Hui Ping (灰瓶) and Yan Guan (煙罐)

Some ceramic containers that could be made into Hui Ping and Yan Guan (highlighted), from 'Wu Bei Ji Yao (《武備集要》)'.

Hui Ping (灰瓶, lit. ‘ash bottle’) and Yan Guan (煙罐, lit. ‘smoke jar’) were two oft-overlooked Ming less-lethal weapons commonly used in siege defence and naval warfare. As their names suggest, Hui Ping was a ceramic bottle filled with quicklime powder, meant to be thrown at enemy soldiers to blind and suffocate them, whereas Yan Guan was a black powder-based ceramic smoke bomb used to create a smoke screen, generate choking smoke, or possibly both.

Due to their similarity and near-identical functions, Hui Ping and Yan Guan were often mentioned together in Ming records, although they were still two distinct weapons.