The meaning and implications of bow

Bow means an instrument for shooting arrows; an instrument for measuring fields.

From the shape of the character "bow", its meaning is a projectile device. However, this meaning is not reflected in the oracle bone divination, divination in the "bow" is used as a person's name or country name, but in the other words of the character side, its glyph meaning is clearly manifested. For example, "射", in the oracle bone script, looks like a vector fired from a bow; "引", in the oracle bone script, looks like a person drawing a bow with an open string.

Besides the fact that this kind of instrument that can shoot arrows or play bombs is called a bow, the role or shape of the instrument that resembles it can also be called a bow, such as a slingshot and a huqin bow. Because the back of the bow is made of tough wood curved, the bowstring is also bent into an arc when pulled, so the "bow" extension of the "curved" meaning.

Tang Duan Chengshi, "Youyang Miscellany Chopper - Nogao record": "The singer laughed and said: 'You do not see me as a bow waist? and reverse head, bun and ground, waist like a rule." "In ancient times, the bow was also used as a tool for measuring fields.

The so-called step bow, and the correspondence between the bow and units of measurement, such as feet, miles, mu, etc., also varied according to the different forms of each generation, a bow can be eight feet, or five feet, six feet, etc..

There is also an extra stroke at the upper end of the glyph, which may indicate an animal horn inlaid on the bow. This inlay was used for decoration on the one hand, and for other purposes on the other hand, i.e., a thin rope was tied to the horn of the bow, and the other end of the rope was tied to the end of the arrow, so that the arrow could be withdrawn after it was shot out.

Principal Uses:

The invention and improvement of the bow and arrow made it possible to shoot prey accurately and efficiently at longer distances, and it was easy to carry and use, and it was possible to have many arrows ready for continuous shooting. If any tool or weapon is an extension of the human hand, then the bow and arrow is the greatest extension of the human hand before the birth of firearms.