Why Chinese Used Bow Centuries After Europeans Discontinued

choi

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Christopher Shea, Chinese Bows Were Superior, Too.. Idea Market, Jan 13, 2011.
http://blogs.wsj.com/ideas-market/2011/01/13/chinese-bows-were-superior-too/

My comment:
(a) Chinese preference for sword or bow, because they thought 冷兵器 were superior, though they might be not. Think 大刀王五 or General 張自忠's 大刀隊.

張自忠
http://zh.wikipedia.org/zh/%E5%BC%B5%E8%87%AA%E5%BF%A0
(1891-1940)

(b) Nieminen TA, "The Asian war bow", in Barbiero E , Hannaford P and Moss D (eds), 19th Australian Institute of Physics Congress, ACOFTAOS, 2010 (ISBN 978-0-9775657-6-4)

Another report based on the paper:

The Puzzling Evolution of Guns Versus Bows; In Western Europe, military bows became obsolete during the C16th as firearms evolved. But in China, guns and bows coexisted for almost a millennium. Now one scientist thinks he knows why. Technology Review, Jan 12, 2011.
http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/arxiv/26258/?nlid=3999

Quote:

"And yet in China, weaponry evolved in an entirely different way. Here, firearms were used much earlier. In 1232, the Mongol army used firearms as armour piercing weapons during the siege of Pien in China (now known as Khai-Fun Fu). And firearms may have been in use much earlier. One picture dating from the C10th shows a demon wielding a gun of sorts.


Note:
(i) Battle of Agincourt
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Agincourt
(in the Hundred Years' War; Oct 25, 1415;  fought in the narrow strip of open land formed between the woods of Tramecourt and Agincourt (close to the modern village of Azincourt)
(ii) longbow
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longbow
(a type of bow that is tall (roughly equal to the height of the person who uses it))
(iii) crossbow
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossbow
(iv) Pien 汴 (presently 開封)
(v) bowyer (n): "a maker of shooting bows"  www.m-w.com

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