Hong Yi Pao (紅夷砲) and Xi Yang Pao (西洋砲)

Hong Yi Pao (紅夷砲, lit. 'Red barbarian cannon') and Xi Yang Pao (西洋砲, lit. 'Western Ocean cannon') are Chinese names for sixteenth and seventeenth century European cast iron and cast bronze cannon, respectively. Despite being named after the Dutch, known as Hong Yi (紅夷, lit. 'Red barbarian') or Hong Mao Yi (紅毛夷, lit.'Red-haired barbarian') by the Chinese, European cannons actually came from multiple sources, including British, Portuguese and Spanish.

By seventeenth century, European-style cannons became the heaviest and most advanced weaponry in the Ming arsenal, and had largely superseded local designs.


Early adoption of European artillery

Three types of European artillery adopted by the Chinese. Top left: Fa Gong. Top right: Fo Lang Ji. Bottom: Hong Yi Pao. From 'Jing Guo Xiong Lue (《經國雄略》)'.

Despite the first official contact between Chinese and Europeans (i.e. Portuguese) ended in hostility, the Chinese fervently adopted every last bit of advanced firearm technology brought to China by the Europeans. European firearms of all kinds, such as matchlock gun, swivel gun, breech-loading swivel gun and falconet, quickly proliferated all over China.

Nevertheless, most of the adopted firearms were of the lighter variety, even though the Chinese were well aware of the existence of heavier pieces. This was most likely due to the fact that Ming as a unified dynasty had little use of lumbering siege artillery that could only be hauled by cumbersome siege train. That is not to say that Chinese artillerymen did not use heavier guns—they employed heavy coastal guns comparable in weight to Hong Yi Pao as early as 1562—but the use of heavy artillery was extremely rare, and mostly limited to purely defensive role.

A sixteenth century stone-throwing siege bombard, also known as Xi Yang Pao but unrelated to later European cast bronze cannon with the same name, as recorded by Tang Shun Zhi (唐順之). The bombard is 3.84 metre in length and weighs 4.13 tonnes, with a bore diameter of 768 mm, which put it firmly in the supergun category.

It was therefore little wonder that Chinese only began seriously considering adopting heavy European artillery after the rise of Jurchen (later Manchu). As the threat of serious Jurchen incursion loomed and counterattack seemed impossible after the disastrous defeat at Battle of Sarhu, Chinese military thinkers sought for solutions that could bolster the defence of their walls, and arrived at European cannons as their answer.


The great Luzon bronze cannon

Possibly the only surviving Lu Song Pao casted by Huang Ke Zuan that somehow ends up in Royal Artillery Museum, London (the museum has since been dissolved).

The earliest attempt to adopt advanced European cannon was conducted by Huang Ke Zuan (黃克纘), then Assistant Minister of the Imperial Guard. In 1620, Huang Ke Zuan recruited Chinese gunsmiths from Fujian, many of whom once worked in the Spanish cannon foundries at Manila, Philippines but fled to China during Sangley massacre, and successfully casted twenty-eight bronze cannons, the largest of which weighed three thousand catties. Seven of these bronze cannons, aptly called Lu Song Pao (呂宋砲, lit. 'Luzon cannon'), were immediately hurried to the front line. Unfortunately, none of these cannons produced notable results.

Essentially, Lu Song Pao was a low quality knock-off of Spanish cannon. Although Fujianese gunsmiths that cast the cannons did work for the Spanish, they were hired as low skill workers and did not have the knowledge and expertise of actual master gunmaker. Consequently, they got many details wrong and the quality of Lu Song Pao was terrible.


Sunken ships and the first true European cannon
The earliest European cannons that entered Ming arsenal were four heavy cannons salvaged by Portuguese traders from a sunken Dutch ship, presumably lost during an unsuccessful raid against the Portuguese Macau in 1607. Under request from the Ming court, Portuguese traders sold these cannons to the Chinese, and these cannons became the earliest European cannon to be fielded by Ming army. However, while Ming court continued to ask for more cannons, the Portuguese themselves were in severe shortage of heavy artillery (a weakness that would be exploited by the Dutch in the coming Battle of Macau), and could not fulfill that request.

Yet in another strange stroke of luck, another European ship, the British East India Company Unithorne, was blown (and subsequently sunk) by a great hurricane to the coast of Guangdong while en route to Japan. The Chinese caught wind of the incident and, under the order of Ming official Deng Shi Liang (鄧士亮), mounted a salvage operation and successfully recovered thirty-six large cannons (and several smaller ones) from the sunken ship.

Two of the Dutch cannons and twenty-two of the English cannons were sent to the front line and contributed greatly to the Great Victory of Ninyuan (寧遠大捷) and Great Victory of Nin-Jing (寧錦大捷).


Learning from the Jesuits
Besides importing or salvaging European cannons, Chinese also spared no effort in learning the casting method of European cannon. Major advocates of the adoption of European cannon includes Xu Guang Qi (徐光啟), Li Zhi Zao (李之藻), Jiao Xu (焦勖) and many Xu Guang Qi's students such as Chen Yu Jie (陳于階) and Sun Yuan Hua (孫元化). Most of these advocates were either friendly to Christianity or themselves Catholics, and welcomed the knowledge and expertise of European missionaries such as Matteo Ricci and Johann Adam Schall von Bell. While their efforts were met with many failures as well as stiff oppositions from within the Ming court, they eventually succeeded in mastering the knowledge to cast European cannon and started producing European-style artillery in large numbers.

Ding Liao Da Jiang Jun (定遼大將軍, lit. 'Great general of Liaoning-pacifying'), a composite cast iron/cast bronze cannon of exceptional workmanship. Currently kept at Liaoning Provincial Museum.

Chinese gunsmiths did not content themselves with merely replicating what the Europeans already had, and sought to improve upon this newfound technology. They eventually developed their own unique casting method that can manufacture composite metal  (usually cast bronze/cast iron, although cast iron/wrought iron and cast iron/wrought iron/cast bronze were used as well) cannons with superior quality, greater durability, lighter weight and reduced cost than its single-material counterparts.


Other European artillery adopted by the Chinese
Besides long-barrelled cannons and culverins, Chinese gunsmiths also acquired the knowledge to cast other types of artillery from the Europeans. However, these weapons likely never saw actual deployment.


Fei Biao Chong (飛彪銃, lit. 'Flying menancing cannon')

Drawing of a Fei Biao Chong, from 'Huo Gong Qie Yao (《火攻挈要》)'.

Fei Biao Chong is the Chinese name for heavy siege mortar. As the weakening late Ming army was almost always on the defensive, this indirect fire weapon was of little use to them.


Fei Long Chong (飛龍銃, lit. 'Flying dragon gun')

Drawing of a Fei Long Chong (highlighted), from 'Huo Gong Qie Yao (《火攻挈要》)'.

Fei Long Chong is an advanced breech-loading demi-culverin introduced by German Jesuit Johann Adam Schall von Bell in the seventeenth century.

For more details, see my other blog post.


Shortcomings
Despite the successful adoption of European artillery (as well as the knowledge and training in European gunnery), Chinese artillerymen lagged behind their European counterparts in experience, fire discipline and trajectory calculation, and could not utilise the advanced weapon to its full potential. In fact, trajectory calculation was almost a foreign concept to many Chinese artillerymen, as the standard European practise of shooting a single round shot and let the bouncing cannonball to tear through masses of infantry would be completely ineffective against the fast-moving steppe cavalry. They were too used to the short ranged Chinese cannons employed in a fashion not unlike a giant shotgun, where accuracy wasn't much of a concern.

The adoption of European artillery also did not save Ming Dynasty from its demise like the advocates had hoped, and might have in fact sped up its destruction. While European artillery proved extremely successful against the Jurchens, Ming would soon get a taste of its own medicine as defected Chinese craftsmen disseminated the technology to the enemy, allowing the Jurchens to use this devastating weapon against the Chinese.

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