Bronze weapons are the earliest metal weapons in ancient China, and the raw material for its production is bronze. Bronze is an alloy composed of copper, tin, lead and other elements, compared with pure copper, it has the characteristics of low melting point, increased hardness, casting performance and mechanical properties, etc., so it is used to make very sharp and sharp weapons, which can greatly improve the lethality of weapons. Primitive bronze is a natural existence in nature, perhaps by chance, people found that this substance is superior to stone, so the use of bronze began, so it is difficult to say when the artificial production of bronze weapons began.
However, many archaeological excavations have confirmed that our ancestors probably mastered the smelting technology of natural copper in the late Neolithic period. It is the emergence of smelting technology that provides technical support for the improvement of weapons, so that weapons transition from stone to metal.
The bronze weapon period is roughly equivalent to what we call Xia, Shang, Zhou and early Qin. From a bronze knife excavated from the Majiayao cultural site in Gansu, it can be seen that our ancestors began to use bronze utensils 5,000 years ago.
In addition, a piece of cast shoveling stone made of argillaceous sandstone excavated from the Qingquan Huoyaogou Cultural Site in Gansu Province indicates that the casting technology of bronze weapons at that time has reached a certain level. With the rise of the status of war, the continuous optimization of bronze casting technology applied to war should also be a matter of course, so many experts and scholars speculate that the Xia Dynasty used copper as a weapon. Of course, because the Xia Dynasty is so far from the present era, and no relics that can indicate that ancient writings have been produced at that time have been found, posterity knows very little about it. Therefore, regarding the use of bronze weapons at that time and the degree of application, we can only make some inferences, and we will call the Xia Dynasty the embryonic period of bronze weapons.
In order to consolidate state power, the ruling class was bound to suppress the resistance of slaves, so the slave owners strengthened the state apparatus and built a powerful army. In addition to soldiers, the army also had to rely on weapons to equip, so slave owners also strengthened the production of weapons, thus promoting the rapid development of bronze weapons. The bauhinia mountain site in the north of the city in Zhengzhou Shangcheng has been identified by archaeologists as the ruins of the capital city in the middle of the Shang Dynasty, where a large number of ancient weapons have been excavated, including casting bronze knives and casting bronze axes. These relics fully illustrate that since the early Shang Dynasty, large-scale bronze weapon casting workshops have appeared around the capital, and these workshop workers have higher weapons production technology.
The late Shang Dynasty to the middle of the Zhou Dynasty was a period of continuous development of bronze weapons. In modern times, bronze fighting weapons have been found in the tombs and cellars of Yin Ruins, Taixi, Women's Good Tomb, Zhou Yuan, Fenghao and other sites, such as: knives, spears, go, halberds, axes, locks, and protective equipment such as armor and stomach. Judging from these cultural relics unearthed, the bronze weapons of this period, first of all, have been greatly improved in shape, from single to diverse, such as Ge has no Hu Ge, straight inner short Hu Ge, short Hu Yi wearing Ge, short Hu Er wearing Ge, etc.; Secondly, there are also great improvements in smelting technology, such as: 12 pieces of bronze weapons excavated from the Tomb of The Woman, the tin content has been between 8% and 19%; In addition, there has been great progress in the production process, such as: a Shang Dynasty iron blade copper lock excavated from the real city of Hebei Province, after identification, Its straight edge is forged from meteoric iron, about 2 mm thick, and then cast with a bronze lock. All this shows that the craftsmen at that time had mastered certain forging and casting techniques, and could manufacture weapons with high level of technology and greater damage. The lethality of this weapon is undoubtedly significantly improved compared with stone weapons.
From the end of the Zhou Dynasty to the beginning of the Qin Dynasty, it can be said that it was the heyday of bronze weapons. "At the beginning of the Qin Dynasty, it was still the world of bronze weapons." According to the literature, in the spring of 1974, in the Terracotta Warriors and Horses Pit of the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum in Lishan Mountain, Shaanxi Province, a large number of bronze weapons such as bronze swords, bronze quilts, bronze goats, bronze halberds, bronze spears, and bronze objects were unearthed, and almost all of the 40,000 weapons unearthed were cast in bronze. At the same time, due to the emergence of iron weapons, bronze weapons also began to decline, when Qin Shi Huang gathered weapons in the capital City of Xianyang, thus accelerating the bronze weapons from the military stage.
"If the appearance of the first stone tool on the earth smashed open the source of the long river of human history, then the emergence of metal and its purposeful use for war has opened the door of civilized society." First of all, from the perspective of materials, stone tools are made of natural materials, polished, and belong to rough processing; although metal weapons are made of natural materials, they must be refined and forged, which belongs to fine processing, which is two completely different production technologies. Secondly, from the perspective of the social productive forces reflected in the two kinds of weapons, the use of stone weapons is roughly equivalent to primitive society, and the productive forces are quite backward; while the use of metal weapons has continued from the end of primitive society to the late stage of feudal society on the mainland, and the productivity of this period has increased significantly. Third, from the point of view of function, stone weapons are almost simultaneously tools for production and labor, and the functions are combined into one, and the military nature is not strong; while metal weapons are a full-time military tool, with single-minded functions, strong military nature, and great power. Therefore, it can be considered that metal weapons are the first leap in the history of weapons.
Resources
[1] Xia Shang Zhou Dynasty History Project