Widespread Use of Gunpowder Weapons (Fire Lance, Hand Cannon)

Gunpowder was invented by ancient Chinese alchemists while refining elixirs. By the Tang, people knew that saltpeter, sulfur and charcoal mixed in set proportions made gunpowder. In the late Tang it began to be used in warfare, with incendiary weapons such as "flying fire". Gunpowder weapons developed greatly under the Song; the official military treatise Wujing Zongyao (Collection of the Most Important Military Techniques) of the Northern Song recorded three gunpowder formulas, the earliest in the world. In the Song and Yuan periods such weapons were widely used in war. In the wars between the Song and the Jin, the Song army used weapons such as the "thunderclap bomb"; the Jin learned to make and use gunpowder weapons from the Song and produced more powerful "thunder-crash bombs" and "flying fire lances". In 1132 the Southern Song commander Chen Gui, defending De'an, made fire lances from long bamboo poles, the earliest tube-shaped fire weapons. In 1259, in Shouchun Prefecture (present-day Shou County, Anhui), a "fire-erupting lance" was made, with a thick bamboo tube holding gunpowder and "pellets"; when lit it first shot out flame and then fired the pellets, with a noise that carried far. It is regarded as the world's earliest tube-shaped projectile firearm and the ancestor of modern guns and cannons. The Mongols also used firearms extensively in their wars against the Jin and the Song. The Yuan cast tubes of metal in place of bamboo and invented the hand cannon, which was more powerful, longer-ranged and more durable. In the 13th century gunpowder and firearms passed to Europe through the Arabs, with profound effects on European society. Gunpowder is one of the Four Great Inventions of ancient China.