Heilongjiang Hand Cannon (1288): One of the Oldest Firearms

The Heilongjiang hand cannon is a small bronze gun found in north-east China in 1970 and dated to around 1288, during the reign of Kublai Khan. About 34 centimetres long, it is one of the oldest surviving metal firearms in the world. It shows that by the late 13th century Chinese armies were using true guns, with a metal barrel that fired a projectile by the force of exploding gunpowder.

Background: from gunpowder to guns

Gunpowder was discovered in China by the 9th century, probably by alchemists, and was soon used in war. Early gunpowder weapons included fire arrows, incendiary bombs and the “fire lance”, a bamboo or paper tube filled with powder and attached to a spear, which shot out flames and sometimes small objects at close range.

Over the 12th and 13th centuries, during the wars between the Song, the Jurchen Jin and the Mongols, these weapons became more powerful. Gunpowder mixtures richer in saltpetre produced more explosive force, and tubes made of metal replaced bamboo. Somewhere in this process the fire lance became the gun: a weapon whose main purpose was to drive a projectile that fitted the bore.

The discovery

In 1970 villagers at Banlachengzi, in Acheng near Harbin in Heilongjiang province, dug up a small bronze tube. Archaeologists identified it as a hand gun. It is about 34 centimetres long and weighs about 3.5 kilograms.

The gun has three parts. At the front is a straight barrel. Behind it is a bulbous chamber that held the powder charge, with a small touch hole for lighting it. At the rear is a hollow socket into which a wooden handle was fitted, so that a soldier could hold or brace the weapon.

Casting the gun in bronze mattered. Bronze could be cast in one piece with thick walls around the powder chamber, where the pressure of the explosion was greatest, and it did not burn or split like the bamboo of earlier fire lances. A weapon of this size would have fired a lead or stone ball, or a bundle of small projectiles, over a short range. It was not accurate, but its noise, smoke and impact could break up an enemy formation or cause panic, especially at night.

How it was dated

The Heilongjiang gun carries no inscription, so its date has to be worked out. Chinese archaeologists placed it in the Yuan period from its form and the circumstances of the find. They linked it to a specific campaign: in 1287 the Mongol prince Nayan, a descendant of Genghis Khan’s youngest brother Temüge, rebelled against Kublai Khan in Manchuria, and fighting continued there in 1288 against his allies.

The official Yuan history records that in 1288 the general Li Ting led a small force of soldiers who carried “fire cannons” on their backs, which they fired into the enemy camp at night, causing confusion. Many historians think the Heilongjiang gun is just the kind of weapon described, and so date it to about 1288. This reasoning is widely accepted but remains an inference, so the date is best given as approximate.

Other early guns

Several other early Chinese guns survive. The so-called Xanadu gun, found near the ruins of Kublai’s summer capital, bears an inscription dated to 1298 and is the oldest firearm with a precise date written on it. A larger bronze gun found at Wuwei in Gansu has been attributed to the period before 1227, but its dating is disputed. A stone carving at Dazu in Sichuan, often dated to the 12th century, appears to show a figure holding a vase-shaped gun, though its interpretation is also debated.

Guns spread westward within a few decades, possibly through the Mongol empire or Islamic lands. By 1326 an English manuscript by Walter de Milemete shows a vase-shaped gun firing a large arrow, and a document from Florence of the same year mentions metal cannons and iron balls.

Key people

• Kublai Khan (1215–1294): Yuan emperor who faced Nayan’s rebellion in 1287.
• Nayan (died 1287): Mongol prince whose revolt in Manchuria led to the campaigns of 1287–1288.
• Li Ting: Yuan general recorded as using hand-held firearms in 1288.

Timeline

• 9th century: Gunpowder is known in China.
• 10th–12th centuries: Fire lances and gunpowder bombs are used in Chinese wars.
• 1287: Nayan rebels against Kublai Khan in Manchuria and is defeated.
• 1288: Li Ting’s soldiers use hand-held firearms against rebels in the north-east.
• c. 1288: Probable date of the Heilongjiang hand cannon.
• 1298: The dated Xanadu gun is made.
• 1326: Guns appear in European sources in England and Florence.
• 1970: The Heilongjiang gun is found at Banlachengzi.

Legacy

Later Chinese hand guns of the Ming dynasty, and the European hand gonnes of the 14th and 15th centuries, followed the same basic design: a metal tube, a powder chamber with a touch hole and a pole or stock to hold it. Over the next centuries these simple weapons developed into matchlock muskets, such as those that reached Japan in 1543. The gun is now held in the Heilongjiang Provincial Museum in Harbin.

Why it matters

The Heilongjiang hand cannon is physical evidence that true firearms existed in Yuan China by the late 13th century, decades before they appear in Europe. It is a key object for understanding how a Chinese invention changed warfare around the world.