Chinese Culture >> Chinese Society Traditions
Chinese Gunpowder
When we talk about battle, it is most likely that gunpowder would be among the
first few methods that come into your mind. And when talking about gunpowder, it
is usually related to the Chinese as some people claimed that gunpowder actually
originates from China. The Chinese are the ones who spread the usage and
technology of using gunpowder in most battles. Chinese gunpowder is made from potassium
nitrate, sulfur and charcoal. All these items are mixed together to ignite the
explosion. However, there are also debates where this explosive weapon is made
in other places such as Arab. So, let us look at the details about gunpowder
invention.
In the 9th century, the Chinese had come out with the idea to use explosive
weapon in their battles. They gathered a team of chemists to do research on the
suitable components to produce Chinese gunpowder. These people were aware of the
components needed and had a general idea on how to create a powerful gunpowder.
They started to know about potassium nitrate in the first century as this
component was widely used in all Chinese medicine. The first person who proposed
the mixture of potassium nitrate, sulfur and charcoal was Wei Boyang. Only a
short description on how to produce gunpowder was found. At that point of time,
he was the first one to come out with these three special components.
Boyang's note was further improved by Ge Hong from
Qin Dynasty in 300 AD where
he clearly mentioned the nature of those three components in creating explosion.
Only in the 7th century under
Tang Dynasty, the proper function of the gunpowder
can be seen. With this success, people worked further to develop a better and
enhanced weapon by building rifles. They used hollow bamboo stick and filled it
up with gunpowder. To ensure the impact is strong to be used in the battle
field, the Chinese tied one pack of gunpowder at one end of the stick and
another end with a metal ball.
When the weapon was ignited, the metal ball is able to propel at the fastest
speed and the strong impact will definitely cause permanent damages to your
enemies. There are more histories on the gunpowder invention by the Chinese at
different dynasty that you can read from the Internet. The Chinese tried to keep
the secret of producing gunpowder under the rule of
Song Dynasty. However, the
secret was found leaked to the Roman Empire and Islamic countries. Here starts
the moment of spreading recipe to produce gunpowder to all over the world.
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