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68-462: The Huolongjing ( traditional Chinese : 火龍經 ; simplified Chinese : 火龙经 ; pinyin : Huǒ Lóng Jīng ; Wade-Giles : Huo Lung Ching ; rendered in English as Fire Drake Manual or Fire Dragon Manual ), also known as Huoqitu (“Firearm Illustrations”), is a Chinese military treatise compiled and edited by Jiao Yu and Liu Bowen of the early Ming dynasty (1368–1683) during

136-502: A matte finish. Tung oil finishes that start with polymerized oils or tung oil preparations are best applied in the fat over lean principle: thinned pure oil is applied to deeply penetrate the surface, to fill pores. Straight oil is then applied moderately to adhere to the surface and provide a good base for the thick gloss layers. The polymerized oil is then applied thickly as a single layer, allowed to fully dry, buffed smooth with very fine sandpaper and 0000 steel wool . The surface

204-460: A 4.8 kg (11 lb) lead ball. The great general and divine cannons were the last indigenous Chinese cannon designs prior to the incorporation of European models in the 16th century. When the Portuguese reached China in the early 16th century, they were unimpressed with Chinese firearms compared with their own. With the progression of the earliest European arquebus to the matchlock and

272-509: A certain extent in South Korea , remain virtually identical to traditional characters, with variations between the two forms largely stylistic. There has historically been a debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters . Because the simplifications are fairly systematic, it is possible to convert computer-encoded characters between the two sets, with the main issue being ambiguities in simplified representations resulting from

340-533: A month, and delivered them to Xiangyang and Yingzhou in loads of about ten to twenty thousand shells at a time. The Huolongjing' s primary contribution to gunpowder was in expanding its role as a chemical weapon. Jiao Yu proposed several gunpowder compositions in addition to the standard potassium nitrate (saltpetre), sulphur, and charcoal. Described are the military applications of "divine gunpowder", "poison gunpowder", and "blinding and burning gunpowder." Poisonous gunpowder for hand-thrown or trebuchet launched bombs

408-502: A number of smaller rocket arrows that were shot out of the front end of the missile, which was shaped like a dragon's head with an open mouth, before eventually burning out. This multistage rocket is considered by some historians to be the ancestor of modern cluster munitions. Needham says that the written material and illustration of this rocket come from the oldest stratum of the Huolongjing , which can be dated to about 1300-1350 from

476-493: A spray of porcelain shards as fragmentation . Another fire lance described in the Huolongjing was called the 'lotus bunch' shot arrows accompanied by a fiery blast. In addition to fire lances, the Huolongjing also illustrates a tall, vertical, mobile shield used to hide and protect infantry, known as the "mysteriously moving phalanx -breaking fierce-flame sword-shield". This large, rectangular shield would have been mounted on wheels with five rows of six circular holes each where

544-613: A standard set of Chinese character forms used to write Chinese languages . In Taiwan , the set of traditional characters is regulated by the Ministry of Education and standardized in the Standard Form of National Characters . These forms were predominant in written Chinese until the middle of the 20th century, when various countries that use Chinese characters began standardizing simplified sets of characters, often with characters that existed before as well-known variants of

612-869: Is 産 (also the accepted form in Japan and Korea), while in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan the accepted form is 產 (also the accepted form in Vietnamese chữ Nôm ). The PRC tends to print material intended for people in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, and overseas Chinese in traditional characters. For example, versions of the People's Daily are printed in traditional characters, and both People's Daily and Xinhua have traditional character versions of their website available, using Big5 encoding. Mainland companies selling products in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan use traditional characters in order to communicate with consumers;

680-432: Is a "poison-fog divine smoke eruptor," in which "blinding gunpowder" and "poisonous gunpowder" were packed into hollow shells used in burning the faces and eyes of enemies, along with choking them with a formidable spray of poisonous smoke. Cannons were mounted on frames or on wheeled carriages so that they could be rotated to change directions. The Huolongjing also contains a hand held organ gun with up to ten barrels. For

748-604: Is the Heilongjiang hand cannon , dated to 1288 using contextual evidence. The History of Yuan records that in that year a rebellion of the Christian Mongol prince Nayan broke out and the Jurchen commander Li Ting who, along with a Korean brigade conscripted by Kublai Khan , suppressed Nayan's rebellion using hand cannons and portable bombards . The predecessor of the metal barrel was made of bamboo, which

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816-493: The Chinese Commercial News , World News , and United Daily News all use traditional characters, as do some Hong Kong–based magazines such as Yazhou Zhoukan . The Philippine Chinese Daily uses simplified characters. DVDs are usually subtitled using traditional characters, influenced by media from Taiwan as well as by the two countries sharing the same DVD region , 3. With most having immigrated to

884-533: The Kensiu language . Tung oil "Tung oil finish" is often used by paint and varnish manufacturers as a generic name for any wood-finishing product that contains the real tung oil or provides a finish that resembles the finish obtained with tung oil. The word "tung" is etymologically derived from the Chinese 桐 tóng . The tung oil tree originates in southern China and was cultivated there for tung oil, but

952-662: The Malacca Sultanate , a tributary state of the Ming, was invaded in 1511 by the Portuguese under Afonso de Albuquerque , and in the process a large established Chinese merchant community was slaughtered. The Malacca Sultanate sent the Ming a plea for help but no relief expedition was sent. In 1521 the Portuguese were driven off from China by the Ming navy in a conflict known as the Battle of Tunmen . Traditional Chinese characters Traditional Chinese characters are

1020-523: The Ming dynasty , the Qing dynasty outlawed reprinting of the Huolongjing for using expressions such as 'northern barbarians,' which offended the ruling Manchu elite. Although its destructive force was widely recognized by the 11th century, gunpowder continued to be known as a "fire-drug" (huo yao) because of its original intended pharmaceutical properties. However soon after the chemical formula for gunpowder

1088-640: The Shanghainese -language character U+20C8E 𠲎 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-20C8E —a composition of 伐 with the ⼝   'MOUTH' radical—used instead of the Standard Chinese 嗎 ; 吗 . Typefaces often use the initialism TC to signify the use of traditional Chinese characters, as well as SC for simplified Chinese characters . In addition, the Noto, Italy family of typefaces, for example, also provides separate fonts for

1156-480: The Silk Road . Tung oil is the "oil" mentioned in the oil-paper umbrella, which is used to protect the paper from getting wet, and to make the umbrella waterproof. The traditional technique for applying pure tung oil is to dilute the oil 1:1 with solvent, then apply a succession of very thin films with a soft, lint-free cloth such as tee-shirt cotton. Diluents range from traditional spirits of turpentine to any of

1224-681: The Wulixiaoshi of Fang Yizhi said that fire arrows were presented to Emperor Taizu of Song in 960. Even after the rocket was invented in China the fire arrow was never entirely phased out: it saw use in the Second Opium War when Chinese used fire arrows against the French in 1860. By the time of Jiao Yu, the term "fire arrow" had taken on a new meaning and also referred to the earliest rockets found in China. The simple transition of this

1292-494: The wheellock , and the advent of the flintlock musket of the 17th century, they surpassed the level of earlier Chinese firearms. Illustrations of Ottoman and European riflemen with detailed illustrations of their weapons appeared in Zhao Shizhen's book Shenqipu of 1598, and Ottoman and European firearms were held in great esteem. However, by the 17th century Đại Việt had also been manufacturing muskets of their own, which

1360-600: The "match-holding lance gun" (chi huo–sheng qiang), it described its arrangement as a match brought down to the touch hole of three gun barrels, one after the other. During the reign of the Yongle Emperor (1402–1424), the Shenjiying , a specialized military body, was in part a cavalry force that utilized tubes filled with inflammable materials holstered to their sides, and also a firearm infantry division that handled light artillery and their transportation, including

1428-424: The 'submarine dragon–king' is made of wrought iron, and carried on a (submerged) wooden board, [appropriately weighted with stones]. The (mine) is enclosed in an ox-bladder. Its subtlety lies in the fact that a thin incense(–stick) is arranged (to float) above the mine in a container. The (burning) of this joss stick determines the time at which the fuse is ignited, but without air its glowing would of course go out, so

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1496-536: The 13th century, and shot gunpowder flames along with "coviative" projectiles such as small porcelain shards or metal scraps. The first metal barrels were not designed to withstand high-nitrate gunpowder and a bore-filling projectile; rather, they were designed for the low-nitrate flamethrower fire lance that shot small coviative missiles. This was called the "bandit-striking penetrating gun" (ji zei bian chong). Some of these low–nitrate gunpowder flamethrowers used poisonous mixtures such as arsenious oxide , and would blast

1564-509: The 14th century and at least six formulas are considered to have been optimal for creating explosive gunpowder, with levels of nitrate ranging from 12% to 91%. Evidence of large scale explosive gunpowder weapons manufacturing began to appear. While engaged in war with the Mongols in 1259, the official Li Zengbo wrote in his Ko Zhai Za Gao, Xu Gao Hou that the city of Qingzhou was manufacturing one to two thousand strong iron-cased bomb shells

1632-524: The 14th century. The Huolongjing is primarily based on the text known as Huolong Shenqi Tufa ( Illustrations of Divine Fire Dragon Engines ), which no longer exists. The Huolongjing' s intended function was to serve as a guide to "fire weapons" involving gunpowder during the 1280s to 1350s. Its predecessor, the Huolong Shenqi Tufa (Fire-Drake Illustrated Technology of Magically (Efficacious) Weapons), has since been lost. The Huolongjing

1700-487: The Ming considered to be superior to both European and Ottoman firearms, including Japanese imports as well. Vietnamese firearms were copied and disseminated throughout China in quick order. The 16th-century breech-loading model entered China around 1517 when Fernão Pires de Andrade arrived in China. However, he and the Portuguese embassy were rejected as problems in Ming-Portuguese relations were exacerbated when

1768-439: The Ming wars. Chinese cannon development reached internal maturity with the muzzle loading wrought iron "great general cannon" (大將軍炮), otherwise known by its heavier variant name "great divine cannon" (大神銃), which could weigh up to 600 kg (1,300 lb) and was capable of firing several iron balls and upward of a hundred iron shots at once. The lighter "great general cannon" weighed up to 360 kg (790 lb) and could fire

1836-555: The People's Republic of China, traditional Chinese characters are standardised according to the Table of Comparison between Standard, Traditional and Variant Chinese Characters . Dictionaries published in mainland China generally show both simplified and their traditional counterparts. There are differences between the accepted traditional forms in mainland China and elsewhere, for example the accepted traditional form of 产 in mainland China

1904-511: The Song dynasty. In China, gunpowder weapons underwent significant technological changes which resulted in a vast array of weapons that eventually led to the cannon. The cannon's first confirmed use occurred during the Mongol Yuan dynasty in a suppression of rebel forces by Yuan Jurchen forces armed with hand cannons. Cannon development continued into the Ming and saw greater proliferation during

1972-532: The United States during the second half of the 19th century, Chinese Americans have long used traditional characters. When not providing both, US public notices and signs in Chinese are generally written in traditional characters, more often than in simplified characters. In the past, traditional Chinese was most often encoded on computers using the Big5 standard, which favored traditional characters. However,

2040-415: The base resin. Tung oil is a common traditional wood finish, used typically for two main properties: first, it is a naturally derived substance. Second, after it cures (5 to 30 days, depending on weather/temperature), the result is a very hard and easily repaired finish, so it is used on boat decks and now on floors. The oil is often diluted with hydrocarbon thinner so its viscosity is very low and enables

2108-499: The book's part 1, chapter 3, page 23. The fire lance or fire tube—a combination of a firearm and flamethrower—had been adapted and changed into several different forms by the time Jiao Yu edited the Huolongjing . The earliest depiction of a fire lance is dated c. 950, a Chinese painting on a silk banner found at the Buddhist site of Dunhuang . These early fire lances were made of bamboo tubes, but metal barrels had appeared during

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2176-451: The cannon, called the "eruptor", as a cast bronze device which had an average length of 53 inches (130 cm). He wrote that some cannons were simply filled with about 100 lead balls, but others, called the "flying-cloud thunderclap eruptor" (飞云霹雳炮; feiyun pili pao) had large rounds that produced a bursting charge upon impact. The ammunition consisted of hollow cast iron shells packed with gunpowder to create an explosive effect. Also mentioned

2244-409: The container is connected with the mine by a (long) piece of goat's intestine (through which passes the fuse). At the upper end the (joss stick in the container) is kept floating by (an arrangement of) goose and wild–duck feathers, so that it moves up and down with the ripples of the water. On a dark (night) the mine is sent downstream (towards the enemy's ships), and when the joss stick has burnt down to

2312-580: The date of cultivation remains unknown. The earliest references for Chinese use of tung oil are in the writings of Confucius (551–479 BCE) around 500 to 479 BC. During the Song dynasty (960–1279) , tung oil was used for waterproofing on ships. The primary constituent is a fatty acid with a chain of 18 linked carbon atoms or methylene units containing three conjugated double bonds . They are especially sensitive to autoxidation , which encourages cross linking of neighbouring chains, hence hardening of

2380-414: The earliest fire arrows shot from bows (not rocket launchers) "fiery pomegranate shot from a bow" because the lump of gunpowder–filled paper wrapped around the arrow below the metal arrowhead resembled the shape of a pomegranate . He advised that a piece of hemp cloth should be used to strengthen the wad of paper and sealed with molten pine resin . Although he described the fire arrow in great detail, it

2448-616: The exception of its preface, which provides an account of Jiao Yu's time in the Hongwu Emperor 's army. In the preface Jiao Yu claims to describe gunpowder weapons that had seen use since 1355 during his involvement in the Red Turban Rebellion and revolt against the Yuan dynasty , while the oldest material found in his text dates to 1280. Jiao Yu was a firearm manufacturer for the first Ming emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang , during

2516-405: The feathering there is an iron weight 0.4 in long. At the front end there is a carton tube bound on to the stick, where the 'rising gunpowder' is lit. When you want to fire it off, you use a frame shaped like a dragon, or else conveniently a tube of wood or bamboo to contain it. In the late 14th century, the rocket launching tube was combined with the fire lance. This involved three tubes attached to

2584-551: The fire lances could be placed. The shield itself would have been accompanied by swordsmen on either side to protect the gunmen. In China, the first cannon-barrel design portrayed in artwork was a stone sculpture dated to 1128 found in Sichuan province. The oldest extant cannon containing an inscription is a bronze cannon of China inscribed with the date, "2nd year of the Dade era, Yuan dynasty" (1298). The oldest confirmed extant cannon

2652-436: The flight path of the rocket, which according to Jiao Yu could rise hundreds of feet before landing at the designated enemy target. The Huolongjing also describes and illustrates the oldest known multistage rocket ; this was the "fire-dragon issuing from the water" (huo long chu shui), which was known to be used by the Chinese navy. It was a two-stage rocket that had carrier or booster rockets that would automatically ignite

2720-487: The fuse, there is a great explosion. In the later Tiangong Kaiwu (The Exploitation of the Works of Nature) treatise, written by Song Yingxing in 1637, the ox bladder described by Jiao Yu is replaced with a lacquer bag and a cord pulled from a hidden ambusher located on the nearby shore, which would release a flint steel–wheel firing mechanism to ignite the fuse of the naval mine. Gunpowder warfare occurred in earnest during

2788-399: The handling of gun carriages. The first recorded use of land mines occurred in 1277 when officer Lou Qianxia of the late Song dynasty , who is credited with their invention, used them to kill Mongol soldiers. Jiao Yu wrote that land mines were spherical, made of cast iron, and their fuses were ignited by the enemy movement disturbing a trigger mechanism. Although his book did not elaborate on

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2856-493: The inverse is equally true as well. In digital media, many cultural phenomena imported from Hong Kong and Taiwan into mainland China, such as music videos, karaoke videos, subtitled movies, and subtitled dramas, use traditional Chinese characters. In Hong Kong and Macau , traditional characters were retained during the colonial period, while the mainland adopted simplified characters. Simplified characters are contemporaneously used to accommodate immigrants and tourists, often from

2924-725: The mainland. The increasing use of simplified characters has led to concern among residents regarding protecting what they see as their local heritage. Taiwan has never adopted simplified characters. The use of simplified characters in government documents and educational settings is discouraged by the government of Taiwan. Nevertheless, with sufficient context simplified characters are likely to be successfully read by those used to traditional characters, especially given some previous exposure. Many simplified characters were previously variants that had long been in some use, with systematic stroke simplifications used in folk handwriting since antiquity. Traditional characters were recognized as

2992-682: The majority of Chinese text in mainland China are simplified characters , there is no legislation prohibiting the use of traditional Chinese characters, and often traditional Chinese characters remain in use for stylistic and commercial purposes, such as in shopfront displays and advertising. Traditional Chinese characters remain ubiquitous on buildings that predate the promulgation of the current simplification scheme, such as former government buildings, religious buildings, educational institutions, and historical monuments. Traditional Chinese characters continue to be used for ceremonial, cultural, scholarly/academic research, and artistic/decorative purposes. In

3060-983: The merging of previously distinct character forms. Many Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between these character sets. Traditional characters are known by different names throughout the Chinese-speaking world. The government of Taiwan officially refers to traditional Chinese characters as 正體字 ; 正体字 ; zhèngtǐzì ; 'orthodox characters'. This term is also used outside Taiwan to distinguish standard characters, including both simplified, and traditional, from other variants and idiomatic characters . Users of traditional characters elsewhere, as well as those using simplified characters, call traditional characters 繁體字 ; 繁体字 ; fántǐzì ; 'complex characters', 老字 ; lǎozì ; 'old characters', or 全體字 ; 全体字 ; quántǐzì ; 'full characters' to distinguish them from simplified characters. Some argue that since traditional characters are often

3128-409: The mid-14th century. He was eventually put in charge of the Shenjiying armoury where all the firearms were stored. A second and third volume to the Huolongjing known as Huolongjing Erji ( Fire Dragon Manual Volume Two ) and Huolongjing Sanji ( Fire Dragon Manual Volume Three ) were published in 1632 with content describing weapons such as the musket and breech-loading cannons. After the end of

3196-462: The mines are connected by fuses through the gunpowder fire-ducts, and all originate from a steel wheel (gang lun). This must be well concealed from the enemy. On triggering the firing device the mines will explode, sending pieces of iron flying in all directions and shooting up flames towards the sky. For the use of naval mines, he wrote of slowly burning joss sticks that were disguised and timed to explode against enemy ships nearby: The sea–mine called

3264-400: The mines' fuses underground. The explosive mine is made of cast iron about the size of a rice-bowl, hollow inside with (black) powder rammed into it. A small bamboo tube is inserted and through this passes the fuse, while outside (the mine) a long fuse is led through fire-ducts. Pick a place where the enemy will have to pass through, dig pits and bury several dozen such mines in the ground. All

3332-425: The new citrus-based thinners to naphtha . The choice of thinner should be guided by how fast the coating needs to set. Naphtha works well in spray-on applications in well-ventilated studios. Primary coats may be laid down at a 1:1 oil-to-thinner ratio, and successive layers, if not absorbed into the wood, at higher solvent to oil concentrations. This technique brings out the deepest color of the wood while maintaining

3400-677: The official script in Singapore until 1969, when the government officially adopted Simplified characters. Traditional characters still are widely used in contexts such as in baby and corporation names, advertisements, decorations, official documents and in newspapers. The Chinese Filipino community continues to be one of the most conservative in Southeast Asia regarding simplification. Although major public universities teach in simplified characters, many well-established Chinese schools still use traditional characters. Publications such as

3468-573: The oil to penetrate the finest grain woods. This thinning vehicle evaporates in 15 to 20 minutes. When applied in many fine/thinner coats over wood, tung oil slowly cures to a matte/light satin look with slight golden tint. Tung oil resists water better than any other pure oil finish and does not darken noticeably with age. It is claimed to be less susceptible to mould than linseed oil. It is considered safe to be used on sculptures made near waterways. Heating tung oil to about 500 °F (260 °C) in an oxygen-free environment will substantially increase

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3536-700: The original standard forms, they should not be called 'complex'. Conversely, there is a common objection to the description of traditional characters as 'standard', due to them not being used by a large population of Chinese speakers. Additionally, as the process of Chinese character creation often made many characters more elaborate over time, there is sometimes a hesitation to characterize them as 'traditional'. Some people refer to traditional characters as 'proper characters' ( 正字 ; zhèngzì or 正寫 ; zhèngxiě ) and to simplified characters as 簡筆字 ; 简笔字 ; jiǎnbǐzì ; 'simplified-stroke characters' or 減筆字 ; 减笔字 ; jiǎnbǐzì ; 'reduced-stroke characters', as

3604-833: The predominant forms. Simplified characters as codified by the People's Republic of China are predominantly used in mainland China , Malaysia, and Singapore. "Traditional" as such is a retronym applied to non-simplified character sets in the wake of widespread use of simplified characters. Traditional characters are commonly used in Taiwan , Hong Kong , and Macau , as well as in most overseas Chinese communities outside of Southeast Asia. As for non-Chinese languages written using Chinese characters, Japanese kanji include many simplified characters known as shinjitai standardized after World War II, sometimes distinct from their simplified Chinese counterparts . Korean hanja , still used to

3672-481: The same staff. As the first rocket tube was fired, a charge was ignited in the leading tube which expelled a blinding lachrymatory powder at the enemy, and finally the second rocket was fired. An illustration of this appears in the Huolongjing , and a description of its effectiveness in obfuscating the location of the rockets from the enemy is provided. The Huolongjing also describes and illustrates two kinds of mounted rocket launchers that fired multiple rockets. There

3740-636: The traditional character set used in Taiwan ( TC ) and the set used in Hong Kong ( HK ). Most Chinese-language webpages now use Unicode for their text. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommends the use of the language tag zh-Hant to specify webpage content written with traditional characters. In the Japanese writing system , kyujitai are traditional forms, which were simplified to create shinjitai for standardized Japanese use following World War II. Kyūjitai are mostly congruent with

3808-985: The traditional characters in Chinese, save for minor stylistic variation. Characters that are not included in the jōyō kanji list are generally recommended to be printed in their traditional forms, with a few exceptions. Additionally, there are kokuji , which are kanji wholly created in Japan, rather than originally being borrowed from China. In the Korean writing system , hanja —replaced almost entirely by hangul in South Korea and totally replaced in North Korea —are mostly identical with their traditional counterparts, save minor stylistic variations. As with Japanese, there are autochthonous hanja, known as gukja . Traditional Chinese characters are also used by non-Chinese ethnic groups. The Maniq people living in Thailand and Malaysia use Chinese characters to write

3876-464: The trigger mechanism, it does mention the use of steel wheels as the trigger mechanism. The earliest illustration and description of the "steel wheel" mechanism was the Binglu of 1606. According to it, the steel wheel trigger mechanism utilized a pin release, dropping weights, cords and axles that worked to rotate a spinning "steel wheel" that rotated against a piece of flint to provide sparks that ignited

3944-518: The ubiquitous Unicode standard gives equal weight to simplified and traditional Chinese characters, and has become by far the most popular encoding for Chinese-language text. There are various input method editors (IMEs) available for the input of Chinese characters . Many characters, often dialectical variants, are encoded in Unicode but cannot be inputted using certain IMEs, with one example being

4012-520: The viscosity and film-forming quality of the product. Most polymerized tung oils are sold mixed with mineral spirits to make them easier to work with. Limonene and D-limonene are less toxic alternatives for mineral spirits. The oil-paper umbrella is the traditional umbrella used in China , Japan , and other countries in the East Asian cultural sphere , and was brought to Western countries through

4080-587: The words for simplified and reduced are homophonous in Standard Chinese , both pronounced as jiǎn . The modern shapes of traditional Chinese characters first appeared with the emergence of the clerical script during the Han dynasty c.  200 BCE , with the sets of forms and norms more or less stable since the Southern and Northern dynasties period c.  the 5th century . Although

4148-422: Was a cylindrical, basket-work rocket launcher called the "Mr. Facing-both-ways rocket arrow firing basket", as well as an oblong-section, rectangular, box rocket launcher known as the "divine rocket-arrow block". Rockets described in the Huolongjing were not all in the shape of standard fire arrows and some had artificial wings attached. An illustration shows that fins were used to increase aerodynamic stability for

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4216-502: Was created using a mixture of tung oil , urine, sal ammoniac , feces, and scallion juice heated and coated upon tiny iron pellets and broken porcelain. According to Jiao Yu, "even birds flying in the air cannot escape the effects of the explosion". Explosive devices include the "flying-sand divine bomb releasing ten thousand fires", which consisted of a tube of gunpowder placed in an earthenware pot filled with quicklime , resin, and alcoholic extracts of poisonous plants. Jiao Yu called

4284-625: Was mentioned by the much earlier Xia Shaozeng, when 20,000 fire arrows were handed over to the Jurchen conquerors of Kaifeng City in 1126. An even earlier text, the Wujing Zongyao (武经总要, "Collection of the Most Important Military Techniques"), written in 1044 by Song scholars Zeng Gongliang and Yang Weide, described the use of three spring or triple bow arcuballista that fired arrow bolts holding gunpowder. Although written in 1630 (second edition in 1664),

4352-579: Was one of three early Ming military treatises that were mentioned by Jiao Xu, but only the Huolongjing remains. Although the earliest edition of the Huolongjing was written by Jiao Yu, a Ming general, sometime between 1360-1375, its preface was not provided until the Nanyang publication of 1412. The 1412 edition, known as Huolongjing Quanji ( Complete Collection of the Fire Dragon Manual ), remains largely unchanged from its predecessor with

4420-500: Was recorded in the Wujing Zongyao of 1044, evidence of state interference in gunpowder affairs began appearing. Realizing the military applications of gunpowder, the Song court banned private transactions involving sulphur and saltpeter in 1067 despite the widespread use of saltpeter as a flavor enhancer, and moved to monopolize gunpowder production. In 1076 the Song prohibited the populaces of Hedong ( Shanxi ) and Hebei from selling sulphur and saltpetre to foreigners. In 1132 gunpowder

4488-420: Was recorded in use by a Chinese garrison commander at Anlu , Hubei province, in the year 1132. One of the earliest references to the destructive force of a cannon in China was made by Zhang Xian in 1341, with his verse known as The Iron Cannon Affair . Zhang wrote that its cannonball could "pierce the heart or belly when it strikes a man or horse, and can even transfix several persons at once". Jiao Yu describes

4556-452: Was referred to specifically for its military values for the first time and was called "fire bomb medicine" rather than "fire medicine". While Chinese gunpowder formulas by the late 12th century and at least 1230 were powerful enough for explosive detonations and bursting cast iron shells, gunpowder was made more potent by applying the enrichment of sulphur from pyrite extracts. Chinese gunpowder solutions reached maximum explosive potential in

4624-410: Was to use a hollow tube instead of a bow or ballista firing gunpowder-impregnated fire arrows. The historian Joseph Needham wrote that this discovery came sometime before Jiao Yu during the late Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279). From the section of the oldest passages in the Huolongjing , the text reads: One uses a bamboo stick 4 ft 2 in long, with an iron (or steel) arrow–head 4.5 in long...behind

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