The Ming army had always put great emphasis on handheld firearm, and set up the first specialized firearm division in the world in the form of Shen Ji Ying (神機營). In fact, as the quality of Ming armies deteriorated, they began to rely more and more on firearms, to the point it bacame detrimental to their close combat capability.
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| Ming Dynasty arquebus found in Xuzhou. |
Ming Dynasty came into contact with matchlock arquebus — which they called Niao Chong (鳥銃, 'Bird gun') or Niao Zui Chong (鳥咀銃, 'Beak gun') — through the Portuguese no later than 1525 AD and had begun to equip their troops with this advanced weapon in small numbers. After the destruction of the smuggling haven of Shuangyu in 1548, Chinese improved their workmanship and quality control by forcing captured Portuguese gunsmiths to teach them, and began mass-producing the weapon. Chinese gunsmiths manufactured local copies of Portuguese matchlock in very large quantities, numbering tens of thousands, and Ming troops from Southern China quickly accustomed themselves with this new weapon. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Northern troops, many of whom stubbornly refused to give up their ageing handgonnes (although they too picked up the weapon en masse during the last years of the Ming Dynasty).
Wo Chong (倭銃, 'Japanese arquebus')
As both Chinese and Japanese adopted their matchlock gun from the Portuguese, Chinese matchlock differ little from Japanese teppō (鉄砲) from a technical perspective. Nevertheless, the superior durability of Japanese gun barrel and fine workmanship of Japanese mechanism was already well known during mid-Ming period. Many Ming generals were impressed by the quality of Japanese matchlock.
Wo Chong (倭銃, 'Japanese arquebus')
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| Drawing of a Niao Zui Chong, from 'Chou Hai Tu Bian (《籌海圖編》)'. |
Zhao Shi Zhen (趙士禎) was the only Chinese firearm specialist to further differentiate between a Portuguese matchlock gun manufactured at the armoury of Goa and a Japanese copy of the same design. He named the Portuguese design Xiao Xi Yang Chong (小西洋銃, 'Small Western arquebus') to avoid confusion with Xi Yang Chong (see below), another European matchlock design. Despite both designs being nearly indetical, Zhao Shi Zhen deemed Portuguese matchlock to be the superior one due to its simplicity and convenience.
Further Improvement
During the reign of Emperor Shenzong (明神宗, reigned 1572 - 1620 AD), the Ming Empire found itself embroiled in three different wars (the Imjin war, war of Ningxia, and the Yang Ying Long rebellion), another border conflicts with Burmese Taungoo Dynasty, as well as increasingly dire threat from the Jurchen. Around this time Chinese began experimenting with imported matchlock firearms from other parts of the world, no doubt motivated by the pressing needs to improve the performance of Ming arquebusiers.
Xi Yang Chong (西洋銃, lit. 'Western arquebus') or Da Xi Yang Chong (大西洋銃, lit. 'Big Western arquebus')
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| Drawing of a Xi Yang Chong, from 'Shen Qi Pu (《神器譜》)'. |
Zhao Shi Zhen considered European matchlock to be light, mobile, reliable, and shoot farther than Japanese matchlock, but less powerful than both Japanese matchlock and Lu Mi Chong. However, it is possible that Zhao Shi Zhen based his opinion on a fowling piece not intended for military use.
Lu Mi Chong (魯密銃, lit. 'Rûm arquebus')
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| Drawing of a Lu Mi Chong, from 'Shen Qi Pu (《神器譜》)'. |
Zhao Shi Zhen praised Lu Mi Chong for its reliability, range and firepower, which he deemed superior to both European and Japanese matchlock. Due to the increased weight and bulk of Lu Mi Chong, it was usually fired from a kneeling position.
Both Xi Yang Chong and Lu Mi Chong were eventually adopted by the Ming army. After the fall of Ming Dynasty, its successor Qing Dynasty seems to prefer the design of Lu Mi Chong over other variants, and European and Japanese matchlock became less common.
Late Ming period Lu Mi Chong
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| Late Ming version of the Lu Mi Chong, from 'Wu Bei Zhi (《武備志》)'. |
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| Drawing of the rack and pinion mechanism, from 'Wu Bei Zhi (《武備志》)'. |
San Chang Chong (三長銃, lit. 'Arquebus with three advantages')
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| Drawing of a San Chang Chong, from 'Shen Qi Pu (《神器譜》)'. |
San Chang Chong is likely the only ordinary arquebus developed by Zhao Shi Zhen. He also tried to devise multiple barrel arquebuses, weatherproofed firearms and breechloaders, with varying degree of success.
Jiu Tou Niao (九頭鳥, lit. 'Nine headed bird')
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| A gunner firing a Jiu Tou Niao from the shoulder of his comrade, from 'Shen Qi Pu (《神器譜》)'. |
Ban Gou Chong (搬鉤銃, lit. 'Moveable hook musket')
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| Drawing of a heavy musket, from 'Jing Guo Xiong Lue (《經國雄略》)'. |
Owing to the fact that Ban Gou Chong (with its musket rest) looks superficially like a pigeon standing on one leg, it is also known as Ban Jiu Jiao Chong (斑鳩腳銃, lit. 'Wild pigeon leg musket').
Jiao Chong (交銃, lit. 'Jiaozhi Arquebus')
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| Drawing of a Jiao Qiang, from 'Huang Chao Li Qi Tu Shi (《皇朝禮器圖式》)'. Despite its name, this Qing period Jiao Qiang shows clear Central Asian influence. |
Vietnamese matchlock gun enjoyed a very high reputation during seventeenth century among not just the Chinese, but also European observers (witnessing the ongoing Trịnh–Nguyễn War) as well. Ming Chinese considered Vietnamese matchlock to be "the finest gun in the world", surpassing even Turkish matchlock. It was said to be able to pierce several layers of iron armour, kill two to five men in one shot, yet can fire its shot quietly.
Shortcomings
While Chinese of this period were quick to adopt and even improve upon new firearm technologies, they never managed to catch up with major European powers. Worse yet, because of rampant corruption and general incompetence of the Imperial throne, they were reluctant to phase out their own obsolete firearms, resulting in severe waste of military spending.
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"By late Ming period, Vietnamese matchlock was considered "the best in the world", surpassing Japanese, European, and even Ottoman matchlocks. Jiao Chong enjoyed the reputation of being highly accurate, extremely powerful (said to be able to kill two to five men with one shot), yet relatively quiet."
ReplyDeleteThis paragraph may be exaggerated. There is no way Vietnamese matchlock can be that powerful.
Not necessary. Chinese records describe Vietnamese guns of up to 2.2m in length. That's way beyond the length of mere musket and closer to PUNT GUN in size. These guns should be propotionately more powerful with that size alone.
DeleteLoading multiple shots at the same time and fire it shotgun-style was a common practice in Ming China. So one shot killing many wasn't that far-fetched.
I mean look at the rare Vietnamese matchlocks on display. You can see it wasn't considered "the best in the world" when compare to Japanese, European, and even Ottoman matchlocks. There is a record about something like PUNT GUN but is wasn't those matchlocks.
Deletehttps://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/search/objects?set=NG-NM-6087-A#/NG-NM-6087-A,0
Huh? I fail to see anything wrong with the weapons. Those are fine matchlocks.
DeleteYes, fine matchlocks they are but not good enough to be described as "the best in the world". The correct order about quality of matchlock is European > Ottoman > Japanese > Vietnamese. Vietnamese was famous for theirs shooting skill not the quality of theirs matchlock.
DeleteWe simply don't know what standard was used by Ming Chinese to measure the quality of matchlock guns. If for example they thought longer = better, then 2.2m Vietnamese guns were undoubtedly the best.
DeleteAlso, I personally don't think European guns were superior to the Ottomans, or Japanese guns being inferior to both. All countries produced good guns and terrible guns.
William Dampier in Supplement of The New Voyage Round The World 1688 had described that there were Tonkinese artillery pieces. Each gun has a long barrel of about 6~7 feet and a tripod or a three-spikes-fork to land on the ground.
DeleteI think it could look like this picture: http://warspot-asset.s3.amazonaws.com/articles/pictures/000/027/557/content/6-7-f9eb77831c6c00beb40e4a0aab0ae1bc.jpg
Anyway, can you read the vertical scripts on the right of this picture?
https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AAB2bfYYijk/V0XQ--Lsk1I/AAAAAAAACwQ/0zNBLI2jHiALvDtNQJEQLaiZEpoCmRSHQCPcB/s1600/vietnam_matchlock.jpg
I mean those 2 letters above "大交鎗"
Long barrel can give a powerful shot with high muzzle velocity and high accuracy. That's the reason why Turkish and Indian prefer longer barrels.
Delete@Unknown
DeleteYour first picture depicts a Jingal gun, which was already in (limited) use during Ming Dynasty, but I agree that Vietnamese matchlock could be somewhat similar.
http://i.imgur.com/2eCZciq.jpg
TBH the first thing that spring to my mind is the Hmong "monkey gun", although to my knowledge 17c Vietnamese matchlock was closer in design to Portuguese (Japanese) style.
Yes, I can read Chinese. The first two letters are "素鐵", literally "plain iron", or undecorated iron. "素鐵大交鎗" means "Big Vietnamese musket with undecorated barrel".
I suspect another Qing musket known as Xian Qiang 線鎗 came from Vietnam as well.
Thank you.
DeleteI forget to add that William Dampier actually said that Tonkinese didn't have any artillery piece and he said that Tonkinese use those gun instead and it came well. Those gun could be carried well on one man's back and required 2 persons to deploy on battlefield. Those gun could be used to shoot across rivers and soldiers usually use them to clear a pass.
@Unknown
DeleteI don't know the exact context, but aren't Vietnamese made quite a lot of cannons (those they put on their warships, for example)?
Cannon were used only in great campaigns and defence. There were several great battles in the period of "Trinh Nguyen phan tranh". And of course there were many small scaled marches in gaps between two great campaigns.
DeleteIn those occasions, those long guns were usually used.
The longer the gun, the higher the velocity of the bullet. It would have travelled further and with more killing power.
DeleteDo you know if the Ming ever manufactured pistols?
ReplyDeleteMost likely not (although they were aware of the pistol), but I need to double check.
DeleteWould you happen to know specifically, what made the Jiaozhi Arquebus so advanced (specifically with regards to its design features, such as bore, caliber etc.)? Thank you in advance, and great article by the way.
ReplyDeleteI posted a comment here the other day, but I think my internet at that very moment also glitched out and prevented me from sending it through. So I'd like to send another one just in case. Sorry about any possible inconvenience this may have caused.
ReplyDeleteAs was the case prior to this day, I was just curious regarding whether you could tell me as to what made the Vietnamese "Jiaozhi Arquebus" so good, with regards to the characteristics and features of the rifle including (but not limited to) caliber, bore etc.
Thank you so much in advance for your response, and great answer by the way.
Yes, I notice the comment the other day and wonder why it went missing.
DeleteSurviving Vietnamese matchlocks (that I've seen) are quite similar to the Japanese ones, so the difference in quality probably lies with craftsmanship/accuracy/barrel length/calibre etc. In fact, the Jiaoqiang pictured above is quite diffent from actual Vietnamese arquebus.