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Introduction to ancient weapons
Source: | Author:zhenshi | Published time: 2019-12-16 | 723 Views | Share:
Sword

A sharp-edged cold weapon used for melee assassination and slashing in ancient China. Also known as straight soldiers. It is divided into two parts, the sword body and the hilt, the sword body is slender, with blades on both sides, and the tip is sharp. The hilt is short and easy to hold. Swords are often equipped with scabbards. The earliest sword in China was a bronze sword from the Western Zhou Dynasty. Later, with the development of science and technology, iron swords and steel swords appeared. The Tang Dynasty no longer used the sword as a combat weapon. From the Song Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, the sword in the army was only used as decoration or as a symbol of leadership, but the difference is that swords, such as those frequently mentioned in martial arts novels, are widely used by the people, especially Taoism. Taoist swords have obvious characteristics, such as the "Seven Stars" sword and the "Hanging Talisman Slashing Demons" sword.

Yue Wang Goujian Sword

A bronze sword used by the King of Yue Goujian in the late Spring and Autumn Period in China. It was unearthed in the Tomb of Chu in Jiangling County, Hubei Province in December 1965 and is now in the Hubei Provincial Museum. The sword is 55.6 cm long and 5 cm wide. The sword has a black pattern on the body, made of copper and tin, and has the inscription "Yuewang Jiuqian uses the sword" ("Jiuqian" means "Goujian", "Zha" means "zuo") on the front. The sword was placed in a black lacquered wood scabbard when it was unearthed. The sword has a bright body, no corrosion, and a thin and sharp blade. The casting process has reached a very high level.

Spear

The gun is a weapon with a sharp pointed tip on a long handle. The alias of the gun is called "Shoulder 2".

"Qing Yi Lu": "In the hidden language of the King of Shu Jianjun, the gun is called'shoulder two'." The gun is also called'Yizhangwei', and "Things Yizhi": "The Emperor Yang of the Sui changed his gun and named it Yizhangwei." The history can be traced to primitive society. The original spear just sharpened the head of the wooden club. "Popular Culture": "Cutting a wood to hurt a thief is a gun." The shape of a gun in the Han Dynasty is similar to that of a spear. Most of the guns are made of long wooden or bamboo poles, equipped with sharp long spear heads and spear tassels. According to legend, Zhuge Liang made a wooden gun with a length of two feet (about 6.7 meters) and a bamboo gun with a length of two feet and five feet (about 8.3 meters). "Long Spear Selection. "Like said": "The name of the gun, that is, the old man and the eight spears." The length of the guns for different purposes is different. The guns used in car battles and cavalry battles are obviously long, the guns used in foot combat are obviously short, the guns used in defending the city are obviously long, and the guns used in offense are obviously short. The long gun can reach more than eight meters, and the short gun can be as much as 1.3 meters. The iron spear used by Li Quan in the Song Dynasty was seven or eight feet long (2.3-2.6 meters) and weighed more than 20 kilograms (excerpted from "Qi Dong Ye Yu"). "Arm Records" records: "The sand army's pole is eight to two zhang four", "Jingyan wooden gun is nine feet and seven inches long". People who practice martial arts in later generations usually use "Zhangba Daqiang", "Seven-foot Flower Spear" and "Six-foot Double Spear" as the standard.

There are many types of guns. In the Song Dynasty, there were double hook guns, single hook guns, cone guns, grab guns, ring guns, plain wood guns, and abduction guns. In the Qing Dynasty, there were snake guns, flame guns, hook and sickle guns, tiger tooth guns, goose ling guns, cross sickle guns and so on. Guns were most popular in the Song and Ming dynasties, creating a variety of styles and different uses of guns, widely used in infantry and cavalry.

Spear

In ancient China, it was a cold weapon used to pierce and pierce combat. Composed of spearhead and spear handle. Spearheads are mostly made of metal, and spear handles are mostly made of wood, bamboo, rattan and other materials. Metal materials are also used. The length of the spear is usually 1.8-2.7 meters, and some reach more than 4 meters. The spearhead is generally 40 cm long, and some are more than 80 cm long. Early spearheads were stone or animal bones. With the development of science and technology, bronze and iron spearheads appeared.

Wu Wang Fu Chashang

A bronze spear used by Wu Wang Fu Cha in the late Spring and Autumn Period in China. It was unearthed from the Tomb of Chu in Jiangling County, Hubei Province in November 1983. The only remaining spearhead is now in the Hubei Provincial Museum. The spearhead is cast in bronze, 29.5 cm long and 5.5 cm wide. The sword has a black pattern on the body, made of copper and tin, and has an inscription "Wu Wang Fuchai (for use)") on the front. The spear blade is sharp. The precision of its casting process is rare in similar weapons.

AX (Tomahawk)

An ancient Chinese combat weapon used for chopping. It is composed of axe body and axe handle. The axe body is stone, copper or iron, and the axe handle is wood. The shape of the yue and the axe are similar, the difference is that the yue-shaped body is thin, the blade is wide and the shape is round. Yue is mainly used as a symbol of military power, so yue is mostly well-cast. Its body is engraved with human face or animal face decorations, the image is hideous and gorgeous, giving people a deterrent. The usage of axe includes: pick, block, frame, grid, chop, wipe, stab, etc. As far back as the Paleolithic Age, axe made of stone appeared for farming and hunting.

A good business woman

Fu Hao is the wife of Shang Wang Wu Ding, and the earliest female general in ancient China. She led her army to conquer the barbarians, Qiang, and Tu. In 1976, four bronze yue pieces were unearthed from the Fuhao Tomb in Yinxu, Anyang, Henan. One large Yue is 39.5 cm long, 37.5 cm wide, and weighs 9 kg. The Yueshang is decorated with double tigers bashing human heads, and there is an inscription of "Wu Hao". The Yue is not an actual combat weapon, but a symbol of the authority of the woman in command.

Halberd

An ancient Chinese combat weapon that combines spear and Ge Gong into one. It is composed of halberd head and halberd handle. The head of the halberd is made of metal materials, and the handle is made of wood or bamboo. The longest halberd can reach more than 3 meters. It can not only pierce, pierce, but also hook and peck, it is a sharp weapon used by infantry and cavalry. The halberd used in the early days was a bronze halberd. Later, with the development of science and technology, an iron halberd appeared.

Halberd is an extremely important weapon in the Warring States Period in ancient my country. It was mostly used on chariots. The most popular period was the Western Han Dynasty, the Wei and Jin Dynasties. "Three Kingdoms. "Wu Zhi": "Lü Bu's hand envoy Fang Tian painted a halberd..." After the Jin Dynasty, the halberd was gradually eliminated from the stage of war. In the Tang Dynasty, the halberd had been used as a guard of honor.

halberds are divided into long weapons such as Fangtian painted halberd, blue dragon halberd, hook and sickle halberd according to style and size, as well as double halberd and short halberd. The halberd is composed of five parts: Feng, Yuan, Hu, Nei and Yan. "Release the name. "Shi Bing": "The halberd has three fronts and two blades, the inner length is four and a half inches, the Hu is six inches long, and its aid is seven and a half inches long. The three fronts are straight and the short is in the middle. The halberd and the Hu traversed it, and Hu Zhongju was removed from the pan, and the handle was one foot and six feet long." "Zhou Li. "Kaogongji": "The halberd is half an inch wide, the inner two is the second, the Hu is the fourth, and the five is aided." The halberd uses the method of shoveling, cutting back, horizontal stab, down stab, oblique leash, etc.; use the Hu method There are horizontal cutting, cutting, etc.; internal methods include reverse, flat hook, nail wall, flipping, etc.; front methods include pass, challenge, and straight split.

Knife

An ancient Chinese weapon used for individual combat and chopping at close range. It consists of two parts: the blade and the handle. The blade is long and narrow, with a thin blade and thick ridge. The handle is long or short. There are many types of them, including broadswords, waist knives and ring head knives, which are the main weapons equipped by the ancient Chinese army. In the early days, it was stone knives, and later developed into bronze knives, iron knives and steel knives.

The appearance of ancient Chinese knives originated in the Neolithic Age. During this period, stone knives were mainly used, and there were also bone knives. The earliest surviving bronze knife 5,000 years ago was discovered in Majiayao, Dongxiang, Gansu. The number of bronze knives in the Shang Dynasty began to increase. Generally, the blades were small, with straight handle knives, beasthead knives, and long knives. The shape of the sword remained unchanged from the late Shang Dynasty to the Western Zhou Dynasty, but the beast-head sword was extremely popular in the northern grassland minority areas. A large number of physical objects were unearthed, and the bronze smelting and casting technology and manufacturing technology reached a very high level. In the Western Han Dynasty, knives have made great progress. The most representative one is the ring head knife (also known as the ring handle knife), which is generally made of steel with a straight back and a straight blade. The back of the knife is thick, the handle is narrow and circular, and the knife is slender. . In the Han Dynasty, the length of the knife was about one meter. The ring head knife has been used until the Northern and Southern Dynasties. In the Han Dynasty, there was also Ruan Jiadao. It is said that Master Ruan made a sword "subject to the emptiness of treasure and green, the combination of water and fire, and the pottery of the five essences. Using yin and yang to take the sum of strength and softness", he made 1770 swords in three years. During the Northern Qi Dynasty, the famous iron knife was created by the injection method of cast iron and wrought iron made into steel created by the Jin Dynasty. This knife is made of flexible and hard steel, durable, and can be "cut through 30 bars." In the Sui and Tang dynasties, horizontal knives and Mo knives were used extensively in the army, and they were equipped with scabbards with double ears. The horizontal sword is also called a saber with a short handle. Mo knife, also called pai knife, is a long-handled two-edged knife with a length of about three meters. It was mainly popular in the Tang Dynasty. The hand knives that began to appear in the Northern Song Dynasty and have been used in subsequent generations have a wider blade and blade, the head of the knife is upturned, and the handle has a guard. In addition, in the Song "Wu Jing Zong Yao", various types of knives such as drop knives, moon mask knives and halberd knives were introduced. The appearance of firearms gradually weakened the power of swords in wars, so the swords used in actual combat after Song Dynasty began to decrease. In the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the waist sword was no longer an effective offensive weapon. In addition to being used by cavalry, it was also used as a symbol of self-defense and power level.

Dengzhou Qi's saber

A saber used by Qi Jiguang, a famous Chinese anti-Japanese general in Ming Dynasty. The overall length is 89 cm and the handle is 16 cm long. The upper part of the knife is engraved with the characters "Wanli ten years, Dengzhou Qi", indicating that this saber was cast by Qi Jiguang in the tenth year of Wanli (1582) when Qi Jiguang was the commander of Jizhen.

Dagger


A cold weapon that is as short as a sword. It consists of two parts: the blade and the handle. It is 20-30 cm long and has single-edged and double-edged points. The dagger is short and easy to hide. It has been one of the cold weapons used by the army since ancient times.

Ge

A cold weapon used for hooking and pecking in ancient China. Composed of Ge head and handle. Gotou is mostly made of bronze. The handle is mostly made of bamboo or wood, and the length is usually about 1 meter, and the longest is more than 3 meters. Ge prevailed from the Shang Dynasty to the Warring States Period. In the late Warring States period, more and more iron weapons were used, and the bronze ge was gradually eliminated. By the late Western Han Dynasty, it had disappeared.

Crossbow

An ancient Chinese long-range weapon equipped with a control device that can be launched on standby. It consists of three parts: crossbow, crossbow arm and crossbow machine. The crossbow machine is made of bronze or iron and consists of three parts: teeth, bulls, and hanging swords. The crossbow of the Han Dynasty was equipped with a bronze receiver called "Guo" on the outside of the crossbow machine, which can withstand greater tension. In addition, Han Yun added a scale to the "Wangshan" used for aiming, which is equivalent to the ruler of a modern rifle, increasing the hit rate.

Bow and arrow

A long-range weapon with a sharp blade launched by a bow in ancient China. The bow is composed of elastic bow arms and flexible bowstrings; arrows include arrows, shafts and feathers. The arrow is made of copper or iron, the pole is made of bamboo or wood, and the plume is the feather of a eagle or eagle. It is one of the important weapons used by the ancient Chinese army.

Chariot

A horse-drawn carriage used for battle in ancient China. Generally, it is a single wheel (coil), two-wheeled, square car (carriage), driving four horses or two horses. There were three soldiers in the car, one in the middle was the driver, and the left and right were responsible for fighting. There are many types, including light cars, red cars and E cars. The chariot was first used in the battle of Gan under the command of Xia Wangqi. In the future, the scale of wars has become larger and larger, and tanks have become the main force of wars and the standard for measuring a country's strength. In the Spring and Autumn Period, the "country of thousands" and "country of tens of thousands" appeared. In the Han Dynasty, with the rise of cavalry, chariots gradually withdrew from the war arena.

Qin Shihuang Mausoleum No. 1 bronze car

In 1980, two large painted bronze cars were unearthed from the west side of the Mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin in Lintong, Shaanxi. The No. 1 car in the front has a two-wheeled, single-coil structure, driving four horses in front, a horizontal rectangle with a width of 126 centimeters, and a depth of 70 centimeters. There are fences on the front and both sides, and a door is left behind for getting up and down. A shield was placed on the right side of the car, and a bronze crossbow and bronze arrowhead hung in front of the car. A round umbrella was erected on the vehicle, and a copper imperial figurine with a height of 91 cm stood under the umbrella. Its name is Liche, also called Rongche, Gaoche, and stands on the car when riding.

Shield

Hand-held protective weapon used by the ancient Chinese army. The shapes are rectangular, trapezoidal or round. The materials are leather, wood, rattan or metal. The shield is about 1 meter high and about 60-80 cm wide. The small shield is about 60 cm high and 40 cm wide.

Armor

A protective weapon worn by the soldiers of the ancient Chinese army. It consists of 3 parts: a body, a skirt and a sleeve. The skirt and sleeves can be stretched up and down to facilitate combat. At first it was made of materials such as rattan, wood and leather. Later, with the development of science and technology, bronze and iron armors appeared, which can effectively defend against attacks by bronze and iron weapons.

Fire Gun

Metal tubular firearms in Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty in China. It is composed of front chamber, medicine chamber and tail [upper "gong" and lower "gold"]. When in use, it ignites the gunpowder in the gunpowder chamber, ignites the gunpowder in the gunpowder, and uses the explosive force of the gunpowder gas to shoot out the stone or iron bullets preloaded in the front chamber to kill the enemy. Fire guns are the first generation of metal tubular firearms in the Proterozoic period of China. They were cast from copper and iron. They appeared in the Yuan Dynasty (about the beginning of the 14th century AD) at the latest, and were later commonly used in naval and land battles. The fire guns used in wartime were: single-tube hand guns, multi-tube three-eye guns, five-row guns, seven star guns, ten-eyed guns, and large-caliber bowl guns (caliber 100-120 mm).

Flange machine

China's mid-Ming Dynasty artillery. It is composed of a mother gun and a son gun. The female gun body has a slender tube and a small caliber. The gun body is equipped with a front sight and a rear sight, which can aim and shoot at distant targets. There are cannon ears on both sides of the gun body. The gun body can be placed on the bracket and the shooting angle can be adjusted by pitching. The back of the gun body is thicker, with long holes and slots for filling the gun. The sub-guns are similar to the small fire-guns. Each female gun has 5 to 9 sub-guns, which can be pre-loaded with ammunition for reserve. During the battle, they are loaded into the mother guns in turn, thereby increasing the launch speed. The Flange machine was invented in Europe and was introduced to China from Portugal in the first year of Jiajing in the Ming Dynasty (1522). It was named "Folang machine" according to its country name. In the third year of Jiajing (1524), Ming Ting succeeded in imitating the first batch of 32-door Franco machines, each weighing about 300 jins, the female guns were 2.85 feet long, and were equipped with 4 guns. After that, Ming Ting successively imitated various Flange machines of different sizes and models to equip the northern and coastal troops.

Bird Blow

The collective term for matchlock and flintlock in the late Ming Dynasty in China. It is composed of barrel, gunpowder pool, bolt machine, sight, gun handle, etc. When in use, the pre-ignited match cord is used to buckle the gun, which drives the match cord to ignite the compacted gunpowder in the gunpowder pool, and uses the explosive force of the gunpowder gas to shoot the lead projectile from the barrel to kill the enemy. The bird gun was invented in Europe. It was introduced to China by Lumi (now translated as Rum, located in present-day Turkey) during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty, and it was imitated by the Ming court. The original imitated bird blunders were front-loaded, smooth-bore, and matchlock guns, which were the prototypes of modern rifles. The caliber is about 9-13 mm, the barrel is 1-1.5 meters long, the full gun is 1.3-2 meters long, and weighs 2-4 kg. The bullet weighs 3-11 grams and has a range of 150-300 meters. It was once one of the main light firearms of the Ming and Qing armies.