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Source: CCTV.com
12-29-2008 16:26
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1346 was a proud year for the English. In August, King Edward the Third led his army in a successful landing on the north coast of France. The Battle of Crécy, which followed soon afterwards, marked the beginning of The Hundred Years War between England and France.
The English army at the time relied heavily on its longbows. But at the Battle of Crécy, they used a mysterious new weapon, capable of hurling solid 2-pound bombs over long distances. Although only three of them were used, they had a devastating impact on the French cavalry. This mysterious weapon was an early form of the cannon.
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The introduction of the cannon undoubtedly represented a major advance from bows and arrows. Yet, by the time of the Battle of Crécy, cannons were already in common use in the east.
Beside Poyang Lake in China, at around the same time as the Battle of Crécy, a fierce battle was fought between the armies of Zhu Yuanzhang, who would later found the Ming Dynasty, and Chen Youliang, self-proclaimed king of Greater Han. Both sides used cannons. In terms of their caliber, the cannons were quite similar to those used by the English. However, their use was far more widespread.
Several thick round barrels forged of iron stand beside the route leading to the Badaling section of the Great Wall. They are the oldest cannons in the world – called “Huochong ”.
An investigation into the secrets of the Huochong offer a priceless insight into the wisdom of China’s ancient weapons manufacturers.
The 5,000 years of Chinese civilization are revealed in part through the history of the country’s weapons-making. In China, bronze and iron smelting began several hundred years earlier than it did in the west. Accordingly, weapons-making in China was also ahead of the rest of the world.
Cold weapons have long held a romantic appeal in China. This is evident from the fact that the characters in the Wuxia , or martial, fiction, tend to have magical skills in the use of their weapons.
In Chinese martial arts, there is the notion of Eighteen Weapons. These are the same 18 weapons that appear in Wuxia fiction. What precisely the 18 weapons are, is a matter of some controversy. Generally, though, they are thought to include the bow, crossbow, spear, staff, sabre, straight sword, lance, battle axe, halberd, mace, hammer, trident and dagger-axe. Some, such as the dagger-axe, have fallen out of use. Some have changed, such as the battle axe, which is no longer the original large axe, but a more modern, smaller weapon consisting of a blade and a hook, held in both hands.
In fact, Chinese martial arts use many more weapons than those just mentioned. Taking into account the stranger weapons, and those that have slipped into obscurity, the number would exceed 100.
The first weapons in China were made of bronze. Later, with the development of iron smelting, iron weapons appeared.
By the time of the Western Zhou Dynasty some three thousand years ago, China was the world leader in metal-working.
By the late Spring and Autumn Period, 2,500 years ago, the development of iron smelting techniques meant weapons were sharper and harder. This represented a major advance in weapons quality.
Since iron ore was available in abundant quantities and iron was not only easier to forge than bronze, but also tougher, so weapons made of iron gradually began taking the place of bronze weapons.
In the Tang Dynasty, weapons-making received another boost, this time from an unlikely source. Alchemy was an art practised by Daoist priests with the aim of finding an elixir of life. However, it failed in its original purpose and helped develop weaponry instead.
In the course of their search for an elixir, alchemists produced gunpowder. This was one of the Four Great Inventions of ancient China.
Alchemy, which gave birth to gunpowder, enjoys legendary status in Chinese history. It was a field of study that preoccupied not only Daoist priests, but also physicians, among them the famous Sun Simiao of the early Tang Dynasty.
Sun Simiao, in his great work Taiqing Danjing Yaojue ,or Essential Instructions from the Scripture of the Elixirs of Great Clarity, mentions something called inner lurking sulfur. He explained that 2 Liang of sulfur and 2 Liang of niter should be ground together into a powder and put in a pot. The pot should be buried in a in a cave, with its top at ground level. The area around the pot should then be filled in with earth. When this is done, three burning Chinese honey locust seeds should be added to the pot so that the sulfur and niter start to burn. When the fire goes out, 3 Jin of charcoal should be stirred into the remaining mixture. When around 1/3 of the charcoal is burnt up, the mixture should be removed before it cools. This is what Sun Simiao called lurking fire .
Equal quantities of sulfur and niter ground into a powder can function somewhat like gunpowder when ignited. But it isn’t gunpowder in the true sense until the right proportion of charcoal is added.
Precisely what the right proportion was, was finally determined through repeated experiments. Assessing how explosive the mixture was, indicated what were the right proportions of niter, sulfur and charcoal to make gunpowder.
Gunpowder was first put to military use in the late Tang Dynasty.
At first, however, gunpowder proved relatively ineffective in battle, because it was simply used as a burning material to hurl at the enemy. It wasn’t until the reign of the Tang emperor Ai, from 904 to 907, that fire arrows and cannons were used in warfare.
Originally, fire arrows, with gunpowder attached to their tips, were ignited and fired from bows. Cannons hurled burning gunpowder packages at the enemy. Later in the 10th century, at the tine of the Five Dynasties, other firearms such as fire balls and fire caltrops appeared.
By the time of the Song Dynasty, which followed the Five Dynasties period, gunpowder was used in more weapons. This was made possible by improvements in its quality.
It was under the Song Dynasty that a new weapon, called the Tu Huo Qiang, appeared. It was formed of three parts. At the front was a thick barrel made of bamboo. Behind this was a bulging middle, where the gunpowder was housed, with a small in the surface to permit ignition. The tail was a wooden stock. To fire the weapon, the stock would be planted in the ground, the bamboo barrel would be held steady by the left hand, and it would be ignited with the right hand. With a deafening roar, a rock or some other projectile would be sent flying out of the barrel, while the remaining gunpowder, still burning, would be flung 2 or 3 metres ahead. The weapon was more a psychological threat than an effective weapon. But its unique structure was the basis of the future Huochong.
