Hand cannon

The earliest artistic depiction of what might be a hand cannon – a rock sculpture found among the Dazu Rock Carvings – is dated to 1128, much earlier than any recorded or precisely dated archaeological samples, so it is possible that the concept of a cannon-like firearm has existed since the 12th century.[3] This has been challenged by others such as Liu Xu, Cheng Dong, and Benjamin Avichai Katz Sinvany. According to Liu, the weight of the cannon would have been too much for one person to hold, especially with just one arm, and points out that fire lances were being used a decade later at the Siege of De'an. Cheng Dong believes that the figure depicted is actually a wind spirit letting air out of a bag rather than a cannon emitting a blast. Stephen Haw also considered the possibility that the item in question was a bag of air but concludes that it is a cannon because it was grouped with other weapon wielding sculptures. Sinvany concurred with the wind bag interpretation and that the cannonball indentation was added later on.[4]

The first cannons were likely an evolution of the fire lance. In 1259 a type of "fire-emitting lance" (tuhuoqiang 突火槍) made an appearance. According to the History of Song: "It is made from a large bamboo tube, and inside is stuffed a pellet wad (子窠). Once the fire goes off it completely spews the rear pellet wad forth, and the sound is like a bomb that can be heard for five hundred or more paces."[5][6][7][8][9] The pellet wad mentioned is possibly the first true bullet in recorded history depending on how bullet is defined, as it did occlude the barrel, unlike previous co-viatives (non-occluding shrapnel) used in the fire lance.[5] Fire lances transformed from the "bamboo- (or wood- or paper-) barreled firearm to the metal-barreled firearm"[5] to better withstand the explosive pressure of gunpowder. From there it branched off into several different gunpowder weapons known as "eruptors" in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, with different functions such as the "filling-the-sky erupting tube" which spewed out poisonous gas and porcelain shards, the "orifice-penetrating flying sand magic mist tube" (鑽穴飛砂神霧筒) which spewed forth sand and poisonous chemicals into orifices, and the more conventional "phalanx-charging fire gourd" which shot out lead pellets.[5]

Hand cannons first saw widespread usage in China sometime during the 13th century and spread from there to the rest of the world. In 1287 Yuan Jurchen troops deployed hand cannons in putting down a rebellion by the Mongol prince Nayan.[10] The History of Yuan reports that the cannons of Li Ting's soldiers "caused great damage" and created "such confusion that the enemy soldiers attacked and killed each other."[11] The hand cannons were used again in the beginning of 1288. Li Ting's "gun-soldiers" or chongzu (銃卒) were able to carry the hand cannons "on their backs". The passage on the 1288 battle is also the first to coin the name chong (銃) with the metal radical jin (金) for metal-barrel firearms. Chong was used instead of the earlier and more ambiguous term huo tong (fire tube; 火筒), which may refer to the tubes of fire lances, proto-cannons, or signal flares.[12] Hand cannons may have also been used in the Mongol invasions of Japan. Japanese descriptions of the invasions talk of iron and bamboo pao causing "light and fire" and emitting 2–3,000 iron bullets.[13] The Nihon Kokujokushi, written around 1300, mentions huo tong (fire tubes) at the Battle of Tsushima in 1274 and the second coastal assault led by Holdon in 1281. The Hachiman Gudoukun of 1360 mentions iron pao "which caused a flash of light and a loud noise when fired."[14] The Taiheki of 1370 mentions "iron pao shaped like a bell."[14]

The oldest extant hand cannon bearing a date of production is the Xanadu Gun, which contains an era date corresponding to 1298. The Heilongjiang hand cannon is dated a decade earlier to 1288, corresponding to the military conflict involving Li Ting, but the dating method is based on contextual evidence; the gun bears no inscription or era date.[15] Another cannon bears an era date that could correspond with the year 1271 in the Gregorian Calendar, but contains an irregular character in the reign name.[16] Other specimens also likely predate the Xanadu and Heilongjiang guns and have been traced as far back as the late Western Xia period (1214-1227), but these too lack inscriptions and era dates (see Wuwei bronze cannon).[12]

Li Ting chose gun-soldiers (chong zu), concealing those who bore the huo pao on their backs; then by night he crossed the river, moved upstream, and fired off (the weapons). This threw all the enemy's horses and men into great confusion ... and he gained a great victory.[11]

— History of Yuan

The earliest reliable evidence of cannons in Europe appeared in 1326 and evidence of their production can be dated as early as 1327.[17] The first recorded use of gunpowder weapons in Europe was in 1331 when two mounted German knights attacked Cividale del Friuli with gunpowder weapons of some sort.[18][19] By 1338 hand cannons were in widespread use in France.[20] One of the oldest surviving weapons of this type is the "Loshult gun", a 10 kg Swedish example from the mid 14th century. In 1999 a group of British and Danish researchers made a replica of the gun and tested it using four period-accurate mixes of gunpowder, firing both 1.8 kg arrows and 184 gram lead balls with 50 gram charges of gunpowder. The velocities of the arrows varied from 63 m/s to 87 m/s with max ranges of 205 to 360 meters, while the balls achieve velocities of between 110 m/s to 142 m/s with an average range of 630 meters.[21]

During the 14th century the Arabs seem to have used the hand cannon to some degree.[22] Cannons are attested to in India starting from 1366.[23] The Joseon kingdom in Korea acquired knowledge of gunpowder from China by 1372[24] and started producing cannons by 1377.[22] In Southeast Asia Đại Việt soldiers were using hand cannons at the very latest by 1390 when they employed them in killing Champa king Che Bong Nga.[25] Java was confirmed to use hand cannon in 1413 during Zheng He's voyage.[26][27] Japan was already aware of gunpowder warfare due to the Mongol invasions during the 13th century, but did not acquire a cannon until a monk took one back to Japan from China in 1510,[28] and firearms were not produced until 1543, when the Portuguese introduced matchlocks which were known as tanegashima to the Japanese.[29] The art of firing the hand cannon called Ōzutsu (大筒) has remained as a Ko-budō martial arts form.[30][31]

Turkish hand cannon

The earliest surviving documentary evidence for the use of the hand cannon in the Islamic world are from several Arabic manuscripts dated to the 14th century.[32] The historian Ahmad Y. al-Hassan argues that several 14th-century Arabic manuscripts, one of which was written by Shams al-Din Muhammad al-Ansari al-Dimashqi (1256–1327), report the use of hand cannons by Mamluk-Egyptian forces against the Mongols at the Battle of Ain Jalut in 1260.[33][34][35][36][37] However, Hassan's claim contradicts other historians who claim hand cannons did not appear in the Middle East until the 14th century.

Iqtidar Alam Khan argues that it was the Mongols who introduced gunpowder to the Islamic world,[38] and believes cannons only reached Mamluk Egypt in the 1370s.[39] According to Joseph Needham, the term midfa, dated to textual sources from 1342 to 1352, did not refer to true hand-guns or bombards, and contemporary accounts of a metal-barrel cannon in the Islamic world do not occur until 1365.[40] Needham also concludes that in its original form the term midfa refers to the tube or cylinder of naphta projector (flamethrower), then after the invention of gunpowder it meant the tube of fire lances, eventually it applied to the cylinder of hand-gun and cannon.[41] Similarly, Tonio Andrade dates the textual appearance of cannon in Middle-Eastern sources to the 1360s.[17] David Ayalon[42] and Gabor Ágoston believe the Mamluks had certainly used siege cannon by the 1360s, but earlier uses of cannon in the Islamic World are vague with a possible appearance in the Emirate of Granada by the 1320s, however evidence is inconclusive.[43]

Khan claims that it was invading Mongols who introduced gunpowder to the Islamic world[44] and cites Mamluk antagonism towards early riflemen in their infantry as an example of how gunpowder weapons were not always met with open acceptance in the Middle East.[45] Similarly, the refusal of their Qizilbash forces to use firearms contributed to the Safavid rout at Chaldiran in 1514.[45]

Early European hand cannons, such as the socket-handgonne, were relatively easy to produce; smiths often used brass or bronze when making these early gonnes. The production of early hand cannons was not uniform; this resulted in complications when loading or using the gunpowder in the hand cannon.[46] Improvements in hand cannon and gunpowder technology – corned powder, shot ammunition, and development of the flash pan – led to the invention of the arquebus in late 15th-century Europe.[47]

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  Hand cannon from the Mongol Yuan dynasty (1271–1368)
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  Left to right: incendiary arrow (left); bomb (?), incendiary cartridges (see figure to the right) and a ball for throwing from a midfa' (centre); a midfa' with ball on a stick, a bomb, gunpowder container or naphtha jar (right),c. 1300-1350 AD.
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  Left to right: soldier carrying a sprinkling club and some undefined object with fireproofed clothing attached with firework cartridges, a mounted man with fireproofed clothing carrying a spear attached with firework cartridges and the horse also has fireproofed covering with cartridges attached, soldier with naphtha flask and midfa' with ball clothed in similar fashion.
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  Hand cannon, Ming dynasty, 1377
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  Hand cannon, Ming dynasty, 1379
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  Drawing of a Chinese pole gun found in Java, 1421. It weighed 2.252 kg, length of 357 mm, and caliber of 16 mm. This gun features a rain cover connected with hinge, which is now missing. The hinge is still preserved.
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  Chinese hand cannon, dated 1424.
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  A page of the Korean Kukcho Orye-ui (ca. 1474) showing an early type of hand cannon (chhung thung or chongtong) and the bolt-like arrow and metal fins which was shot from it.
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  A socketed Ming hand cannon, 1505-1521.
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  Indonesian bronze bedil tombak, age unknown.
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  Indonesian iron bedil tombak from Majalengka, West Java, age unknown.
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  A bedil (or cetbang), recovered from the Brantas River.

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  Western European handgun, 1380. 18 cm-long and weighing 1.04 kg, it was fixed to a wooden pole to facilitate manipulation. Musée de l'Armée.
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  The Mörkö gun is an early Swedish firearm discovered by a fisherman in the Baltic Sea at the coast of Södermansland near Nynäs in 1828. It has been dated to ca. 1390.
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  The Tannenberg handgonne is a cast bronze firearm. Muzzle bore 15-16 mm. Found in the water well of the 1399 destroyed Tannenberg castle. Oldest surviving firearm from Germany.
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  "Hand bombard", France, 1390–1400
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  Hand cannon being fired from a stand, Bellifortis manuscript, by Konrad Kyeser, 1405
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  A 10-shot hand cannon (handgonne), unknown age and origin.