A Study Of The Firearm Applications During The Qing Dynasty

China is the origin of black gunpowder,Firearms were used as early as the late Tang dynasty,With 600 years development throughout the Song and Ming dynasty till the Mid-Ming dynasty,they had been a wide variety,but basically stuck in the door gun phase.Since the emperor Zhengde of Ming dynasty,the introduction of western firearms represented by Farangi and Hong Yi Cannon prompted a military revolution in China,after the middle period of the reign of Empero Kangxi in Qing dynasty,the development of Chinese firearms that had absorbed western technologies stalled,Utill 150 years later when the Opium War broke out did the Chinese people started to receive the western technologies and cultures for the second time.The study of firearms' deveopment in Qing dynasty,which happened to span the two important periods,will not only benefits the anlysis of the deveopment skeleton of the Chinese firearms,but also help us to find out the root cause of the gap between China and the West.So,in this paper,I will try to analyze the evolution of firearm system,technology,equipment,training and application in the Qing dynasty,compare it with the development of firearm in the Ming dynasty and the west at the same time,to obtain a comprehensive understanding and then find out Chinese difficulties in embarking on a independent innovative journey in firearms.The paper consists of three chapters.The first chapter,focusing on the structuers of firearms,mainly refers to their classifications,calibres,weights,connon-shots,The bullet and the powder weight ratio,and the auxlliary instruments,as far as possible to make a specific analysis on functions of the fireduns and cannons in Qing dynasty and compare them with those in Ming dynasty and the contemporary western countries,basing on the anlysis,I have made a conclusion that the development of firearms in Qing dynasty was indeed the continuation of the military revolution in the late Ming dynasty,and their each performance index was better,at least more practical.By the middle of Kangxi years,Qing dynasty had basically absobed the weatern firearms technology from the 16 to 17 century in form,the latter two have different emphases on the development direction.From the datas on paper,we can find that both China and the West still remained in the stage of the muzzleloading gunpowders and had no comparative differences till the beginning of the 19 th century,though the western perfoemance index were more advanced than Qing dynasty.In the second chapter,focusing on the tecnology of the firearm manufacturing,the equipments,and the training methods along the time line,believed that the manufacturing technology of firearms in the early Qing dynasty was mostly derived from the Ming dynasty,compared with the western countries in the same period,the lack of knowledge and theory is not significant,which is mainly reflected in the backward production technology.In terms of the equipments of the firearms,till the periods of the reign of the Emperor Kangxi and Emperor Yongzheng in Qing dynasty,the average percentage of firearm in Qing armies was similar to The capital army that in the end of Ming dynasty,and even higher in the fighting forces.The equipment of firearm has experienced from the soldiers shotgun to Jingall.The artillery evolved from the midium and heavy type cannons like Hong Yi to the light type ones like Cluster gun and Split Hill gun,also had a trend of integrating with the fireguns,therefore,the Qing firepower intensity is often slightly inferior to the western secondary combat units.From the perspective of training methods,though the Qing dynasty having many kinds of military units cooperating with each other,but their daily exercises still focused on shooting targets and ignored the training of organization and discipline,this understanding is not only inferior to the western and even the Ming dynasty Qijia army.In the third chapter,focusing on the Western Expedition to Junggar and The large and small Jinchuan battles,the discussion was mainly about the interaction between the wartime application and development trend of firearms in the Qing dynasty.Basing on the analysis,It is believed that the war against the nomads in Wulanbutong promoted the army in Qing dynasty to train the firearm battalions,start the firearm phalanx,untill the battle of Zhaomodo was basically mature and formed the coordinated battle strategy between the infantry,the cavalry and the artillery in order to adapt to the desert grassland environment.The large and small Jinchuan battles with mountain chieftain promoted the Qing army to pay more attention to the individual bravery and strenghth,they established the cracktroops and put a premium on improving the individual soldier's fireguns power,to enhance individual ignition power and adapt to the mountain jungle environment,which,as a result,leaded to the stagnation of the development of the previous square strategy.From acomprehensive perspective,the militery revolution which started in the mid-Ming dynasty had ended up with the decline of traditional Chinese firearms and had been basically completely westerized until the mid-Ming dyndasty.In comparison,every performance index of the firearms in Qing dynasty was advanced than that in Ming dynasty and was almost equal to that in the western countries,at least in the beginning of the 18 th century.But its development remained stagnant and even regressed comparied with that in Ming dynasty in the basic theory and the tactical theory,development appears to lack staying power.In fact,the differences of firearm development between China and West lie in the understanding of its function,China replaced the traditional arrow with the new firearm and recreated by translanted them to the previous systems,the idea of“Chinese style with western application” has long been existed.In the western countries,there was a revolution in military affairs centered on firearms,“Blow the knighthood to smithereens”,and as an opportunity to promote social change.