Huo Qiang (火鎗)

UPDATED NOVEMBER 9, 2023

Drawing of a Huo Qiang, from 'Wu Bei Zhi (《武備志》)'.

Huo Qiang (火鎗, lit. 'Fire spear' or 'Fire lance'), an archetypal fire lance with an archetypal name. It has a seven chi long shaft, a one chi long spearhead, two prongs with integrated hooks similar to Mao Lian Tang (茅鐮鎲), a butt spike, as well as two linked Pen Tong (噴筒) that fire in succession.

Contrary to a popular misconception, fire lance was probably not the direct predecessor of true guns but a branched development/specialisation of earlier gunpowder-based flamethrowers and proto-guns, only appearing in recorded history around 1230s. In fact, this particular Huo Qiang was devised around the turn of the seventeenth century.