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Ancient Chinese bamboo bow
Early written records
The earliest legend about the ancient Chinese bamboo bow is the mythical story of the "Houyi Shooting Sun". The Western Han Dynasty Liu An's "Huainan Zi Ben Jingxun" records: "At the time of Yao, ten days came out at the same time. Scorch crops, kill grass and trees, and the people have nothing to eat. Yao Ordered Yi to shoot on his back for ten days, and nine days for him. Nine birds in the middle of the day died and fell on their wings, so they left them for one day. All the people rejoiced, and yao thought it was the son of heaven. ”
Post-shooting sun painting
The Warring States Strategy, Western Zhou Ce records: "Chu has a nurturing base, good at shooting, going to the willow leaf and shooting it in a hundred steps, a hundred shots and a hundred shots." The two idioms of "100 steps through Yang" and "100 hairs and 100 middles" are derived from the allusions of Yang Yuji. During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Yang Youji was born in Yangguo (present-day Yangqiao Town, Linquan County, Anhui Province). After the Yang kingdom was destroyed by the Chu state, Yang Youji was made the doctor of the Chu state. Yōyuki is good at archery, being able to shoot through marked willow leaves from a hundred paces away, and has also shot through seven layers of armor with one arrow.
In the sixteenth year of the chu dynasty (575 BC), the Battle of Yanling broke out. This was a war waged by the Jin and Chu states in the Yanling region (present-day Yanling County, Henan Province) for hegemony in the Central Plains. During the battle, the Jin general Lü Kun shot the King of Chu in the eye. In order to get revenge, the king of Chu summoned Yang Yuji and gave him two arrows to shoot Lü Kun. During the battle, Yang Yuji shot Lü Kun in the neck, and Lü Kun fell on the bow sleeve and died. Yang Yuji took the remaining arrow to the King of Chu and restored his life, and from then on, Yang Yuji's name shocked the world.
Stone Age
Chinese bamboo bow cultural relics
One of the earliest stone hammers found in China was excavated more than 28,000 years ago at the Zhiyu site in Shuozhou City, Shanxi Province, proving that Chinese bows and arrows have appeared in the Stone Age. The early bow making process was very simple, and the ancients first discovered that using the resilience of wooden strips and bamboo strips, some things could be ejected, so the bow was made of wooden strips and bamboo strips. The "I Ching And The Chronicle of the Lineage" records that "the string wood is the arc"; the "Book of Poetry, Qin Feng, Xiao Rong" records: "The tiger is skeletonized, the two bows are crossed, and the bamboo is closed and silken." In this sentence, the tiger refers to the tiger skin; the chàng refers to the bow sac; the skeleton refers to the carving; the ng refers to the chest, which here refers to the front of the bow sac; the double bow of the crossed bow refers to the crossover of two bows; the closed refers to the coffin, the tool for correcting the bow and crossbow, made of bamboo and wood; the gǔn refers to the rope, which also means to bundle; and the téng refers to the meaning of bundle and entanglement.
A complete view and partial close-up of a stone age lacquer bow have been excavated from the site of the Cross-Lake Bridge in Xiaoshan, Zhejiang. The surface of this bow has patent leather, patent leather band wrinkles, and has been partially peeled off
A Stone Age lacquer bow was found at the site of the Cross-Lake Bridge in Xiaoshan City, Zhejiang Province, with patent leather on its surface, wrinkles on the patent leather belt, and partial peeling. This bow is 7,000 to 8,000 years old, made of mulberry wood, with both ends broken and the strings not existing. The length of the arch is 121 cm, the cross-section is flat-round, 3.3 cm wide and 2.2 cm thick; the ends are slightly thinner, 3 cm wide and 2 cm thick; the cross-section of the middle grip section is also flattened, with a grip section width of 3.2 cm and a thickness of 2.2 cm.
Bamboo bows from the Spring and Autumn Warring States periods
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, due to the prevalence of thick burial, a large number of weapons were buried in the tombs of princes and nobles, many of which were bows and arrows.
These bows are divided into two categories according to the material, bamboo bow and wooden bow, and a noble tomb may be buried with both bamboo bow and wooden bow. 55 bows were excavated from the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng in Hubei, including bamboo bows and wooden bows; bamboo bows and 2 wooden bows were excavated from the Tomb of Shazuka Chu in Wangshan, Jiangling. Some large tombs have only one kind of bow or one kind of bow, such as the Chu Tomb of Yutai mountain in Jiangling, where 25 bamboo bows were unearthed, and no wooden bows were unearthed.
According to the different anti-curved shapes of the bows when unthrung, the bamboo bows and wooden bows unearthed during the Spring and Autumn Warring States period are divided into three types: saddle-shaped recurve bows, half-moon recurve bows, and straight bows.
Saddle-shaped recursive bow
This type of bow is very similar to the "bow" glyph after being wound. Because of the high and low shape of the two ends of the saddle, and the outward curvature of the end of the bow arm, it is named the saddle-shaped recurve bow. Hubei Baoshan Chu Tomb No. 2 Tomb, Jiangling Wangshan Shazun Tomb No. 1 Tomb, Jingmen Zuozun No. 1 Chu Tomb have all unearthed saddle-shaped recurve bows.
Restoration of the saddle-shaped recursive bow excavated from the No. 2 Tomb of Baoshan Chu Tomb, the No. 1 Tomb of Wangshan Shazun in Jiangling, and the Chu Tomb no. 1 in Jingmen Zuozun
The bow excavated from the second tomb of Baoshan Chu Tomb is relatively complete, which is a wooden product, and the total length of the bow is 127cm. A piece of wood is attached to the inside of the grip section, a piece of wood is attached to the outside of the two bow arm segments with bio-glue, and then wrapped with silk tape, and the bow body is wrapped in 4 sets of silk threads. The outer part of the bow is painted black, and there are thin and shallow grooves at the ends of the bow, which are used as string grooves.
The bow excavated from the Chu Tomb no. 1 in Wangshan, Gangneung, is made of bamboo, and the bow string is 118 cm long. The upper and lower bow arms are made of two bamboo pieces, which overlap and bind with biological glue in the grip section, and then clamp the grip section with a number of short bamboo pieces and wrap them tightly with rattan. However, the bows at both ends of the bow have been lost, and the bows should be, made of slots, for hanging strings.
The bow excavated from the Tomb of The Left Tomb of Jingmen is a wooden product with a total length of 124 cm. It is made of two pieces of wood overlapping in the grip section, the upper and lower bow arms are equal in width and length, and two pieces of wood are attached to the inside and outside of the grip section, and then wound and fixed with ribbons. The ends of the bow arm segment are wound several times with ribbons as bows. The whole bow is black painted.
Half Moon-Shaped Anti-Curved Bow
This kind of bow is half-moon shaped after winding, and the end of its bow arm is curved outward, so it is named half-moon regurgitated bow. The 55 bows excavated from the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng are basically this kind of half-moon shaped recurve bow, and the Jiudian Dongzhou Tomb in Jiangling, Hubei Province, and the No. 5 Tomb of Caojiagang in Dangyang have also unearthed this type of recurve bow.
Restoration of the half-moon recurve bow excavated from the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng, the fifth tomb of Caojiagang in Dangyang, and the tomb of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty in Jiangling Jiudian, Hubei Province
Zeng Houyi tomb due to long-term accumulation of water, 55 bows have been scattered, after sorting found that all are wood products, according to the study found that the wood used is locust wood, locust wood elasticity and toughness are very good. Each bow is composed of upper bow arm segment, lower bow arm segment, and short wood chips, of which the wood chips of the upper and lower bow arm segments are equal in length and curved, with one end thicker and the other thinner. The thinner end of the two pieces of wood is superimposed at the grip section, and a short piece of wood is attached to the inside of the stack, and then tied with silk thread. The end of the bow tip is pasted with a bow with bio-glue, and the bow is and made of transverse grooves for hanging the strings. The bows are made in exactly the same way, but in different sizes. The longest bow is 130 cm long and the shortest bow is 112 cm long. All bows are lacquered.
Hubei Jiangling Jiudian Eastern Zhou Tomb unearthed 28 pieces of bows, there are two kinds of bamboo products, wood products. Among them, 21 are wooden bows and 7 are bamboo bows. The specimen number 183:9 wooden bow, the upper and lower bow arms are made of two pieces of locust wood spliced together, the splicing is thinned, and a copper sheet 2 cm long, 0 .8cm wide and 0.5 cm thick is embedded in the middle of the superposition. Wrapped with hemp thread on the outside, the beard is black painted.
The bow excavated from Tomb No. 5 in Caojiagang, Yangyang, is a bamboo product with a total length of 125cm. Its bow segment has a large degree of anti-curvature, the ends of the bow arm are narrow and thick, and a layer of bamboo is attached to the inside of the grip section, and the whole body is wrapped with filament thread, and finally the beard is black painted.
Straight bow
When unlocked, the bow is straight, and this type of bow is called a straight bow. The Tomb of Shengang in Xiangyang, Hubei Province, and the Tomb no. 1 of The Sand Tomb of Wangshan in Jiangling have all been excavated with straight bows.
Restoration of the straight bow excavated from the Tomb of Shengang in Xiangyang, Hubei Province, and the Tomb of Shazuka No. 1 in Wangshan, Jiangling
A straight bow excavated from the Tomb of Shengang in Xiangyang, Hubei Province, has been broken, and the bow and strings have not been seen, and the length of the remains is 140 cm. The whole is relatively straight, made up of three pieces of wood spliced together, wrapped in silk threads, with a black lacquer on the outside, and then marked in yellow lacquer segments and decorated with a diagonal cross pattern.
The straight bow excavated from Tomb No. 1 in Wangshan, Gangneung, is 123 cm long, and the upper and lower bow arms are glued with two equal-length wood chips in the grip section, and then three short wood chips are glued to the inside of the grip section. The bone bow is set on the tip of the bow, which is hexagonal in shape and has a pair of small round holes on the front and back of the bow for inserting bolts to secure the bow. There is a notch under the bow for hanging the strings.
It can be seen from the above cultural relics that the bamboo and wooden bow in the Spring and Autumn And Warring States period is no longer a simple monolithic structure, and its production process has been developed to a superimposed structure; the use of paint is also pure fire, which is conducive to the protection of the bow body; the bow design is perfect, which can minimize the wear of the bow string. Overall it looks well made.
Bamboo bows from the Han and Jin dynasties
During the Han and Jin dynasties, northern China has gradually popularized the composite bow of ribs and wood horns. The Han and Jin dynasties still flourished and buried the deceased, and among the bamboo bows and wooden bows that are currently found in excavation reports, the most famous is the bow and arrow relics excavated from the Mawangdui No. 2 Han Tomb in Hunan.
Restoration of the bow of the warped flat bow excavated from the Mawangdui No. 2 Han Tomb. Its grip section and bow arm segment are straight, and the two bow segments are backwards
Restoration of a bamboo bow excavated from the Mawangdui No. 2 Han Tomb. The opening and pulling force of this bow is very large, and it is difficult to pull it apart by the strength of the arm alone, and it is necessary to rely on external forces
Restoration of a half-moon-shaped recurve bow excavated from the Mawangdui No. 2 Han Tomb. The total length of this bow is 143.4 cm, and the bow string is still alive, and the string length is 114 cm
There are 2 bamboo bows and 2 wooden bows excavated from the Mawangdui No. 2 Han Tomb. The first bow is similar to the bow in the Spring and Autumn Warring States Tombs, formed by the superposition of two bamboo pieces, with bamboo pieces attached to the inside of the holding section, and then tied with red silk webbing, and the whole body is painted black. The bow is 128.5 cm long, 2.3 cm wide, and the bow string is 118 cm long. The second bow is already mutilated, with a length of 113 cm, a 35 cm long grip section in the middle, superimposed with 5 layers of bamboo pieces, and the outer silk thread is black painted. This bow is a bamboo bow, and its opening bow tension is very large, and it is difficult to pull it apart by the strength of the arm alone, and it needs to be used by external force. The third bow is a half-moon recurve bow, woodwork, the total length of the bow is 143.4 cm, the bow string is still alive, the string length is 114 cm. The fourth bow is a straight bow with a total length of 145 .8cm. Its grip section and bow arm segment are straight, and the two bow segments are reversed. The upper and lower arms are made of two pieces of wood, first wrapped around the silk thread, black paint, and then densely wound in several sections of four synthetic silk threads.
Restoration of a wooden bow excavated from Tomb No. 4 of Tomb No. 95 in The Western Nea. The tip of this bow is carved directly into the bow body
The ruins of Niya in the far western region (the site of the Han and Jin dynasties, located in Minfeng County, Xinjiang, northwestern China) have also unearthed a large number of bows and arrows, most of which are composite bows. But a wooden bow was unearthed from Tomb 4 of the Nyaya Cemetery Group No. 95. The bow is relatively primitive in structure, made of a rabbit strip of wood, the grip section is cylindrical, gradually thinning in the direction of the two bows, and the bow tips are carved directly on the bow body. The full bow is 150 cm long, and due to the height of the tomb owner of 164 cm, this bow is not short. The strings are made of beef tendon thread, and the leather strips are wrapped across the arrow to prevent the cow tendon thread from wearing out.
The Wooden Bow of the Han Dynasty excavated from Yuyao and the wooden lacquer painted bow excavated from the Eastern Han Tomb in Longshenggang, Guangzhou. The two bows are slightly thinner at both ends and in the middle, and the shape is similar, indicating that this kind of bow was still popular in southern China during the Han and Jin Dynasties
The wooden bow excavated from Yuyao, Zhejiang Province, is 163 cm long, 4 .8cm wide, and the surface is charcoal black. It is made of solid hardwood, no superposition, and the inside of the grip section is affixed with wood chips to form a relatively thick grip part, and the ends and middle of the bow are slightly thinner, and the two ends are left with rope marks. Because wooden artifacts are difficult to preserve, this wooden bow has been preserved for thousands of years, which is very difficult. This bow is similar to the wooden lacquer painted bow excavated from the Eastern Han Tomb in Longshenggang, Guangzhou, indicating that this bow shape was still popular in southern China during the Han and Jin dynasties.
Observe the Southern and Northern Dynasties from the murals
and the shape of the Sui and Tang wooden bows
During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, due to changes in burial customs, the excavated wooden bows were almost invisible, but due to the custom of painting murals in the tombs, it also reflected the bamboo bow and wooden bow-shaped systems used during the Southern and Northern Dynasties.
Restoration of wooden bows from the North and South Dynasties drawn based on the murals of Gao Yang's tomb and Lou Rui's tomb of Emperor Wenxuan of Northern Qi. The bow is straight, with a long, narrower tip than the bow arm, with a wide bow arm and a narrower grip section and increased thickness
In the early days of his reign, Emperor Gao Yang of Northern Qi made great efforts to persuade farmers to revitalize learning and compile the Qi Law. At that time, he reused Yang Yan and other xiangcai, cut down the law, and reduced redundant officials, strictly prohibited corruption, and eliminated the rule of officials; jianbai Baoxian and beibei forbidden army, built the Great Wall of Northern Qi for four thousand miles, repeatedly defeated Shanbei Hu, Turks, and Khitans, attacked Xiao Qi, expanded the land to Huainan, Wei Zhen Rongxia, threw cups and Western Wei was terrified, negative armor and Northern Hu panicked, and was called "Heroic Heavenly Son". However, he was drunk and brutal in his later period, and finally died violently in the tenth year of Tianbao (559 AD), at the age of 33, and was buried in Ci County, Hebei. The tomb features a 320-square-meter mural, and on both sides of the tomb there are 106 figures of the courtiers, who are equipped with bows. Some of these bows are held in the hand, and some are inserted in the bow (bow bag) at the waist. These bows are unthinked, the bow body is straight, with a long tip narrower than the bow arm, the bow arm is wide, and the grip section width is narrower, but the grip section thickness increases. The tomb murals of the Northern Qi LouRui (ruì) of the same period also have the shape of this wooden bow.
Restoration of a wooden bow from the Tang Dynasty based on the murals of the Tang tombs. The wooden bow of the Tang Dynasty was no different from the wooden bow system of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, but the wooden longbow at this time had been laid with animal tendons on the back of the bow and evolved into a synthetic wooden bow
The yicong figure painting in the mural of the tomb of Princess Changle of the Tang Dynasty shows that her longbow is placed in the bow tao (bow bag).
In the Sui and Tang dynasties, the longbows carried by soldiers and guards can be seen in the Dunhuang grotto murals and mausoleum murals in the Sui and Tang dynasties, which are no different from the longbow system of the Southern and Northern Dynasties. However, at this time, the wooden longbow has been laid on the back of the bow with animal tendons, and the paved tendons can effectively improve the durability and lethality of the wooden bow, and the longbow with animal tendons and wires shows that the bow in this period is not a single wooden bow, but has evolved into a synthetic wooden bow.
Chinese bamboo bows during the Song and Ming dynasties
The ultimate brilliance
In the Song Dynasty, the image of a single bow has been missing in the murals and tomb stone carvings of the Central Plains Imperial Court, which is due to the development of social economy and technology, and simple bamboo bows and wooden bows have been replaced by composite bows with wooden horns. However, the surrounding countries still use bamboo bows and wooden bows in large quantities, and the Dali warriors in the paintings of Zhang Shengwen, a famous painter of the Dali State in the Song Dynasty, have bows around their waists, and the bows in the bows are traditional bamboo bows still used by the Yi people in the late Qing Dynasty. The common Yi bow is 1 to 1.3 m long. One is a simple single bow, usually bent using a single wooden strip or bamboo strip; the other is made of bamboo composite, and the wooden part is made of rock mulberry wood. The bow body of the Yi bow is gradually thinned from the middle to the ends, and the bow tip has a string groove, usually using biological glue to paste bamboo pieces on the inside of the bow arm, and then using 4 sets of silk threads to wrap in segments, and then black or brown paint. The length of the Yi arrow is usually about 50cm, indicating that the distance of the Yi bow is not large, the ability to penetrate the target is limited, and it is said that the poison arrow will kill the person immediately after shooting the target.
Restoration of the Song Dynasty Yi wooden bow and bamboo and wood combination bow. The bow body of the Yi bow is gradually thinned from the middle to the two ends, and the end of the bow has a string groove
Modern Tuvans learn to shoot longbows on New Year's Day. The Tuvans belonged to the Mongol race, and some Tuvans accompanied Genghis Khan's troops to the west in the early 13th century AD. In the Western Expedition, Tuvan soldiers served as rifle archers
The inhabitants of the Steppe Empire were still equipped with single wooden bows while using the composite bow of the ribbed wood horn, the most famous of which was the giant wooden bow used by the Tuvans. The Tuvans belong to the Mongol race and date back to the 6th to 3rd centuries BC. At the beginning of the 13th century, some Tuvans accompanied Genghis Khan's troops on a westward expedition. In the Western Expedition, Tuvan soldiers served as rifle archers. The Tuvan bow has been passed down from the 13th century to the present day, and it is usually made of red pine wood or trees known locally as "Orehai", and is 2.2 to 2.5 meters long. The bow is simple and primitive to make, but the bow is huge, and the lethality of heavy arrows is enough to penetrate thick armor. The double-wood combined bow used by the ancient Russian peoples and the Siberian Tunguska people is believed to have been learned from the Mongol Western Expeditionary Army.
Bamboo bows of Taiwan's alpine people
Around 4000 BC, the ancestors of the Mountain Tribe, who were still in the Stone Age, used canoes to migrate long distances from South China to Taiwan. So far, the Gaoshan people have divided into many ethnic groups, such as Ami, Taiya, Paiwan, Bunun, Beinan, Lukai, Cao, Yamei, Saixia, Shao and so on. Historically, especially before the Ming Dynasty, there was no such name as the Mountain Tribe. Since the Ming Dynasty Han residents moved to Taiwan, the taiwanese aborigines have divided into two parts: one part settled in the plains and integrated with the Han people, known as the Pingpu people; the other part still settled in the mountains, less influenced by the Han nationality, and still retains the characteristics of the indigenous people's language, customs, and habits.
Restoration of bamboo bows of taiwan's alpine tribes. Most of these bows are made of 3-4 years old alpine thorn bamboo, which is most suitable for bow making from 30 to 210 cm from the root of the bamboo
Before firearms were introduced to Taiwan, the Alpine people used bows and arrows for hunting and inter-tribal warfare. Because Taiwan is rich in high-quality alpine bamboo, most of the bows and arrows used by the alpine people are made of alpine bamboo, and some of them are made of catalpa wood and black oak. Records of the use of bamboo bows by various ethnic groups such as Pingpu and Beinan often appear in early literature. For example, in the Ming Dynasty Yu Yonghe's "Journey to the Sea", Yun: "Bamboo bow neem (kǔ) arrows went to the deer farm and shot deer to trade in the community", which describes the scene of the Taiwanese alpine people hunting deer with bamboo bows and bamboo arrows. In the "Taiwan Chronicle" compiled and published by Lin Qianguang in the Qing Dynasty in 1686, it is mentioned that the Pingpu people made bows from bamboo and made bow strings from hemp.
The bamboo bows used by some alpine people are also more complex. For example, in the "Chronicle of Zhuluo County" compiled and published by Chen Menglin in the Qing Dynasty, it is recorded: "The bow is made of bamboo, densely wrapped with vines, and the vines are dyed with madder, and its color is Zhu." The rope (zhù) is a string, stained with deer blood, tough enough to pass the silkweed. ”
The length of the bamboo bow used by the Alpine people is usually 90 to 150 cm, and the bow of some groups is longer, adding 10 to 30 cm to the height of the user. The bow body is mostly made of 3-4 years old alpine thorn bamboo, which is most suitable for bow making from the root of the bamboo to between 30 and 210 cm, and the season and time of cutting are also exquisite.
At present, no literature has been found on the production and use of bamboo and wood monolithic bows and bamboo-wood combination bows in the Central Plains mainland after the Ming Dynasty. However, bamboo bows and wooden bows have been used together for thousands of years, and their historical evolution is enough to illustrate the military value of this cold weapon.
(The original article was published in the second half of the 12th issue of "Light Weapons" in 2016, and the public account article has been deleted and revised)