Crossbows in Ancient China

Around 65,000 years ago, the bow and arrow was invented in ancient africa, this

weapon allowed people to pull back a cord or a string connected between the two ends

of the limb which formed tension and propelled the arrow. But about 64,500 years later,

the Chinese invented the crossbow, this weapon was a lot more powerful and easier to

use than the bow and arrow. For example; the bow and arrow required you to hold the

cord for an extended period of time if you were waiting for a certain animal that you

wanted to hunt, doing this for a long time could hurt your hand. But the crossbow locked

the cord in place allowing you to hold it for extended periods of time without hurting your

hand, and when you want to fire, just pull the trigger.

The crossbow was a device close to a bow that fired bolts that didn’t need as

much strength as a bow. It was used as a ranged weapon for defending walls during

wars and battles. The triggers and bolts were comprised of bronze and the stocks were

made of various metals, and many examples of these stocks, bolts, and barrels have

been found in China, but finding the exact date or schematics of the crossbow have

proven a real challenge, but there is lots of evidence that it was used in battle during

most of the second half of the 5th and 6th century BC and further. ​“The earliest

handheld crossbow stocks with bronze trigger, dating from the 6th century BC, comes

from Tomb 3 and 12 found at Qufu, Shandong, capital of the State of Lu” ​(​Wikipedia​).

The crossbow was introduced to Greece, Rome, and Medieval Europe by China

at about 5th to 6th Century BC. It provided a very useful and virtually skilless weapon
that could mass produced. It created the basis of a “Gun” because of how the cord

connected at the 2 ends of the crossbow limb (The limb is the part at the front of the

crossbow that holds the cord) and creates a tension and propels the bolt making it a

projectile. ​“The earliest reasonably reliable date for the use of crossbows in Europe is in

ancient Greece from the 5th century BC” ​(​Wikipedia​).

Older models of crossbows can be seen in museums, but now crossbows are

used for hunting certain animals, or used competitively in aiming competitions. Over

time, their design, materials, ammo and build have developed and advanced overtime.

They also changed the way trigger mechanisms are built in other weapons. In video

games and other media, the image also changes. In the Half-Life series, the crossbow

fires red-hot rubar by using a powerful battery attached to the crossbow which heats up

the bolt almost instantly, but someone has recreated that same Half-Life crossbow in

real life and found out that rubar does not work and that it takes about a minute for it to

heat up. In Far Cry, the repeating crossbow is used to hunt and battle. ​“The crossbow is

used today as a hunting weapon, and for target practice at archery ranges. Modem

crossbows have many metal parts, and are very lightweight. A slightly modified version

of the Chinese crossbow trigger mechanism is used in modern handguns.” ​(​Vendian -

Crossbow​).

The crossbow stopped battles during the Civil war at the end of the Zhou

dynasty, as the weapon was so powerful that anyone who showed up with one would

stop fighting and obey whoever held the powerful weapon. During its time the crossbow

was used to protect walls and was a very powerful weapon to use against the enemy as
their weaponry wasn’t as advanced. The crossbow was also a very viable weapon

because the bronze trigger was very difficult to replicate and confusing the enemy

because they did not know how to recreate its simple yet effective mechanism. This

weapon symbolizes advance and change in Chinese warfare, as it revolutionized

ranged handheld weapons. It’s complex build and firing mechanics show that the

Chinese were very creative and innovative and were able to make such a powerful

deadly, and effective weapon.