User:Gwern/Crossbow

Souce text for the following: - Joseph Needham's _Science and Civilisation in China_, Volume 5: Chemistry and Chemical Technology, part VI: Military Technology: Missiles and Sieges pages 120-183

Lu Chia, 1st c., to the 1st Han emperor:

"Yes sire, you conquered the empire on horesback, but it is not on horseback that you can govern it."

The original Chinese bows were composite recurve bows

pg 109: from the _Chou Li_, 'Records of the Rites of Chou' "Wood for range, horn for speed, sinew for penetration, silk binding for firmness, lacquer for guard against frost & drew. The bowyers collect the materials...and then they are combined together by men of skill."

crossbow: Chinese 'nu' particularly notable are the ancient triggers of bronze, brought to a high degree of sophistication

pg 120 (Needham; henceforth it'll be obvious when it's Needham writing, so I won't say so) "The aiming process in shooting [arrows] is affected not so much by the strain of the bow as by the less than rigid hold between the hand grasping the bow handle and that drawing and holding the string...The crossbow's advantage lies in the possibility of using a bow far beyond the strength of the archer by reason of the mechanical release and holding of the drawn bowstring, and the fixed relationship between the bow and the latch due to the rigid stock."

pg121 Tseng Kung-Liang, 1000sAd (after invention of gunpowder, note) "The crossbow is the strongest weapon of China and what the four kinds of barbarians most fear and obey...Now for piercing through hard things and shooting a long distance...there is nothing like the crossbow for success. However, as the drawing is slow, it is difficult to cope with sudden attacks. A crossbow can only be shot 3 times before it's [time for] hand-to-hand combat...when they [crossbowmen] shoot, nothing can stand in front of them, no formation can keep order. If attacked by cavalry, the crossbowmen will be as solid as a mountain...the men within the formation are loading, while the men in the front line of formation are shooting. as they come forward they use shields to protect their flanks. Thus each in their turn they draw their crossbows and come up; then as soon as they have shot bolts they return again into the formation. The sound of the crossbows is incessant and the enemy can hardly even flee."

this firing/reloading strategy appears in the 700sAD "Crossbowmen's Manual"

pg 122 winch-armed crossbow: 1160 yards; used against fortifications arm-drawn crossbow: 500 horse-archer's crossbow: 330

pg 121 Crossbows used in India for warfare by the Islamic period, but before apparently just a hunting/trapping technique

pg123: _Phin-Chheng_: "Take heart, my lads, for we have got The crossbow, and the Huns have not."

nu che: "mobile arcuballistae, or pavises (shields) on wheels"

pg124: _Chhien Han Shu_ 169BC, by Chhao Tsho "On the other hand, on plains light charitos can be used and calvary charges made; in such conditions the Hunnish hordes are readily thrown into confusion. The strong crossbow [ching nu] and the [arcuballista shooting] javelins have a long range; something which the bows of the Huns can in no way equal...the drill of crossbowmen alternately advancing [to shoot] and retiring [to reload]; this is something which the Huns cannot even face. The troops with crossbows ride forward and shoot off all their bolts in one direction. This is something the leather armor and wooden shields of the Huns cannot resist."

arcuballistae == 'large crossbow catapults'

pg126 bow-stave constructed like a composite bow stock, a plain piece of wood with groove for arrow and a void for trigger-box

pg 128 Chin/Qin crossbows had trigger built into stock "Then the engineering skill shown is also extraordinary, for we are in the presence of a housing containing 3 moving pieces on 2 shafts, each of which gives the impression of a good casting accurately machined."

pg 131 "Starting from the armed position, a backward pressure on the trigger will release the lower prong of the rocking lever and allow it to fall, bringing with it the whole of the nut, the central plate of which has been maintained in heavy pressure against the lower prong of the rocking lever by the strain of the bowstring. Thus the teeth of the nut drop down and the crossbow is shot off. Conversely, a backward pessure on the lug of the nut will bring the teeth back into position, while at the same time its central plate raises the rocking lever by pressing against its upper prong until its lower one snaps into the ledge on the trigger."

pg 133 "It will be agreed that Dutos was justified in his impression that the arrangement of the parts of this mechanism was almost as complicated as that of a modern rifle bolt, and could be reproduced only by very competent mechanics."

pg 134 Han trigger designs so good, later Chinese kept digging them up and copying them and trying to improve on them as late as 1627

pg 135 Crossbow appears throughout Asia as a toy, a hunting tool, and a weapon. Independent invention by ancestors long before Chinese or people in China apparently invented it. Probably the chinese didn't invent the basic idea.

pg 136 Chinese, like Europeans, poisoned crossbow bolts. "In Spin, the white hellebore was known as the crossbowman's plant."

"a specific inventor is named and he is placed, perhaps significatnly, not very far back towards the age of legends. The text is contained in the _Wu Yueh Chhiu_, but therefore not necessarily older than 2nd century AD, may well be considered to embody traditions going back to the Chhin [Qin?] or even the Warring States period." quoted text:

"...Chhin considered, however, that the bow and arrows were no longer sufficient to keep the world in obedience, for in his time all the feudal lords were fighting against one another with weapons, and could not be controlled by [ordinary] archery. He added at right angles to the bow a stock and established a trigger-mechanism within a box, thus increasing its strength. In this way all the feudal lords could be subdued. Mr. Chhin transmitted his inventions to the 3 Lords of Chhu."

139:

_Art of War_ may date to 498BC or earlier, and says: 'energy may be likened to the bending of a crossbow, decision to the release of the trigger.'

crossbows mentioned multiple times in AoW.

pg 140 The Mohist school of philosophy dates to 300 or 200s BC, and the Book of Mo Tzu speaks of crossbows and 'large multiple-bolt arcuballistae' The _Han Fei-Tzu_ of the Legalists mentions 'strong crossbows', as does the _Chuang Tzu_ of Taoism

141 Qin Shi Huang Di's tomb supposedly had crossbow traps

Crossbows very common by Han. One border fort's inventory lists 30 crossbows and 2 regular bows in stock. The 2 had been captured from barbarians.

143 Erh Chhir, 2nd Chhin, had crossbow regiments totalling 50k men 157 BC: "the prince Hsiao Liang was in charge of arsenals containing several hundred thousand crossbows." "The commentaries always explain that these soldiers were men of exceptional strength, who could draw the stiff crossbows by treading on them with their feet, then bending down and pulling with their arms." important note - foot-arming, not arm-pulling (but not yet mechanical)

144 many crossbow units were mounted export of triggers forbidden in Han 7 BC: bronze crossbow trigger excavated in Korea "the bronze trigger reached Indo-China before the Han Period, for tombs there have also yield them..."

pg 145 "From the San Kuo period onwards, crossbowmen were always used as 'curtain guards', soldiers who surrounded the carriages of officials...when passing through the streets."

"About 1030 AD, candidates in the civil service exam had been asked how they would detect and punish people who privately kept armor and crossbows in their homes."

146 1200s: "other clubs for crossbow shooting were formed by 'romantic young people from rich families, and othes who had nothing particular to do'. Even the names of some of the crack shots have come down to us, and they include 1 girl."

arming with a stirrup dates to the Warring States, but definitely was in use by the Tang

150 large arcuballistae were armed using a winch

151 "From the Han onwards other sighting devices were introduced. What is perhaps surprising is that one of these appears to have been a grid sight similar to those still seen on photographic cameras and anti-aircraft guns'

152 common sights from 173 Ad: 4 spaces by 3 spaces -- -- -- -- --

156 "...the greatest ingenuinty was shown in providing the crossbow with a magazine of bolts dropping automatically into place, and so providing it into a veritable repeating or 'machine-gun' weapon."

this would be the famous chu ko nu

159 "The usual trigger-mechanism is absent, and a lever is fixed permanently to the stock between the bowstave and the furthest rear position reached by the string when drawn. Pivoted to this lever is the magazine...the lowest arrow resting on the string above the arrow-groove which leads out through a short barrel at the front. Upon pushing the lever forward as far as possible, the string falls into a slot at the rear end of the longitudinal slit along the base of the magazine, and remains caught there while the lever is drawn backwards almost to its fullest extent, thus arming the weapon. The arrow has now dropped fully into the arrow-groove. The cams in the automatic element, for the trigger is nothing but a short vertical hardwood pin moving up and down in the base of the magazine below the string slot; upon the conclusion of the backward movement of the lever therefore, this pin is forced upwards by contact with the stock and releases the string and arrow. Thanks to this device, the whole contents of the magazine can be shot off in as short a time as it takes to write these sentences."

161 "...showed that by means of it 100 men could discharge 2000 arrows in as little as 15 seconds." "Mao Yuan-I says that it was a favorite with the people of the south-east, but its strength was slight and its bolts not apt to hurt anyone."

162: "traditionally its bolts were poisoned" "considered suitable for tiger shooting and for timid men, and even women, for defending fortified dwellings..."

"safe in saying that it was well known and probably widely used about +1600 just before its description in the books of the late Ming."

crossbow magazine possibly derived from regulars bows with tubes around the arrow. tube-bows had advantages: - lighter arrows - greater range - faster bolts

169: from the _Sung Shih_ 1259: "There wre made at Shou-Chhun-fu 2 new kinds of military weapons. One of these was the box-and-tube wooden crossbow, which differed from the ordinary crossbow with its visible trigger-mechanism, because the bolts were laid in a tube very safely. This weapon was especially convenient for shooting at night." needham: 'presumably because the projectiles fell into place automatically.'

170: crossbow never mentioned in Europe 5thc-10thc. Lost or just nothing surviving mentioning them?

172: european crossbows hare to date, odd. may date to 100BC, but definitely before 200Ad bizarre weapon: semiautomatic 'polybolon' 200BC

173 the poly bolon "comprised an endless chain on each side of the stock, moving backwards and forwards around S-cornederd cogs, worked by winch handspikes. The string was drawn backwards by a claw attachment fixed at any point along the length of the chains without the necessity of unwinding a winch cable. Above the arrow-groove was a magazine of arrows, each of which fell successively and automatically into place upon each arming of the weapon, just as in the later Chinese pattern. The greatest difference was, hoever, that the polybolon was not strictly a crossbow at all, but derived its force from the usual vertical sinew-bundles...This is a case where the time difference is so great that it is hardly possible to regard the Chinese magazine crossbow as in any way derivative from the polybolon."

174 soldiers in the First Crusade used the 'barbarian' weapon, a foot-pulled crossbow. but not the arabs

175 "the Arabs appear to have remained in general rather averse to the use of the crossbow, and to have considered it always was an undesirable foreign arm."

178

"those [trigger mechanisms] of the later middle ages (+15th century) show a tumbling nut of horn which is very remiscent indeed of the bronze nut of the ancient Chinese crossbows" "To conclude this history, we may state a simple probability, namely that from its Chinese home the hand-crossbow was introduced once if not twice to the peoples of Western Europe."

180 crossbows caused shifts in power? "The general upshot was that the ordinary soldiers and the mass of the people, were, during the Chou time, in possion of powerful offensive weapons while the members of the ruling class were quite inadquately protected by armor. Hence...the Confucian empahsis on persuasion..."

"...there are five examples at least of princes of feudal states themselves being killed in a similar way; the earliest in -637, the last in this chronicle being of -492, during Confucius' own lifetime. Finally there was one case where a Chou emperor himself suffered death in the same way."

181 Needham contrasts CHina with Rome "we know what trouble to the state the slaves could give on the few occasions when they did come to command substantial stroes of weapons, as in the revolt of Spartacus." "Could one go so far as to say that the whole Confucian ethos during the following two millennia in China had arisen in the first place from this military-technological balance...?"

183 "So could it be that the predominant ethos of the Confucian school - argument and persuasion in the interest of social justice (in so far as it could be conceived of in a feudal society) - was due essentially to the fac that efficient projectile weapons were in the hands of the common people long preceding the development of protective armor for the lords?"