Chinese Traditional Weaponry

Chinese Traditional Weaponry---中国兵器

The development of ancient weaponry in china can be divided into two stages those pre, and those post the invention of gun powder in the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127). Weapons without gunpowder, usually referred to as cold weapons such as bow, sword & dagger, for example; the ones using gunpowder referred to as fire weapon. Prior to the development of fire weapons, cold weapons evolved during three distinct periods, namely, the Stone, Bronze, and Iron Ages, and represents the technological, social and philosophical development of Chinese peoples.

In ancient China, many generals, and philosophers who were interested in this field had noted the benefits and pitfalls of various weapons under differing combat scenarios, such as defending, aggressing, tussling, ambushing, and so on.

Today they have become far more than just weapons; they are an integral part of the culture and symbolism of the Chinese people. Related to the weaponry are so many military strategies and legendary Heroes that people are still benefiting from their lessons, or just collecting them as a hobby. Then the appreciation of them became a special knowledge.

Weaponry of the Stone Age---石器时代武器

During the Stone Age, conflictions between rival clans would fight using keen-edged productive and hunting tools. Thus, the development rudimentary weapons had begun. The earliest weapons utilized may well have been the bow or spear as these would be readily available for hunting. In archaeological studies, a grave was uncovered with a body whose skeleton, penetrated by a bone arrowhead illustrates the transfer from tool to weapon.

In that age, stone axes were very popular tools and amongst the earliest weapons. It evolved over millennia becoming thinner, sharper, and harder culminating in the Tomahawk or throwing axe. It was not only a popular weapon but also a symbol of social status. A jade tomahawk discovered in the tomb of a noble proves that at that early time artisans are already producing ceremonial weaponry - on its upper corner is the carving - an immortal riding Tigerlike beast, and on the lower corner was the pattern of a bird

Weaponry of Bronze Age---青铜时代武器

Entering the Bronze Age, people began to add lead and tin into copper to make the alloy Bronze and slowly, stone weapons declined. As early as the Warring States Period (476-221 BC), there are records on the casting of wares: different proportions of those three metals could make weapons of varying rigidity and temper. The different alloys making techniques are over 2,000 years old.

Dagger-axe in that time was the essential and typical weapon of the soldier, and used throughout the whole age. It features the convenient hooked blade with the directly-fixed helve and is a similar shape to today's reaphook or sickle. It is the most standard weapon the same as the modern ones.

Spear was used to stab straight forwards and consists of spearhead and helve. The spearhead is made of metal and the helve, of wood, bamboo, vine or metal. It is usually 1.8 - 2.7 meters long, though there are exceptions of even 4 meter long spears. One example is the bronze spear that was cast by the Emperor of Wu, Fu Chai during the Spring and Autumn Period (770 BC - 476BC). It was excavated in 1983 and now exhibited in the Hubei Provincial Museum. The left spearhead is bronzed with fine engravings of a black flower pattern, with a length of 29.5 cm (11.6 inches) and the breadth of 5.5 cm (2.2 inches).

Halberd is a complex of spear and dagger-axe and thus gradually replaced these two. With the Halberd blade made of metal and the handle of wood or bamboo, join together it could reach a length of 3 meters. It could function as both an infantry or cavalry weapon for thrusting, hooking, and cleaving. In historical texts, the synecdoche 'halberd' or 'holding halberd' was used as a term to indicate soldiers.

Sword is a cold weapon for fighting in close combat with a long, sharp edged blade. The essences of it are length, flexibility and durability. The long length of the blade is designed for both attack and defense. It originally appeared in the Western Zhou Dynasty (11th century - 771 BC). Then from the Spring and Autumn Period, the length of the swords had been gradually extended and its durability improved. Thus in the Warring States Period, bronze swords with a length of 60 cm appeared, but by the Western Han Dynasty (206BC - 24), the length had been increased to 1.1 meters. Swords in the Spring and Autumn Period had reached the pinnacle of casting techniques and the artisanship and are unparalleled, especially the engraved mysterious patterns on the blade of swords which still shine as new, an enigma that remains unsolved. The most famous bronze sword was made by Gou Jian, who was the king of the state Yue in the Spring and Autumn Period and the opponent of Fu Chai, it is 55.6 cm (1.82 feet) long and 5 cm (1.97 inches) broad with black decorative patterns and the posy 'made by Gou Jian the king of Yue state'. The edge of two arcs is quite distinctive and beautiful. When found, it was still in its black lacquered wooden scabbard and without corrosion. It is said that when a researcher touch the swords keen edge, it cut his finger.

The defending apparels then include helm, armour and shield. During the Bronze Age, most of the helms are made of leather.

Composed of several thick pieces of leather stitched together it could withstand blows from bronze weapons. Shields were wooden with leather and cupreous decorations at the centre. Some were equipped with blades turning defensive armour into an offensive weapon during close order combat.

War chariot were essential during battle since the Shang Dynasty (16th - 11th century BC). Chariots were the main form of offence and most of the weapons were manufactured to cater for it. On the chariot, there would be three crew, a driver in the centre, a soldier called 'Che You' or 'right of chariot', sitting on his right side and holding a long weapon such as a halberd to prepare for the fight with enemies, and on the left side the soldier holding a bow was called 'Che Zuo' or 'left of chariot'. When the two adversaries confronted each other, the two Che Yous would fight each other. If they on the chariots could not strike each other, the drivers would turn them back for another joust.

Bow at the Bronze Age, had developed from a simple design composed of bent wood and a string, to a complex one. The whole bow has two arcs with a set fixed in their middle unlike western bows. The arrowhead also changed from two-edged to three-edged.

Crossbow is a weapon that evolved from the bow. Its popular use began during the Warring States Period as did the decline of the war chariot. Because constant strength was often required when drawing a bow this caused fatigue in the archers. Crossbow by the means of wooden arm could position the bolt on it permanent firing passion until the enemy appeared, which changed the configuration and style of warfare. One example is in the story of the contest of wisdom between Pang Juan and Sun Bin. Being rival disciples of the same master, Pang Juan was associated with the Wei State and Sun Bin with the Qi State. When at night Pang Juan chased the troops of Sun Bin into a forest where Sun had set an ambush crossbow, he lit a fire and saw the characters carved on a tree - 'Pang Juan will die here'. Since Sun Bin had told his soldiers to shoot arrows on seeing the fire light, Pang Juan's whole army was routed.

Weaponry of Iron Age---铁器时代武器

Although in the Western Zhou Dynasty (11th century BC-771BC), weapons made of the nature siderite had been manufactured, which are the known earliest example of iron work in the world. With refinement of the process, iron weapons became all-pervading during the late Warring State Period, enduring the Qing Dynasty (221BC - 206BC), and till the Han Dynasty (206BC-220). However, since few iron weapons had had the exterior process, they are corroded when excavated, which adds to the difficulty in research and provides less understanding than those of the Bronze Age, as the latter having been protected by a thin layer of oxidation.

Cannon, or stonejacker, appeared in the late Eastern Han Dyansty (25-220) and thrived in the Three Kingdoms Period (220- 280), made of iron and utilising stone cannonballs. When enemies came, the defenders would place the cannons atop the city gate. It recurred to the leverage and threw the huge stone over the wall in a way of parabola thus crushing the aggressors. This is still reflected in the Chinese chess - the chess piece representing the cannon ('Pao' in Chinese) still follows the regulation of attacking another chess piece only when there is the third one in between.

With the rise of cavalry during the Western Han Dynasty an oblong shield appeared that soldiers could hold one handed. During the Song Dynasty (960-1279), it was bound to the left forearm of a cavalry and changed shape to circular. Till the Northern and Southern Dynasty (386 - 589), a long hexagon one prevailed with the shield face introverting vertically like a leaf. When in the battle, it could either be hand held or be placed on the ground with the support of a stick.

In the Western Han Dynasty, iron armour replaced leather armour and evolved into fine scale armour and plate armour. Scale armour shows a high level of technical know-how, with a set being comprised of over 2,200 components. During the Three Kingdoms Period chain armour, for protection from arrows became popular, and during the Ming Dynasty it became the trend of change from heavy to light armour, but still being able to withstand the thrust of a spear.

With the development of steel armour, not only soldiers but horses wore the armour. Thus the halberd which functioned mainly to thrust and hook lost its place on the battle field. Spears evolved into lances, and were used exclusively by cavalry, offering a high power of penetration.

The Han Dynasty is the key period of the development of Chinese warships, no matter what the scale. Oars in the Western Han, rudder in the Eastern Han, both were the brilliant achievements. Scull changed the way of thrashing from front-behind to left-right and improved the efficiency, which was the precursor of modern helix thrusters. Helm made up the flexibility of steering sailing course of oar and paved the way for European exploration. In the Jin Dynasty (265 - 420), warships of large scale stood out. In the records there had been a ship combining many hulls with the length and breadth of 180 meters and could hold more than 2,000 people on board. Atop was fixed wooden city and horses could gallop through the four city gates. In the Sui Dynasty (581 - 618), an extremely large ship over 30 meters high was built that could hold 800 people. Until the Southern Song Dynasty nearly all the armies used warships. Examples of 110 meters with tower, skirt-board and wheel-oars are recorded.

Weaponry Post Gun Powder

In the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127), gunpowder began to be used in weaponry and the earliest experience in the world. In the Compendium of Military we can determine that there were three production methods for cannonballs which were hurled by a stonejacker as in the Three Kingdoms Period.

In the Southern Song Dynasty (1127 - 1279), Records of Defending Cities by Chen Gui showed the earliest use of flame throwers. People at that time held powder in a thick bamboo tube that spewed fire out of it to burn enemies.

The shooting fire weapon Huo Chong made of metal came out in the Yuan Dynasty (1271 - 1368). It was the predecessor of firearms. When soldiers used it, they usually foisted powder into the powder chamber, fixed the powder wick and the stones, and then lit to shoot. In the following dynasty Ming (1368-1644), it played an important role in wars and was the most advanced weapon world wide. Huo Chong with larger calibre evolved to be the cannon, and the one with small caliber to be guns.

Although weapons once occupied the top place, they didn't develop much further according to the Training Records (or Lian Bing Shi Ji) by Qi Jiguang cold weapons were still dominant. While after powder spread in the Western world, firearms were quickly employed and until the merchantmen of Spain and Holland brought the latest ones in the late Ming dynasty, the Chinese had not realized their lack of development. The imported cannons in the Qing Dynasty had a high reputation such as •®Great General in Red'. However in the late Qing, it fell again behind during the confrontation between westerners and Chinese.

Having suffered the failure of the Opium War in 1840, officials of the Qing Dynasty began to import western weapons and the Chinese weapons industry came to an end. After the foundation of Modern China in 1949, weapons manufacturing has turned over a new leaf and improved as the latest varieties emerge.

Appreciation of Ancient Weaponry

There are so many varieties of ancient weapons if you have great interests to collect them. Although we have a saying 'eighteen weapons', actually it is far more than that, such as scourge, sword, spear, stick, hammer, pestle, etc. In the ancient China, Gongfu was more popular than that of today, thus weapons were quite common. To appreciate an ancient weapon, it is not enough just to value it according to the time, what you are expected to do is to assess its workmanship, whether it represents the advanced level, and whether it has relationship with historical figures.

For example, most of the bronze weapons in the Spring and Autumn Period, the heyday of weapon history, are beautiful and practical with high artistic value. The sword by Gou Jian - the king of the State Yue, was still sharp without rust when discovered, and then we say it is of top grade. Many famous swords are engraved with flower patterns or posies and must be relevant to notable persons; few of common people's has that decoration. For practical ones, swords in the Qin Dynasty can be good samples because they realized the longer a sword was, the more powerful they were. Weapons for guard of honor are mostly adorned with jewelry which raises its price.