''Hu dun pao'' (虎蹲砲) is the name of two different missile weapons in Chinese history. In the

Song dynasty The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the res ...

(960–1279), it was a

trebuchet A trebuchet (french: trébuchet) is a type of catapult that uses a long arm to throw a projectile. It was a common powerful siege engine until the advent of gunpowder. The design of a trebuchet allows it to launch projectiles of greater weight ...

and its name is translated into English as Crouching Tiger Trebuchet; in the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

(1368–1644), the name was given to a type of

bombard __NOTOC__ Bombard may refer to the act of carrying out a bombardment. It may also refer to: Individuals *Alain Bombard (1924–2005), French biologist, physician and politician; known for crossing the Atlantic on a small boat with no water or food ...

and it is known in English as Crouching Tiger Cannon.

Trebuchet

According to the Song dynasty military compendium ''

Wujing Zongyao The ''Wujing Zongyao'' (), sometimes rendered in English as the ''Complete Essentials for the Military Classics'', is a Chinese military compendium written from around 1040 to 1044. The book was compiled during the Northern Song dynasty by Z ...

'' (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 Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian census, the Province of ...

, carries drawings of ''trabuchium'', a counterweighted trebuchet with triangular supporting trusses, that

Sinologist Sinology, or Chinese studies, is an academic discipline that focuses on the study of China primarily through Chinese philosophy, language, literature, culture and history and often refers to Western scholarship. Its origin "may be traced to the ex ...

Joseph Needham Noel Joseph Terence Montgomery Needham (; 9 December 1900 – 24 March 1995) was a British biochemist, historian of science and sinologist known for his scientific research and writing on the history of Chinese science and technology, i ...

considers to be derived from or related to the Chinese "Crouching Tiger Trebuchet". Similar triangular-framed trebutchets are found in

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

sources as ''labdarea'' (

lambda Lambda (}, ''lám(b)da'') is the 11th letter of the Greek alphabet, representing the voiced alveolar lateral approximant . In the system of Greek numerals, lambda has a value of 30. Lambda is derived from the Phoenician Lamed . Lambda gave ri ...

-shaped machines) and as "Turkish trebuchets" (manjanīq turkī) by Mardi ibn Ali al-Tarsusi and the Templar of Tyre. Mao Yuanyi (茅元儀; 1594–1640), the compiler of the Ming dynasty military treatise ''

Wubei Zhi The ''Wubei Zhi'' (; ''Treatise on Armament Technology'' or ''Records of Armaments and Military Provisions''), also commonly known by its Japanese translated name Bubishi, is a military book in Chinese history. It was compiled in 1621 by Mao Yu ...

'', considered the "Crouching Tiger Trebuchet" as an ancestor to the

cannon A cannon is a large- caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder ...

along with other bomb-throwing trebuchets.

Cannon

By the publication of the 1350 edition ''

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 ...

'' during the Ming dynasty, the meaning of the character ''pao'' 砲 changed from "trebuchet" to "cannon", mirroring the development of gunpowder artillery in China. Likewise, "''hu dun pao''" came to refer to an early Chinese iron cannon in the same text. The ''Hulongjing'' describes the "Crouching Tiger Cannon" as thus: According to this description and the illustration in the ''Huolongjing'', the "Crouching Tiger Cannon" was a small cannon that was propped up at the muzzle end and pinned to the ground to deaden the

recoil Recoil (often called knockback, kickback or simply kick) is the rearward thrust generated when a gun is being discharged. In technical terms, the recoil is a result of conservation of momentum, as according to Newton's third law the force r ...

. This setup supposedly resembles a crouching tiger, giving the cannon its name like its trebuchet predecessor. The barrel holding 100 bullets could mean the "Crouching Tiger Cannon" fired pellets, or that the bullets could have been placed in a bag as

grapeshot Grapeshot is a type of artillery round invented by a British Officer during the Napoleonic Wars. It was used mainly as an anti infantry round, but had other uses in naval combat. In artillery, a grapeshot is a type of ammunition that consists of ...

. Of special note are the iron bands acting as reinforcements around the cannon—they indicated that the "Crouching Tiger Cannon" was a built-up

cast-iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...

gun, preceding the

Armstrong Gun An Armstrong gun was a uniquely designed type of rifled breech-loading field and heavy gun designed by Sir William Armstrong and manufactured in England beginning in 1855 by the Elswick Ordnance Company and the Royal Arsenal at Woolwich. Such ...

by five centuries. The iron bands were shrunk onto the

barrel A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers for liquids, ...

while red hot, and the consistently fitting bands show that the Ming Chinese foundrymen had mastered

quenching In materials science, quenching is the rapid cooling of a workpiece in water, oil, polymer, air, or other fluids to obtain certain material properties. A type of heat treating, quenching prevents undesired low-temperature processes, such as ...

in mass-production conditions. The grounding pins were cast separately. According to

Qi Jiguang Qi Jiguang (, November 12, 1528 – January 17, 1588), courtesy name Yuanjing, art names Nantang and Mengzhu, posthumous name Wuyi, was a Chinese military general and writer of the Ming dynasty. He is best known for leading the defense on t ...

's ''Treatise on Military Training'' (練兵實紀, ''Lianbing Shiji'') of 1568, the "Crouching Tiger Cannon" was placed at various points on the Chinese frontier since the beginning of the Ming dynasty. They were still used during the

Imjin War The Imjin River ( in South Korea) or Rimjin River ( in North Korea) is the 7th largest river in Korea. It flows from north to south, crossing the Demilitarized Zone and joining the Han River downstream of Seoul, near the Yellow Sea. The rive ...

of 1592–98, where their deployment was crucial in the retaking of Pyongyang (1593) from the Japanese invaders. Following the Imjin War, a typical

Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its ...

ese war junk (福船, ''fuchuan''), the standard ship of the Ming navy, would carry the "Crouching Tiger Cannon" alongside heavy cannons, breech-loading cannons, falconets, and

fire lance The fire lance () was a gunpowder weapon and the ancestor of modern firearms. It first appeared in 10th–12th century China and was used to great effect during the Jin-Song Wars. It began as a small pyrotechnic device attached to a polearm weap ...

References

Notes

Works cited

* * * * {{Early firearms Artillery of China Cannon Chinese inventions Military history of the Ming dynasty Military history of the Song dynasty