On the Classification of Bows —— Classification of Traditional Bows

The traditional bow is an ancient invention. In ancient China, there was a tradition of making bows and arrows. It is said that China invented the bow and arrow in Xuanyuan Huangdi period. China's traditional bow manufacturing technology is superb, which played a very important role in China's ancient military war. Traditional bows have played a very important role in ancient and even modern China. Our country still retains the traditional bow making technology, which is a very precious national cultural heritage, and has high cultural value for studying China's social development, etiquette and entertainment, weapon technology, production and life, sports and so on. Traditional bows have a long history and unique types! We are familiar with curved bows and straight bows. In fact, the classification of traditional bows is more detailed. Today, let's learn about the classification of traditional bows.

There are many classification standards for traditional bows, and they also cross each other. In yesterday's article, we learned that modern bows are often divided into straight pull, reverse bend and compound bow (note that the compound bow here is a modern compound pulley bow, which is very different from the ancient compound bow mentioned later)

Straight pull and reverse bending are shown in the following figure:

The bow piece of a straight bow tightens the bowstring in the direction of its natural bending, while the bow piece of recurve bow tightens the bowstring in the opposite direction of its natural bending.

As for the modern compound bow, it is Stallone's common bow in The First Blood. In modern competitions, recurve bow is an Olympic event, and compound bow is a world event, but it is not an Olympic event. (See the classification of bows for details. )

There are also differences between modern bows and traditional bows, but there are no strict standards for this division. Generally speaking, modern bows generally have aiming equipment, balance bars and other accessories, and there is an arrow platform on the handle.

However, the traditional bow generally adopts the traditional bow shape without other accessories, and the arrow is placed on the archer without an arrow stand. Modern bows are generally called "naked bows", "bald bows" or "naked bows" if accessories such as aiming equipment and balance bars are removed. Of course, although some bows now have arrow racks, they are basically used in the traditional way, so it is difficult to call them modern bows.

There are both straight bows and recurve bow in traditional bows. For example, English longbows are mostly straight bows, while eastern bows are mostly recurve bow.

? Traditional bows can be divided into three types according to structure and material: single bow, reinforced bow and compound bow.

? Integral bow is a bow made of a single material, which is relatively simple to manufacture. The most typical bow is the English longbow, which relies on very elastic wood, such as Chinese fir.

Reinforcing bow, also known as compound bow, laminated bow and laminated bow, is made of the same or similar materials.

Compound bow (not modern pulley compound bow) is a bow made of wood or bamboo and other materials with different properties, combined with horns and animal tendons, and then made of glue, silk and paint. The angle bow in ancient China is a typical compound bow. In addition, many ethnic groups in Eurasia grassland, Central Asia and West Asia also use this kind of horn bow. The middle is made of bamboo or wood, the side facing the shooter is pasted with corner pieces, the side facing the target is coated with multiple layers of beef tendon silk, and several parts are glued together with swim bladder. In this way, when the bow is full, the tendons can resist tension and the corner pieces can resist compression. The combination of different materials can greatly improve the toughness and service life of the bow, which is equivalent to a composite reed structure, in which the bamboo or wooden tire is equivalent to a medium, and the corner pieces and tendons are combined together through this medium. The corner pieces are mainly used to provide elasticity, but if the bow lamp is made of corner pieces, the elasticity is good, but the rebound will be too strong, which will hurt the corner pieces.

? The following are several common traditional bow types.

The inheritor of traditional bow manufacturing technology was the royal craftsman of the Qing court in the early days, and its manufacturing and sales were managed by the Qing government. After the demise of the Qing government, no one took over and later became a private workshop. Although the traditional bow still retains its manufacturing process, due to the lack of protection in recent years, the current situation of the inheritors of traditional bows in China is still not optimistic, the working conditions and environment are very poor, and there is no apprentice to inherit his craft. If the measures of protection and inheritance are not strengthened, the traditional bow-making technology will be lost sooner or later.