Editor's note: "Zuo Chuan" became the thirteenth year of the Duke Zhou Liyi: "The great affairs of the country are in the worship and rong". Countries around the world have always put the most advanced technology into military activities. My country is no exception. In the history of China's armed exchanges, there are both exported foreign parts and imported extraterritorial parts, and the so-called extraterritorial animals and plants are native to extraterritorial or the first to be domesticated outside the region. The author will try to cite several cases of China's introduction of foreign weapons and cultural exchanges for your reference. Texts: Foreign characters in Chinese armed cultural relics. Sanskrit: The classical script of India. It is one of the oldest languages of the Indo-European language family and has a great influence on the Sino-Tibetan language family. The study and use of Siddhartha Sanskrit in China was quite popular, and it was later introduced to Japan, and the most original Siddhartha sutra has been preserved in Japan. ▼ The picture shows the Japanese Kamakura period with a Sanskrit on the big grinding (to shorten the blade body to change part of the blade to the stem) Tai Knife. The inscription is for the second year (1323) of the Bizen Kuni nagabunE Gyeongko Motohide:
Sanskrit has been used in the Celestial Alphabet since the twelfth century, and most of the Sanskrit scripts taught in Buddhist academies are Now studied and taught in Buddhist academies. There is also a Lancha Sanskrit script that is popular in Tibet and Nepal, and is popular in Han China as the Chinese Ming and Qing ruling classes attach importance to Tibetan Buddhism. ▼ The Qing Dynasty Sanskrit Pi and the Iron Emperor's great reading show that the emperor believed in Buddhism and referred to himself as the embodiment of the Buddha:
▼ Ming and Qing dynasty blades with Sanskrit, Sanskrit has become a decorative text, mostly unreadable:
The reason why Sanskrit inscriptions appear in the Cultural Relics of the Ming and Qing Dynasties is because the imperial court reveres Tibetan Buddhism and places the meaning of the seed character in Tibetan Buddhism in the Wubei, as for some swords with foreign etching patterns and foreign letter inscriptions, it is because the blades of those swords are originally foreign, with Chinese clothing. ▼The picture shows the Western sheath waist knife hidden in the Forbidden City:
Material: Iron pickaxe. The word iron is still vaguely expressed in the Chinese vocabulary. Ancient Middle Eastern and South Asian patterned blades are roughly divided into two categories: one is made of Wootz steel, and the other is made of high-carbon steel and wrought iron. It has to be said that in the description of the word iron in Chinese historical records, the difference between carburized crystalline steel and artificially forged welded steel is confused. The reason is that at that time, some of them were imported into manufactured products, and some were introduced with raw steel. Book 102 of the Book of Wei says: The Persian state (present-day Iran) produced iron. I personally think that it is a material steel that has been carburized by crucible and melted at high temperatures. The Tang Dynasty monk Huilin's "All The Sutras and Sounds" Volume 55 believes that the iron is derived from foreign countries such as Yibin (present-day Kashmir), and also says that the iron is "the sum of the irons, or the one who is above the extremely fine iron", which I personally think is the finished product of manual forging and welding. In terms of production area, there are also sayings such as large food countries, in short, the distribution of the so-called iron pickaxe has a certain degree of extensiveness in the western region. Iron was introduced to China around the time of the Northern and Southern Dynasties. Since then, China has also mastered the technology of making artificially forged welded iron. Iron is mainly used to make swords, and the pattern is piled up and colorful. As for the sharp edge is not sharp, whether it is good or not, it is related to the angle of the blade and the posture of the blade. ▼The author's old Collection of Qing Dynasty artificial forging welding knife partial photos:
If the surface pattern of the manual forging welding or carburizing crystalline steel knife is not obvious, the ancients will put the surface polishing knife and then treat it with a corrosive agent, which can be seen in the pattern, also known as "Bin Iron". Volume VI of Cao Zhao's "Treatise on Gegu Essentials" of the Ming Dynasty says that iron gall has spiral flowers and sesame snowflakes; the commonly used corrosive agent is golden alum, also known as yellow alum (iron sulfate). The Ministry of Works of the Yuan Dynasty set up a pickaxe iron bureau, and the iron produced in Shanxi in the Ming Dynasty was mostly manually forged and welded, while the iron produced in Xinjiang may be carburized crystalline steel. Instruments: The introduction of Japanese and Western swords in the Ming and Qing dynasties, please see "The "House of Everything" of the Qing Dynasty Imperial Family, see what the materials of the royal level spears are, and the Yongzheng Office understands the following" and other related articles, which have been said and will not be repeated. Let's talk about the lock armor: the lock armor is a kind of metal lightweight armor used in ancient warfare. In the fifth century BC or earlier, it may have been the Scythians in the northern Black Sea who first invented the lock armor. Lock armor is also known as "ring lock armor" in ancient China. Generally, it is made of iron wire or iron ring buckle to form a garment, and each ring is buckled with the other four rings, shaped like a net lock, and the production materials are different in different civilizations. The lock armor was introduced to China from the Western Regions, and the earliest record is found in Cao Zhi's "Table of Armor of the First Emperor's Gifts". The Book of Jin and Lü Guangzai describes the highest quality of this type of armor as "armor like a ring lock, which cannot be shot." The Tang Six Classics, and listed "lock" as one of the thirteen types of armor, which was used more commonly in the Yuan Dynasty, but the yuan lock armor was embellished with iron armor pieces. The Ming and Qing dynasties still have lock armor in use. The anti-chopping of the lock armor still has a certain effect, and the effect of puncture protection may not be ideal. ▼ Qing Qianlong's "Illustration of Imperial Ceremonial Instruments", the physical object is the old collection of the Forbidden City in Beijing, which is rare and complete, and has the following clothes:
▼Comparison of lock armor and physical lock armor in ancient paintings (Tianjin Museum collection of Ayuxi portraits):
Plants: Cloth Cotton Nails: Chinese cotton nails rose late, for the simple reason that cotton, as the main material, was introduced late in the Central Plains. Cotton is native to India and Arabia. At least before the Common Era in China, Guangxi, Yunnan, Xinjiang and other regions have adopted cotton fiber as a textile raw material. However, in the Central Plains, at first people only regarded cotton as an ornamental plant and did not recognize its economic value. Before cotton was introduced to the Central Plains, there was only kapok for filling pillow mattresses, and there was no cotton that could be woven. Before the Song Dynasty, China only had the word "cotton" next to the ribbon, and there was no "cotton" word next to the wood. The word "cotton" only began to appear from the Book of Song. It can be seen that the development of culture predates the development of writing. So cotton nails are also written cotton nails. Cotton was introduced to the Central Plains at the latest during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and cotton was introduced to the interior in large quantities, and when at the end of the Song Dynasty and the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, regarding the way of cotton being introduced to China, Wang Xuan said in the "Study of the Relationship between Cotton and Mulberry in the Ming and Qing Dynasties": "The Song and Yuan dynasties were first planted in China, and The Guan, Shaanxi, Fujian, and Guangdong were the first to gain its benefits. "▼Cotton and cotton fields:
The cloth face armor that appeared in the Yuan Dynasty is made of cloth, the surface nail bubble, lined with iron armor pieces, its shape is completely a robe, both have a cold effect, this is China's last generation of armor, the late Ming and Qing Dynasties basically adopted this kind of armor. ▼ The Japanese painting "Mongolian Attack Emoji" depicts its image:
In addition to the cloth as a face, the middle nail is embellished with nail pieces, and the surface nail nails are nailed, and the real cotton nails have risen. Zhu Guozhen of the Ming Dynasty said in zhu guozhen's "Sketches of The Tang Dynasty": Cotton armor is made of seven pounds of cotton, sewn with cloth like a jacket, two arms over the shoulders five inches, the lower length covers the knees, and the thick line runs horizontally and straight. Sew tight into the water, soak up, pave the ground, kick the solid with the foot, to not fat as a degree, dry and use, see the rain is not heavy, mold is not rotten, the bird can not be seriously injured. ▼ Comparison of the cotton armor data and physical objects of the Protective Military Academy in Qianlong's "Illustration of Imperial Ceremonial Instruments":
Animals: In this issue, let's not talk about horses, because horses are too important, and we must say them in stages. Let's start with the other conscripted animals in the war transport. ▼ Domestic donkey: The ancestors of the domestic donkey are the African Somali (left) and Nubian wild donkey (right):
In China around 4000 BC, during the Yin Shang era, domestic donkeys were introduced in the Shache area of Xinjiang, because there were mules in the Zhao State during the Spring and Autumn Period, and the earliest introduction of donkeys in the Central Plains may have been hundreds of years earlier than the Qin and Han dynasties said by scholars, but they were not popular. Donkeys entered the interior from the Western Regions and India and were regarded as rare and valuable domestic animals. The Eastern Han Dynasty was the era of the gradual popularization of donkeys in the Central Plains. Many stories about donkeys during the Three Kingdoms period, such as Zhuge Jin's donkey and Cao Pi's learning of donkey calls, reflect this. Donkeys to the Tang and Song dynasties spread throughout the country. ▼ The ancestors of the domestic donkey are not born in China's Mongolian wild donkey (left) and Tibetan wild donkey (right):
Due to artificial breeding, domestic donkeys have many local characteristic breeds at the same time. According to the body type, there are three kinds of large, medium and small, 1) large donkey (left) body height of more than 130 cm, weight of about 260 kg; medium sized donkey (medium) body height of about 110-130 cm, the average weight of about 180 kg; small donkey (right) body height of less than 110 cm, weight of about 130 kg. Among them, small donkeys are generally called woolen donkeys, and some large donkeys are larger than the average Mongolian horse. The use of large donkeys in the army became a reality. But donkeys have bad tempers, so the application is limited.
▼The picture shows the blue-glazed donkey and the partial picture of the National Museum (donkey with an armacule-free cage instead of a horsetail):
Mule: The worldwide breeding of mules on horses and donkeys was a matter of 2000 BC. The Western Zhou Dynasty's Compilation of the Warring Han Dynasty records that the Donkey Mule is a donkey mule. "Lü Shi Chunqiu" in: Zhao Jianzi (赵鞅? –476 BC) had two white mules and loved them very much. If this white mule does refer to a mule crossed by horses and donkeys, the donkey of Mr. Dongguo, who sang with Zhao Jianzi in Ma Zhongxi's "The Legend of the Wolf in Zhongshan" in the Ming Dynasty, may be real. The "win" in the Han Dynasty "Salt and Iron Theory" may be a mule, and Jin Guo Pu's commentary on "Erya": The winner is born of a horse (mother) and a donkey (male), resembling a donkey and stronger than a horse. ▼ There are two kinds of mules: the offspring of male donkeys and mares crossed are called horse mules (left), which can also be called mules. The descendants of the stallion and the female donkey are called donkey mules (right):
The Northern Qi tombs unearthed some pottery figurines called "donkeys" or "Northern Qi donkeys" by the collection community, the author believes that it is a mule or a horse for carrying horses, and the national bo blue glazed donkey is not the same as the northern Qi donkey's horse trunk generally carries a horse bit iron to facilitate control.
Mules are rough-fed, hard-working, disease-resistant and adaptable, and have great pulling power and long-lasting. Lifespan is longer than horses and donkeys. Generally non-fertile. In the military, it is mostly used for pulling and carrying. Male mules are infertile; female mules occasionally produce foals. Mules and donkeys were used to transport equipment and weapons in mountain warfare and have been used to this day.
Dromedary: Dromedary camels are native to the dry regions of North Africa and western and southern Asia, with no wild breeds except for secondary rewilding in a few regions, and are currently reared in Arabia, India and North Africa. There is evidence that dromedary camels were domesticated in Arabia in 1800 BC. Historically, dromedaries were also distributed in southern Xinjiang, and the population in modern times declined until it disappeared. ▼Comparison of the collection of tricolored singles and Bactrian camels exhibited in the Ceramics Museum of the Forbidden City in Beijing:
Bactrian camel: The Bactrian camel, which has long been used in the army of northern China, is also an alien domesticated and introduced species. Domesticated bactrian camels are speculated to have been domesticated about 4500 years ago, and evidence of their domestication sites is concentrated in northern Iran and southern Turkmenistan. Wild Bactrian populations are mainly distributed in Asia and the cooler regions around it, such as Mongolia, China, Kazakhstan, northern India and Russia, and domesticated populations are currently distributed in some countries in Central Asia, such as Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, northern Pakistan and the desert steppes of India, extending eastward to southern Russia, northwestern China, and western Mongolia. However, modern molecular genetics studies have completely broken this argument; Kirimutu et al. conducted molecular genetic analysis of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene sequences of domestic bmbals and extant wild bactars, indicating that domestic bactrians and extant wild bactas are not directly related, belong to different maternal origins, and differentiation between the two subspecies may have occurred 700,000 years ago. ▼ Wild camel (left) and livestock camel (right), Qing pay attention to the difference between humps:
In three cases of domestic animal camel figurines, the author's understanding of the hump image of the domestic camel is still very clear.
Camels used in the war is the most famous is the camel city, more than 10,000 camels are tied to the ground, carrying wooden boxes, covered with wet felt, ringed as battalions, named "Camel City", facing the Cannon of the Qing Army, the result is the defeat of the camel dead soldiers.
This article is the original manuscript of the Cold Weapons Research Institute. The original outline of the editor-in-chief and the author Leng Yan saw, any media or public account without written authorization shall not be reproduced, and the offender will be investigated for legal responsibility.