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Gunpowder Weapons In The Ming Dynasty
The Ming dynasty continued to improve on gunpowder weapons from the Yuan and Song dynasties. During the early Ming period larger and more cannons were used in warfare. In the early 16th century Turkish and Portuguese breech-loading swivel guns and matchlock firearms were incorporated into the Ming arsenal. In the 17th century Dutch culverin were incorporated as well and became known as hongyipao. At the very end of the Ming dynasty, around 1642, Chinese combined European cannon designs with indigenous casting methods to create composite metal cannons that exemplified the best attributes of both iron and bronze cannons. While firearms never completely displaced the bow and arrow, by the end of the 16th century more firearms than bows were being ordered for production by the government, and no crossbows were mentioned at all. Early Ming period Firearm warfare In China cannon started playing a significant role in siege battles during the mid 14th century. For example, in 1358 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
A Ming Junk 1637
A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''a'' (pronounced ), plural ''aes''. It is similar in shape to the Ancient Greek letter alpha, from which it derives. The uppercase version consists of the two slanting sides of a triangle, crossed in the middle by a horizontal bar. The lowercase version can be written in two forms: the double-storey a and single-storey ɑ. The latter is commonly used in handwriting and fonts based on it, especially fonts intended to be read by children, and is also found in italic type. In English grammar, " a", and its variant " an", are indefinite articles. History The earliest certain ancestor of "A" is aleph (also written 'aleph), the first letter of the Phoenician alphabet, which consisted entirely of consonants (for that reason, it is also called an abjad to distinguish it fro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tula River
The Tula River ( es, Río Tula) is a river in Hidalgo State in central Mexico, and a tributary of the Moctezuma River. Geography It runs through the city of Tula de Allende and begins as a drainage channel for the Valley of Mexico, which contains the metropolitan Mexico City region. The Moctezuma River is a tributary of the Pánuco River. The river is significantly contaminated with both organic and inorganic substances. Tilapia caught from the Tula river contain levels of lead that greatly exceed the established safety limits for consumption. Unusually high levels of cadmium, arsenic and lead were found in samples of Tula zooplankton Zooplankton are the animal component of the planktonic community ("zoo" comes from the Greek word for ''animal''). Plankton are aquatic organisms that are unable to swim effectively against currents, and consequently drift or are carried along by .... References Rivers of Hidalgo (state) Tributaries of the Pánuco River {{Mexico- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Xuande Emperor
The Xuande Emperor (16 March 1399 31 January 1435), personal name Zhu Zhanji (朱瞻基), was the fifth Emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigned from 1425 to 1435. His era name "Xuande" means "proclamation of virtue". Ruling over a relatively peaceful period within Ming history, he was also personally fond of painting and literature. The Emperor ordered tax reductions on burdened farmers and attempted to purge corruption from the revenue collectors. His attempts to reform meritocracy within the military was unsuccessful, and he was forced to declare independence to Vietnam when his invasion failed. Biography Zhu Zhanji was the eldest son of the Hongxi Emperor and Empress Chengxiaozhao. He was described as a crown prince who was endowed with the quality of an excellent monarch in a section of his biography surrounded by superstition. His grandfather, the Yongle Emperor, had high hopes that he might play an important part to assist his father. He was fond of poetry and literature ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tonio Andrade
Tonio Adam Andrade (born 1968) is an historian of East Asian history and the history of East Asian trading networks. Bibliography * ''Commerce, Culture, and Conflict: Taiwan Under European Rule, 1624–1662''. Yale University Press, 2000. * ''How Taiwan became Chinese: Dutch, Spanish, and Han colonization in the seventeenth century''. Columbia University Press, 2008. * ''The Limits of Empire: European Imperial Formations in Early Modern World History: Essays in Honor of Geoffrey Parker''. Ashgate Publishing, 2013. * ''Lost Colony: The Untold Story of China's First Great Victory over the West.'' Princeton University Press, 2013. * ''The Gunpowder Age: China, Military Innovation, and the Rise of the West in World History''. Princeton University Press, 2016. * ''Early Modern East Asia: War, Commerce, and Cultural Exchange''. Routledge, 2018. * ''Sea Rovers, Silver, and Samurai: Maritime East Asia in Global History, 1550–1700''. University of Hawaii Press, 2019. See also * Global ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Huolongjing
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 ''Huolongjings intended function was to serve as a guide to "fire weapons" involving gunpowder during the 1280s to 1350s. The ''Huolongjing'' provides information on various gunpowder compositions and weapons. Some formulas mentioned are given names such as "divine gunpowder", "poison gunpowder", and "blinding and burning gunpowder". The weapons described include bombs, fire arrows, rockets, land mines, naval mines, fire lances, hand cannons, and cannons mounted on wheeled carriages. Alth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hu Dun Pao
''Hu dun pao'' (虎蹲砲) is the name of two different missile weapons in Chinese history. In the Song dynasty (960–1279), it was a trebuchet and its name is translated into English as Crouching Tiger Trebuchet; in the Ming dynasty (1368–1644), the name was given to a type of bombard and it is known in English as Crouching Tiger Cannon. Trebuchet According to the Song dynasty military compendium ''Wujing Zongyao'' (published 1044), the ''hu dun pao'' is depicted as a traction trebuchet with a triangular frame. It is operated by a dedicated corps of 70 haulers, who took turns pulling the ropes attached to the trebutchet arm to send the projectile, a stone or bomb, into flight. It has a range of . The '' Annales ianuenses'', the official history of Genoa, carries drawings of ''trabuchium'', a counterweighted trebuchet with triangular supporting trusses, that Sinologist Joseph Needham considers to be derived from or related to the Chinese "Crouching Tiger Trebuchet". Similar tr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shell (projectile)
A shell, in a military context, is a projectile whose payload contains an explosive, incendiary, or other chemical filling. Originally it was called a bombshell, but "shell" has come to be unambiguous in a military context. Modern usage sometimes includes large solid kinetic projectiles that is properly termed shot. Solid shot may contain a pyrotechnic compound if a tracer or spotting charge is used. All explosive- and incendiary-filled projectiles, particularly for mortars, were originally called ''grenades'', derived from the French word for pomegranate, so called because of the similarity of shape and that the multi-seeded fruit resembles the powder-filled, fragmentizing bomb. Words cognate with ''grenade'' are still used for an artillery or mortar projectile in some European languages. Shells are usually large-caliber projectiles fired by artillery, armored fighting vehicles (e.g. tanks, assault guns, and mortar carriers), warships, and autocannons. The shape ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tumu Crisis
The Crisis of the Tumu Fortress (), also known as the Tumu Crisis (; mn, Тумугийн тулалдаан), or the Jisi Incident (), was a frontier conflict between the Northern Yuan and Ming dynasties. The Oirat ruler of the Northern Yuan, Esen, captured the Emperor Yingzong of Ming on September 1, 1449. Beginning of the conflict In July 1449, Esen Taishi launched a large-scale, three-pronged invasion of the Ming with khagan Toqtaq-Buqa. He personally advanced on Datong (in northern Shanxi province) in August. The eunuch official Wang Zhen, who dominated the Ming court, encouraged the 22-year-old Emperor Yingzong of Ming to lead his own armies into battle against Esen. The size of Esen's army is unknown. The Ming army of about 500,000 was hastily assembled; its command was made up of 20 experienced generals and a large entourage of high-ranking civil officials, with Wang Zhen acting as field marshal. On August 3, Esen's army crushed a badly supplied Ming army at Yangh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hand Cannon
The hand cannon (Chinese: 手 銃 ''shŏuchòng'', or 火 銃 ''huŏchòng''), also known as the gonne or handgonne, is the first true firearm and the successor of the fire lance. It is the oldest type of small arms as well as the most mechanically simple form of metal barrel firearms. Unlike matchlock firearms it requires direct manual external ignition through a touch hole without any form of firing mechanism. It may also be considered a forerunner of the handgun. The hand cannon was widely used in China from the 13th century onward and later throughout Eurasia in the 14th century. In 15th century Europe, the hand cannon evolved to become the matchlock arquebus, which became the first firearm to have a trigger. History China 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 concep ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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