What are the applications of ancient gunpowder in China?

The gunpowder invented in our country was not originally used for military purposes, but for entertainment performances during festivals.

The application of gunpowder in entertainment performances is mainly to set off firecrackers and fireworks, as well as fireworks acrobatics and performance illusion in acrobatic performances.

The ways and scales of holding these recreational activities in different periods in history are different.

After the introduction of gunpowder into medicine, it became a medicine, which was used to treat sores and tinea, as well as to kill insects.

Cure moisture and plague.

During the Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, there was a pavilion called "the mountain is high and the water is long" in the west of Yuanmingyuan in Beijing. There is a wide open space in front of the pavilion, which is suitable for fireworks.

Every important traditional festival, palace officials will watch fireworks here.

The throne of Emperor Qianlong watching fireworks is located on the first floor of a building with high mountains and high waters.

When watching fireworks, the banquet began immediately after Emperor Qianlong took his seat in joy.

First of all, there are cultural programs, including band ensemble, wrestling performance, shooting drills and singing by foreign artists.

After the cultural program, Emperor Qianlong personally announced the start of the fireworks display, and the zygotic flower bait line on each stake was lit at the same time.

In an instant, I saw countless golden snakes flying like lightning, wonderful fireworks blooming brilliantly, thousands of exotic flowers blooming for the second time, and the night sky shining like day.

Then, before unloading, the guards wearing mink embroidered robes each held zygote flowers and set them off. All kinds of characters and flowers and birds jumped out of the zygote, which was lifelike.

When the last zygote flower "Wan Guo Le Chun Taiwan" burned, all the fireworks arranged by the West Factory along the river were lit at the same time, and all the firecrackers were suddenly blown into a sea of fireworks in full bloom.

In fact, in the process of development and invention of gunpowder, its practical application is first used for medical treatment, then for entertainment and performance, and then extended to the military field.

Fireworks are also called fireworks, fireworks and fireworks.

Setting off fireworks in festivals has a long history and tradition in China. During the Spring Festival, Lantern Festival or every major festival, all kinds of fireworks will be set off, such as flamingos, silver flowers and dragons dancing at night.

The earliest record of fireworks in the world belongs to the saying in Huai Nan Zi of the Western Han Dynasty that "a thousand people are born with the skill of spitting fire with thunder".

This is the embryonic form of fireworks later.

This kind of fireworks has little gunpowder, but it is enough to show off the illusion.

In the Sui Dynasty, the production method of fireworks became more complicated and became a new thing for emperors' entertainment.

Later, Gao Cheng, a Song Dynasty man, thought in Ji Yuan, "The gunpowder play began in Yang Di."

The fireworks in Chang 'an Yuanxi, Kyoto in the Tang Dynasty were spectacular, and the fireworks show at that time had already formed a certain scale.

However, due to the relatively backward production technology of gunpowder in the Tang Dynasty, fireworks were not popularized, but the firecracker industry made rapid progress.

In the Tang Dynasty, the method of "burning bamboo to drive away special things" was very common.

Gunpowder began to appear in the Tang Dynasty, and people filled bamboo tubes with nitrosulfonic acid and lit them, making them explode louder and more powerful.

According to legend, Li Yi in the Tang Dynasty was the initiator of making nitrosulfonic firecrackers, and the people called him "the ancestor of fireworks".

Li Yi's life has been recorded in the records of various stories written by people in the Tang Dynasty.

Li Yi's exorcism method is not simply "scalding with real bamboo sticks", but using "nitrosulfonic firecrackers", so it is recorded as a new thing.

Nitrosulfonate firecrackers are the embryonic form of firecrackers and the original origin of the word "firecrackers".

According to historical research, the so-called "firecrackers" were not made of gunpowder from ancient times to the pre-Qin period, from the Han Dynasty to the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and then to the early Tang Dynasty. Only in the Li Yi period of the Tang Dynasty did firecrackers made of gunpowder begin to appear.

However, this is not a firecracker made of paper powder, but a real bamboo filled with nitrosulfonic acid.

Just as Zhai Lin in Qing Dynasty wrote in a popular article: ancient firecrackers were all popular with real bamboo sticks, so Tang poetry was also called explosive sticks.

Later, it was a roll of paper, also known as explosion.

Zhai Lin's words succinctly expressed the ins and outs of China's invention of firecrackers.

By the Northern Song Dynasty, the fireworks culture had a general scale, professional workshops and fireworks technicians appeared, and the fireworks skills were becoming more and more mature.

Artists tie bamboo pieces into reels, or people or things, wrap paper rolls with pyrotechnics, and light them with wires, turning them into colorful images on the ground, on the water, and even at low altitude.

This kind of entertainment is an indispensable part of folk festivals and traditional Chinese opera culture and entertainment.

The Emperor of the Song Dynasty also enjoyed the joint performance of fireworks, firecrackers and traditional Chinese opera.

During the Southern Song Dynasty and Xichun years, the palace always bought firecrackers and fireworks before major festivals.

1 month 16 night, fireworks and lanterns made Bianjing a city that never sleeps.

The bustling scene makes people yearn for it and linger.

Visitors can watch performances such as "fireworks, wheels, meteors and water explosions" in Lin 'an.

"Old Stories of the Later Wulin" recorded the scene of Song Xiaozong watching the tide and setting off fireworks. The book says: On August 18th, Song Xiaozong lit five kinds of smoke guns while watching the Qiantang River Tide and the naval exercise. When the smoke of fireworks dispersed, there were no boats on the river.

It can be seen that the fireworks show at that time was very grand.

Xin Qiji was a famous poet in the Southern Song Dynasty. He once wrote a poem "Jade Case Yuan", in which there is a famous sentence describing the lanterns and fireworks on the night of Yuan Dynasty: "Thousands of trees bloom in the east wind night, and the stars are like rain." This sentence writes the wahoo as a fixed lantern color and the "star rain" as a flowing fireworks.

Fireworks not only blew away the snuff on the ground, but also dropped colorful stars from the sky. They first rushed into the sky and then fell from the sky, like a meteor shower.

After reading it, I was full of imagination: the east wind has not pushed away the flowers, but it has blown away the fire tree and silver flowers in the Lantern Festival first.

There are also descriptions of fireworks in dramas and poems of the Yuan Dynasty. The most famous is the poem "Setting off Fireworks for People" by Zhao Mengfu, a painter and painter in Yuan Dynasty. Among them, there is a saying, "A skillful craftsman in the world will burn a lamp for refining medicine tomorrow". The poet saw all kinds of fireworks and found them beautiful. It is indeed appropriate to praise the fireworks craftsman with "wonderful workmanship"

The fireworks culture in Ming Dynasty is the most abundant. Although most fireworks were set off separately at that time, there were many names of fireworks, and most of them were named after flowers.

At the same time, the superb development of fireworks in Ming Dynasty is a great invention in the history of world crafts.

Shen Bang, an official in the Ming Dynasty, disclosed in detail the production method of fireworks in Yancheng, Yong 'an City, Fujian Province: "There are different names for using raw iron powder mixed with nitrate and sulfur ash as toys. Some voices say that the gun will ring, those who rise high say that it will catch fire, those who carry the gun in the fire say that it is a three-level wave, and those who don't ring around the ground say that it is a mouse. " In the Ming Dynasty, more complicated fireworks were invented, that is, using the burning power of gunpowder, some puppets were fired and even ten times the story was performed.

Later, in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, zygotic flowers were innovated. This kind of fireworks is easy to keep, transport and use, and it has become the main variety of high-grade fireworks in Qing Dynasty.

It also appears in the water and is made into waterproof shapes of various waterfowl.

The skills of fireworks in the Ming Dynasty provided a practical reference model for the design of complex schemes of modern rockets.

The complex design principle of modern rockets was born out of the pyrotechnics of the Ming Dynasty, and both of them adopted the burning rate control program.

After several generations of unremitting efforts and evolution, by the Qing Dynasty, the fireworks technology was more exquisite and almost reached the state of perfection.

In the Qing Dynasty, there were workshops to make all kinds of fireworks, such as boxes, fireworks poles, threaded peony, water hibiscus, grape stands, flag fires, skirting lines, flying to ten ring, five ghosts disturbing judges, box guns, ceiling lanterns and so on.

There are also shelling Xiangyang and burning warships. It shows the scene of the two armies fighting wits and crossing guns and arrows, which is thrilling and dazzling.

The festive fireworks in Qing Dynasty were large-scale and spectacular, representing the highest level of fireworks design, production and performance at that time.

Every year, from the 13th to 19th of the first month, we leave for several nights in a row. The evening of the 19th day of the first month is the climax of fireworks, and palace ministers and foreign VIPs in Beijing are invited to watch it.

Although the capital of the Qing Dynasty was a place where fireworks flourished, Suzhou in the south was not inferior.

The Lantern Festival fireworks show in suburban and rural community temples retains simple folk activities and has a lively and happy festival.

During this time, the common people went out to catch the fireworks show.

During the Spring Festival, when guests come in and out of the house, people will greet them with firecrackers, especially the emperor.

Although there is no such custom of setting off firecrackers between steps, relatives or friends who go home for the first time during the Spring Festival should also set off firecrackers to show their respect and blessing to the guests.

Especially for the new son-in-law, grandson and granddaughter who come to Zhang Yue during the Spring Festival, firecrackers are set off more warmly and joyfully.

Therefore, firecrackers make the cold winter lively and friendly, such as the warm spring breeze, which makes people feel comfortable.