Unique weapon of the Ming Dynasty — Shen Huo Fei Ya (神火飛鴉)

Shen Huo Fei Ya (神火飛鴉, lit. 'Divine fire flying crow' or 'Flying crow with magic fire') was a unique, bird-shaped rocket made of papered bamboo or reed basketry. It was a long range incendiary weapon designed to attack stationary or slow-moving targets such as enemy encampments, fortresses and warships.

There were actually two variants of this rocket, detailed below.

Huo Long Shen Qi Zhen Fa (《火龍神器陣法》) variant

A badly drawn Shen Huo Fei Ya, from 'Huo Long Shen Qi Zhen Fa (《火龍神器陣法》).'

Huo Long Shen Qi Zhen Fa variant of Shen Huo Fei Ya was filled with a mixture of potent poisonous blinding smoke, poison smoke-incendiary gunpowder, incendiary gunpowder, caltrops, as well as numerous Fei Yan (飛燕) micro-rockets. It was propelled by a single rocket mounted below the crow's tail, and thus was infinitely more aerodynamically stable than the Wu Bei Zhi variant (see below).

Read more

Leather (and other animal-derived) armours of the Ming Dynasty

Pi Jia (皮甲, leather armour or hide armour)

Pi Jia, from 'Wu Bei Yao Lue (《武備要略》)'.

Read more

Qi Ji Guang's Gang Rou Pai (剛柔牌)

Unlike contemporary European powers where the use of firearms stimulated the development and refinement of plate armour, the Chinese never developed plate armour in the first place. They instead turned to the millennia-old philosophy of "conquering the unyielding with the yielding" for a solution.

Ruan Bi (軟壁, 'Soft wall')

Ruan Bi, from 'Ji Xiao Xin Shu (《紀效新書》)'.

Read more