In ancient China, there was a popular saying of "South sword and North knife" The South sword refers to the Long Quan sword and the North knife refers to the Heng broadsword.

The Hengs have been making swords for the Chinese royal family and military for generations, as well as having a position of eminence in the north of China since the Qing Dynasty (1644 – 1911).

The first ancestor of the Heng family was a master swordsmith, whose original Manchu name was Yehe Nala. Yehe Nala was in the service of the Ming Dynasty emperor Nuerhachi (1559 – 1626).

Whenthe first emperor of the Qing Dynasty, Huangtaiji, (1592 – 1643, the 8th son of Nurhache) took possession of central China, Yehe Nala was nominated to make swords exclusively for the emperor and his royal bodyguards.

In 1672 the Qing Dynasty emperor Kangxi (1654 – 1722) rewarded his swordsmith by awarding him the honoured royal surname of ‘Heng’, from then onwards ‘Heng’ has been used as their family name, this was regarded as the first generation of the Heng family even though their ancestors had hundreds of years of history before the bestowment of the Heng name by the Qing emperor.

In Chinese history, there is a tradition which states ‘Scholar adorned with sword, warrior equiped with broadsword’. Also according to the royal tradition, every emperor is awarded with a great sword on his coronation; the Heng family in the Qing Dynasty had the honor to design and manufacture a sword for the Emperor Qianlong’s coronation, the famous Qianlong Sword. The Heng family still make examples of the Qianlong sword today and it has become a valuable collectors item.

The specially made Heng broadswords were not available to the general public until 1903, with the first sword shop which was opened by the fifth generation of the Heng family.

The sixth generation expanded the family business and used the famous Heng name as a trademark to export to Japan and Germany.

With the emergence of public-private partnerships in 1958 due to the cultural revolution the ownership of the family business during the seventh generation passed to the government owned factory specialising in the manufacture of knives and scissors. During this period the skills of sword manufacture were kept exclusively within the family

The Heng family re-established the business in 1992 with the official take-over by the eighth generation, and the traditional techniques of producing Heng swords have resumed since 1995.