The Huolongjing (; Wade-Giles: Huo Lung Ching; rendered in English as Fire Drake Manual or Fire Dragon Manual), also known as Huoqitu (“Firearm Illustrations”), is a Chinese military treatise compiled and edited by Jiao Yu and Liu Bowen of the early Ming dynasty (1368–1683) during the 14th century. The Huolongjing is primarily based on the text known as Huolong Shenqi Tufa (Illustrations of Divine Fire Dragon Engines), which no longer exists.
History
The Huolongjing'''s intended function was to serve as a guide to "fire weapons" involving gunpowder during the 1280s to 1350s. Its predecessor, the Huolong Shenqi Tufa (Fire-Drake Illustrated Technology of Magically (Efficacious) Weapons), has since been lost. The Huolongjing was one of three early Ming military treatises that were mentioned by Jiao Xu, but only the Huolongjing remains.
Although the earliest edition of the Huolongjing was written by Jiao Yu, a Ming general, sometime between 1360-1375, its preface was not provided until the Nanyang publication of 1412. The 1412 edition, known as Huolongjing Quanji (Complete Collection of the Fire Dragon Manual), remains largely unchanged from its predecessor with the exception of its preface, which provides an account of Jiao Yu's time in the Hongwu Emperor's army. In the preface Jiao Yu claims to describe gunpowder weapons that had seen use since 1355 during his involvement in the Red Turban Rebellion and revolt against the Yuan dynasty, while the oldest material found in his text dates to 1280. Jiao Yu was a firearm manufacturer for the first Ming emperor, Zhu Yuanzhang, during the mid-14th century. He was eventually put in charge of the Shenjiying armoury where all the firearms were stored.
A second and third volume to the Huolongjing known as Huolongjing Erji (Fire Dragon Manual Volume Two) and Huolongjing Sanji (Fire Dragon Manual Volume Three) were published in 1632 with content describing weapons such as the musket and breech-loading cannons. After the end of the Ming dynasty, the Qing dynasty outlawed reprinting of the Huolongjing for using expressions such as 'northern barbarians,' which offended the ruling Manchu elite.
Contents
Gunpowder and explosives
Although its destructive force was widely recognized by the 11th century, gunpowder continued to be known as a "fire-drug" (huo yao) because of its original intended pharmaceutical properties. However soon after the chemical formula for gunpowder was recorded in the Wujing Zongyao of 1044, evidence of state interference in gunpowder affairs began appearing. Realizing the military applications of gunpowder, the Song court banned private transactions involving sulphur and saltpeter in 1067 despite the widespread use of saltpeter as a flavor enhancer, and moved to monopolize gunpowder production. In 1076 the Song prohibited the populaces of Hedong (Shanxi) and Hebei from selling sulphur and saltpetre to foreigners. In 1132 gunpowder was referred to specifically for its military values for the first time and was called "fire bomb medicine" rather than "fire medicine".
While Chinese gunpowder formulas by the late 12th century and at least 1230 were powerful enough for explosive detonations and bursting cast iron shells, gunpowder was made more potent by applying the enrichment of sulphur from pyrite extracts. Chinese gunpowder solutions reached maximum explosive potential in the 14th century and at least six formulas are considered to have been optimal for creating explosive gunpowder, with levels of nitrate ranging from 12% to 91%. Evidence of large scale explosive gunpowder weapons manufacturing began to appear. While engaged in war with the Mongols in 1259, the official Li Zengbo wrote in his Ko Zhai Za Gao, Xu Gao Hou that the city of Qingzhou was manufacturing one to two thousand strong iron-cased bomb shells a month, and delivered them to Xiangyang and Yingzhou in loads of about ten to twenty thousand shells at a time.
The Huolongjing's primary contribution to gunpowder was in expanding its role as a chemical weapon. Jiao Yu proposed several gunpowder compositions in addition to the standard potassium nitrate (saltpetre), sulphur, and charcoal. Described are the military applications of "divine gunpowder", "poison gunpowder", and "blinding and burning gunpowder." Poisonous gunpowder for hand-thrown or trebuchet launched bombs was created using a mixture of tung oil, urine, sal ammoniac, feces, and scallion juice heated and coated upon tiny iron pellets and broken porcelain. According to Jiao Yu, "even birds flying in the air cannot escape the effects of the explosion".
Explosive devices include the "flying-sand divine bomb releasing ten thousand fires", which consisted of a tube of gunpowder placed in an earthenware pot filled with quicklime, resin, and alcoholic extracts of poisonous plants.
Fire arrows and rockets
Jiao Yu called the earliest fire arrows shot from bows (not rocket launchers) "fiery pomegranate shot from a bow" because the lump of gunpowder–filled paper wrapped around the arrow below the metal arrowhead resembled the shape of a pomegranate. He advised that a piece of hemp cloth should be used to strengthen the wad of paper and sealed with molten pine resin. Although he described the fire arrow in great detail, it was mentioned by the much earlier Xia Shaozeng, when 20,000 fire arrows were handed over to the Jurchen conquerors of Kaifeng City in 1126. An even earlier text, the Wujing Zongyao (武经总要, "Collection of the Most Important Military Techniques"), written in 1044 by Song scholars Zeng Gongliang and Yang Weide, described the use of three spring or triple bow arcuballista that fired arrow bolts holding gunpowder. Although written in 1630 (second edition in 1664), the Wulixiaoshi of Fang Yizhi said that fire arrows were presented to Emperor Taizu of Song in 960. Even after the rocket was invented in China the fire arrow was never entirely phased out: it saw use in the Second Opium War when Chinese used fire arrows against the French in 1860.
By the time of Jiao Yu, the term "fire arrow" had taken on a new meaning and also referred to the earliest rockets found in China. The simple transition of this was to use a hollow tube instead of a bow or ballista firing gunpowder-impregnated fire arrows. The historian Joseph Needham wrote that this discovery came sometime before Jiao Yu during the late Southern Song dynasty (1127–1279). From the section of the oldest passages in the Huolongjing, the text reads:
In the late 14th century, the rocket launching tube was combined with the fire lance. This involved three tubes attached to the same staff. As the first rocket tube was fired, a charge was ignited in the leading tube which expelled a blinding lachrymatory powder at the enemy, and finally the second rocket was fired. An illustration of this appears in the Huolongjing, and a description of its effectiveness in obfuscating the location of the rockets from the enemy is provided. The Huolongjing also describes and illustrates two kinds of mounted rocket launchers that fired multiple rockets. There was a cylindrical, basket-work rocket launcher called the "Mr. Facing-both-ways rocket arrow firing basket", as well as an oblong-section, rectangular, box rocket launcher known as the "divine rocket-arrow block". Rockets described in the Huolongjing were not all in the shape of standard fire arrows and some had artificial wings attached. An illustration shows that fins were used to increase aerodynamic stability for the flight path of the rocket, which according to Jiao Yu could rise hundreds of feet before landing at the designated enemy target.
The Huolongjing also describes and illustrates the oldest known multistage rocket; this was the "fire-dragon issuing from the water" (huo long chu shui), which was known to be used by the Chinese navy. It was a two-stage rocket that had carrier or booster rockets that would automatically ignite a number of smaller rocket arrows that were shot out of the front end of the missile, which was shaped like a dragon's head with an open mouth, before eventually burning out. This multistage rocket is considered by some historians to be the ancestor of modern cluster munitions. Needham says that the written material and illustration of this rocket come from the oldest stratum of the Huolongjing, which can be dated to about 1300-1350 from the book's part 1, chapter 3, page 23.
Fire lance
The fire lance or fire tubea combination of a firearm and flamethrowerhad been adapted and changed into several different forms by the time Jiao Yu edited the Huolongjing.: The term co-viative was introduced ("we need a new word .. and we have decided to call these objects "co-viative"") by Needham (Science in Traditional China: A Comparative Perspective, Harvard U.P., 1981, p.42): "like case shot" but "the pieces of hard, sharp-edged rubbish were actually mixed with .. the [propellant] gunpowder". The earliest depiction of a fire lance is dated c. 950, a Chinese painting on a silk banner found at the Buddhist site of Dunhuang. These early fire lances were made of bamboo tubes, but metal barrels had appeared during the 13th century, and shot gunpowder flames along with "coviative" projectiles such as small porcelain shards or metal scraps. The first metal barrels were not designed to withstand high-nitrate gunpowder and a bore-filling projectile; rather, they were designed for the low-nitrate flamethrower fire lance that shot small coviative missiles. This was called the "bandit-striking penetrating gun" (ji zei bian chong). Some of these low–nitrate gunpowder flamethrowers used poisonous mixtures such as arsenious oxide, and would blast a spray of porcelain shards as fragmentation. Another fire lance described in the Huolongjing was called the 'lotus bunch' shot arrows accompanied by a fiery blast. In addition to fire lances, the Huolongjing also illustrates a tall, vertical, mobile shield used to hide and protect infantry, known as the "mysteriously moving phalanx-breaking fierce-flame sword-shield". This large, rectangular shield would have been mounted on wheels with five rows of six circular holes each where the fire lances could be placed. The shield itself would have been accompanied by swordsmen on either side to protect the gunmen.
Bombards, cannons, and guns
In China, the first cannon-barrel design portrayed in artwork was a stone sculpture dated to 1128 found in Sichuan province. The oldest extant cannon containing an inscription is a bronze cannon of China inscribed with the date, "2nd year of the Dade era, Yuan dynasty" (1298). The oldest confirmed extant cannon is the Heilongjiang hand cannon, dated to 1288 using contextual evidence. The History of Yuan records that in that year a rebellion of the Christian Mongol prince Nayan broke out and the Jurchen commander Li Ting who, along with a Korean brigade conscripted by Kublai Khan, suppressed Nayan's rebellion using hand cannons and portable bombards.