasties. The military leaders of the slave owners in the Yuan Dynasty inherited the military state system under the leaders of the Jin Dynasty and established the craftsman system, thus forming the nine heads and eighteen craftsmen in Jincheng. Nine heads and eighteen craftsmen are the products of cruel exploitation and oppression of Han craftsmen by foreign rulers, but objectively they have played a great role in promoting the development of Zezhou ironware handicraft industry. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, craftsmen did not directly serve the feudal government, but paid the craftsmen money.
Was it that protracted war that brought the maturity of ironware, created thousands of craftsmen in Qian Qian, and led to the emergence of the craftsman village? These may be arsenals in the Spring and Autumn Period. There is no strict textual research, just my hypothesis. The technology of iron mould stacking and cast iron softening, which rose in the Warring States period, matured in the Western Han Dynasty and became the routine technology of iron smelting workshops. With the appearance of decarbonization technology, people consciously fry, refine and calcine at high temperature. After the war, these arsenals will be converted into civilian production. According to experts in the archaeological smelting industry, thirteen pieces of ironware from the Warring States period were unearthed in the Changzhi watershed within the Changping battlefield, which are very advanced iron farm tools. During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, there were nearly 100 mirror plough furnaces in Yangcheng County, Jincheng. The products have more than 500 specifications, with an annual output of more than 6 million pieces. In addition to domestic supply, they are also exported to North Korea, Japan, Nepal and Bhutan. According to China Industry, there was only one county in Jincheng in the Qing Dynasty, and now Zezhou County in Jincheng has about 100 wrought iron furnaces.