China ancient weapon: the actual use of axe, cymbal and hammer?

China ancient weapons: the practical use of axe, graupel and hammer.

Axe, graupel and hammer should be the oldest weapons in China. In fact, the kitchen knife used in the Paleolithic period was the ancestor of the axe hammer, while the stone ball and wooden stick were the ancestors of the hammer. In the Neolithic Age, the stone axe appeared, and on the basis of the stone axe, the unique axe weapon of China-the grape-shot appeared at the end of the Neolithic Age. Unlike hand axes in other parts of the world, graupel has a very flat and light blade. Under the same weight, the blade area of Langshi axe is much larger than that of stone axe. Compared with the stone axe, the graupel axe is more sophisticated in materials and technology. Therefore, Shuo Wen Jie Zi said, "The big one is the graupel, and the small one is the axe." In fact, graupel is an enlarged axe, but it is a little different from an axe. Its handle installation method inherited the mosaic technology at the end of Neolithic Age, and fixed the wide and narrow surface of the graupel in a wooden handle with grooves with ribs, thus forming the most primitive form of the graupel.

In China's weapons, cymbals and axes are inseparable, and people habitually call them axe cymbals. Yue is also called "Yue". In the Han Dynasty, "Interpreting the Name and Releasing the Soldiers" said: "Yue is bright, but the direction is not in, and it suddenly breaks." It can be seen that graupel is often used for breakthroughs in war. According to the historical book Zhou Benji, after the Makino War, King Wu captured Chao Ge and entered Zhou Wang Palace. At this time, Zhou Wang and his concubines died, and King featuring ordered Zhou Wang and Huang Yue to be beheaded together, and his concubines to be beheaded together with Xuan Yue. The next day, in addition to Taoism and Philosophy Society, Zhou Gongdan held a big draw, Bi Gong held a small draw, and divided the guards around King Wu. Here, cymbals are not only instruments of torture, but also guard weapons and etiquette tools. It can be seen that the axes and hammers used in actual combat in the early Shang Dynasty gradually became ritual vessels and instruments of torture in the late Shang Dynasty.

Of course, this does not mean that the business negotiations in the next week did not attach importance to the graupel. "Shangshu Gu Ming" says: "One person is crowned, Herry Liu (that is, the axe) stands in the East Hall, and one person is crowned, holding the button in the West Hall." This is a record of using cymbals as ritual vessels. "Shangshu Pastoral Oath": "Wang Zuo Huang Zhang said, You Bingbai advised." Here, Huang Yue is a symbol of kingship. In addition, the son of heaven can also give the results of the lottery to the princes to show that he has been granted the right to fight.

The Book of Rites says, "Give an axe and shovel, and then kill it." The white plate of Polygonum cuspidatum unearthed in Baoji, Shaanxi Province is huge, and there is a long text of11in the center of the plate, which records that Zhou Xuanwang, the son of heaven at that time, "granted a lot of money to collect barbarians". The king ordered the general to draw lots in the ancestral hall before going out to war. The book Huai Nan Zi Bing Lue describes this process: "Whenever the country is in trouble, it is necessary to call generals from the palace to the ancestral temple, drill turtles, celebrate auspicious days, and collect flags. When you enter the temple gate, you stand in the west ... hold the shotgun, raise your head and give the handle to the general. He said:' From now on, whoever goes to heaven will be in the charge of the general.' "Visible or use graupel on behalf of the gas of killing, the right to fight. Until the Warring States period, the inscription of Yue unearthed from Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum in Pingshan, Hebei Province also said that "the son of heaven founded the country" and called it "an example to others". The honor of Yue is especially valued by the world. The later Han dynasty also held this view, which was used for etiquette.

"History of the Han Dynasty: After the Yufu, there were Jin Ju and Huang Yue." Huang Yue is Huang Yue's car, that is, there is a big Yue erected on it, which is the car below in The Emperor's Halogen Book. However, those who travel above the county magistrate or below the county magistrate take the axe cart as the guide. Although the axe is smaller than the graupel, the shape of the axe car is not far from that of the Huang Yue car. This kind of car can be seen in the stone reliefs in Yinan in Han Dynasty and the brick reliefs unearthed in Chengdu and Deyang, Sichuan. There is also an axe-carrying vehicle in the murals of the Han tomb in Bangtaizitun, Liaoyang, Liaoning Province. The axe is particularly large. Some scholars think this is Huang Yue's car. The biography of Guo Gong in the Later Han Dynasty said: "Yongping, Dou Gu, a captain in the car, attacked the Xiongnu, and Qin Peng, a captain in the car, was the lieutenant. Peng is in Bietun, but he doesn't have the law to kill people ... The emperor said,' The military levy and a captain are unified with the governor. Peng has no axe, how can he kill people arbitrarily?' However, the so-called "non-axe and non-graupel" here is just a quotation, because the "destiny gives graupel" was no longer implemented as a system in the Han Dynasty.

Axes and cymbals have long been used as instruments of torture. In the bronze inscriptions of Shang dynasty, there are images of people's heads cut off with shotguns. In Guoyu Lu Yu, the phrase "heavy punishment is followed by axe" is the evidence that axe is used as a tool of torture. Han dynasty also inherited this point, generally using axes and cymbals as instruments of torture. In the war scene of Xiaotangshan stone reliefs, people hang their heads on two weapons racks of cymbals, which means to use them for execution. Axe hammer is not only used for beheading, but also for cutting waist. Mozi Lu Wen: "Be careful when the axe is hooked on the waist." The axe is supported by quality when it is cut at the waist. He Xiu's Note in the Biography of the Ram in the Twenty-fifth Year of Zhao Gong: "Axe quality is the crime of cutting the waist." Therefore, in the accounts of the Han Dynasty, any mention of axe quality is always associated with waist cutting. The biography of Han Ying Bu said that "the government axe Huainan city", "Wang? The biography says "? The clothes have been taken off. That's what it means. On the one hand, it respects tradition, on the other hand, it is the inevitable result of its tool attribute. In the bronze age, heavy and sturdy axes and hammers were more suitable for executing prisoners, and there was no need to worry about weapons damage caused by excessive use, which was one of the important factors for their use as torture devices.

According to the examination, Zhou people had a deep understanding of the influence of weapon weight on marching logistics very early. As a result, the lightweight Ge became a well-deserved protagonist in the national war in the Central Plains of Shang and Zhou Dynasties, while the axe and cymbals, which were born in ancient times, sank, no longer appeared as the main fighting weapon, but became a symbol of power and a special tool.

In the wars of later generations, due to the progress of armor technology, axe and cymbals, a heavy weapon, still have a certain place to play. In the Tang Dynasty, axes and hammers were still widely used in murals as combat weapons for heavy infantry. At the same time, due to the weight factor, the axe hammer requires higher strength for users, which also limits its popularity among ordinary soldiers in the war. In the application of Song Dynasty, axe and shotgun were mostly used to defend the city. Therefore, in actual wars, axes and cymbals mostly appear as special defensive weapons, but after firearms are equipped on a large scale, their value disappears completely.

Earlier, we talked about the connection between hammer and stick, and also mentioned that cones were collectively called "vertebrae" in ancient times. "Cone-shaped wooden stick" is the original meaning of "vertebra" and its prototype. It had new development and changes in the Western Zhou Dynasty, the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. After the combination of the "vertebra" of the long stick and the blunt blade, it gradually evolved into a stick weapon. In the Song Dynasty, it evolved into various shapes, and then the knife stick or stick in the Ming Dynasty also belonged to this kind. In addition, the short-handled "vertebra" evolved into weapons such as hammers and bone flowers in later generations. During the Warring States period, the hammer was not often used in war, but there were many records of its use. The author recorded two of the most famous examples as follows.

First, steal symbols to save Zhao.

According to Records of the Historian Biography of Wei Gongzi, Xin used Zhu Hai, the butcher, to kill him with a hammer, and only then did he gain the military power to rescue Zhao. "Wei Anli king for twenty years, the king of Qin Zhao Haoqi broke the army of Zhao Changping and invaded Handan. ..... To his, wei dynasty. Jinbi agrees with this symbol, but doubts it. He raised his hand and looked at his son and said,' I have 100 thousand people now, which is a heavy responsibility of the country. What if the bike replaced it today? "Want to listen to. Zhu Hai's sleeves are 40 pounds of iron vertebrae, and these vertebrae killed Jinbi. The son is a golden army. ..... I had to choose 80,000 soldiers to invade Qin Jun. I was released, so I saved Handan and Zhao. "

Second, hammer Qin Shihuang.

"Historical Records Hou Shijia" records that Qin destroyed Korea and Liang revenged Korea for Qin. He learned that he wanted to assassinate Qin Shihuang with his family wealth. "Darius weighs 120 Jin as an iron vertebra. Qin Huang traveled eastward, and Liang and the guest hit Qin Huang in the waves and sand and got on the auxiliary car by mistake. "

It can be seen that the hammer was a heavy weapon at that time, which could be swung or thrown, and it could not be used by non-strong soldiers. However, due to its excessive lethality, it was not until the Sui and Tang Dynasties that the hammer was used as a standard weapon in the army. However, in the Tang Dynasty, the "prison officer's order" recorded in "On the Law of the Tang Dynasty" appeared a short stick-like torture device. In the Five Dynasties, due to the upgrading of armor technology and the invasion of northern nomads, combat weapons became popular. The earliest record of "Gu Duo" is Wu Jing Zong Yao compiled by Ceng Gongliang, the prime minister of the Song Dynasty: "Tribulus and garlic are two colors, and iron comes first. Tracing its meaning, this is guanidine. Guanidine is a big belly, which means it is as big as guanidine, and later generations are wrong. Guanidine is a bone, and glutinous rice is a flower (its initial shape is not common, or it is like a thistle or a sheep's head, and the custom is appropriate). "

According to historical records and archaeological data, this weapon was used not only in the Song Dynasty, but also in Liao, Jin and Xixia, because it was originally a common fighting weapon for grazing and hunting nationalities in grassland since ancient times, and it was most suitable for riding horses. At the same time, Gu Duo is often used as a tool and a defensive weapon. "Song Shiyi Wei Zhi": "Where the imperial ceremony is accompanied by a number of drivers, the Chongzheng Hall should only be commanded by four people, with * * * 250 people, holding the bones to defend." In the tombNo. 1 of the Northern Song Dynasty in Baisha, Yuzhou, Henan Province, and in the murals of tombs of Liao Dynasty, Xixia and Jin Dynasty in Inner Mongolia, Liaoning or other areas, Yi Wei also has the image of holding bone flowers. On the battlefield, although the hammer is not a standard weapon, it is also used by soldiers and generals as miscellaneous soldiers. For example, it is recorded in "Biography of Song Shiyue Fei Chuan Fu Zi Yun Chuan": "In each battle, two pieces of iron vertebrae weighing 80 Jin are held, and they are first boarded. After capturing Suizhou, we broke through Dengzhou, and Xiang Han made the first contribution. " This record has also been adopted by later novels and operas, and many adaptations have been made, such as the famous Peking Opera Eight Hammers.

After the Song and Liao Dynasties, in Mengyuan, hammers and bone flowers were good weapons for cavalry, and they were handy in melee. At this time, the hammer shape is mostly melon-shaped, hexagonal or octagonal The melon hammer of Yuan Dynasty is still used in Ming and Qing Dynasties, and it is made of copper and iron. At the same time, it is also used for etiquette purposes. The hammer with long handle and gilded silver is called "standing melon" or "lying melon".

In addition to ordinary hand-to-hand combat, just like the two stories recorded in Historical Records, the hammer can also be used to throw, thus deriving a variant. The shape of this hammer is spherical or square, similar to bone flower, but there is no hole for wooden handle, and a semi-circular button is cast on the top of the sphere or one side of the square. Passing the rope through the ring buckle and throwing it out to kill the enemy is vividly called "meteor hammer" or "flying hammer". Meteor hammer is generally used in hidden weapons, but it can only be thrown hopelessly during the Warring States period, and it is also improved by adding rope.

In the book Wu Beizhi, Multiplication of Military Assets and Equipment III compiled by Mao in the following year, the usage method was recorded: "There are two kinds of hammers, the former is a positive hammer and the latter is a life-saving hammer." It means that when used, the front hammer is used to attack the enemy and the rear hammer is used to guard against it. If you miss the first blow, use the hammer at the back just in case something goes wrong. This kind of meteor hammer can also be seen in hunting weapons of Ordos grassland in the pre-Qin period. Some are spherical with protruding breasts, some are polyhedrons, and some are weight-shaped. No matter what its shape is, it has the same feature, that is, it has a nose button. They can be used as meteor hammers with ropes, or tied with short ropes, and then connected with short handles as chain hammers. If shaken, its striking force is stronger than that of ordinary bone flowers. Mongolian cavalry in the Yuan Dynasty also used this kind of hammer, which was mostly hexagonal in shape. However, after the popularity of firearms in the Ming Dynasty, the role of hammers, like most striking weapons, gradually declined. Although it was still used in Qing dynasty, it was mostly used for performance or etiquette.