Hidden Weapons
4 min readHidden weapons refer to projectiles, or weapons used for a quiet hit by stealth. The Chinese Wushu went into its heyday in the Qing Dynasty. In the latter of the dynasty, the firearm became increasingly popular and hidden weapons gradually became outdated. However, some Wushu learners still use such techniques today.
The hidden weapons are divided into four categories, including thrown weapons, rope-like weapons, shooting weapons and poisonous projectiles. Each category consists of several types of weapons.
Gold-decorated bronze trigger-mechanism of a crossbow, the Western Han Dynasty, unearthed from Linzi, Shangdong province Book of Spring Bow, published in 18o6(the 1oth year under the reign of Emperor Xianfeng of the Qing Dynasty), collected in Capital Library of China The thrown weapons include flying pikes, darts, flying forks, flying sabers and plum-blossom needles.
The rope-like weapons consist of rope darts and meteor hammers.
The shooting weapons include sleeve-hidden arrows (arrows hidden in a sleeve), catapults and regular arrows.
The poisonous projectiles consist of sleeve-hidden cannons (small cannons hidden in a sleeve), sprays and a beak-shaped pistol.
Some hidden weapons, including blow arrows, daggers and gimlets, cannot be classified within the four categories.
The thrown weapons are the most popular and diversified among all the hidden weapons. Darts, also called hand-hidden darts, they come in trigonal, pentagonal and cylindrical shapes with pointed ends in the front. The darts are around to cm in length and weigh o.2 kg. The darts usually have a stripe of red or green silk tied on to the end, called the “dart coat,”which is around 8 cm in length and helps the darts fly steadily.
Bows of the Song Dynasty
The flying forks are made of iron and have three tips in front，with the longer one in the middle and the other two cutting-edge tips on the outsides.The three tips are sharp and in the shape of a spearhead.The flying forks are around 27 cm in length and weigh between o.25 to o.5 kg.The fork handle tapers off from the back end to the front.
The plum-blossom needles are also a common type of hidden weaponry.The plum-blossom needles are composed of five steel needles with back ends connected together.The needles are around 3 cm in length.Once the needles make contact，they produce five wounds in the shape of plum blossom，hence its name.
The rope darts，meteor hammers，flying claw and soft whip are most popular among the rope-like weapons.
Arrowheads，bronze weapons of the Warring States period，collected by Tianjin Baocheng Museum Garden The rope darts refer to a steel dart tied with a long piece of rope at the end.The steel darts are a little bigger than the normal darts，around o.2 m in length and weighing o.3 kg.It has a pointed tip and its wide end is circular in shape.An iron hoop at the end of the dart is used to tie the rope，which is around 6.7 to 1o m in length.
Steel lotus，a kind of weapon
Making crossbow, an ilustration from Tian Gong Kai Wu Tian Gong Kai Wu was an encyclopedia of technology with illustrations by Song Yingxing(1587-1661),a writer-scientist of the Ming Dynasty. It collected many manufacturing technologies of weapons of that time.
The meteor hammer is composed of an iron hammer and a long rope. The iron hammers are usually in the shape of a ball, paw or gengon. It weighss around 1.5 to 2.5 kg.
The sleeve-hidden arrows are the most popular among the shooting weapons. They include the single-tube arrows and the plum-blossom-tube arrows. Both kinds of weapons tie to the lower arm with the front of the tube close to the wrist. The tube is designed with springs and a special mechanism. One arrow can be installed and shot from the single-tube. However, the plum-blossom-tube contains six small arrows, one in the middle and the others around it, which takes the shape of a plum-blossom, and can be shot continuously. The arrow’s stem is made of a thin bamboo around 2o cm in length. The stem has an iron head at the front end. The single-tube is around 24 cm in length and its 2.4 cm-diameter is made of bronze and iron.A small hole at the top ofthe tube is used to install arrows, which are shot from a small hole at the front end of the tube. The plum-blossom-tube is thicker and has a 3.5 cm-diameter and is 24 cm long.
Counterwork between Ming and later Jin troops from Qing ShiLu The Ming troops used firearms with broadswords, whingers and lances (on the right), while the later Jin troops still used bows and arrows at war.
The catapults are also very common among the shooting weapons. They are made of hard wood and designed with a pod used to install an arrow stem. The crossbow is designed at the back end of the catapult and is controlled by the catapult body. The catapults are very small and usually around 33 cm long.
The sleeve-hidden cannons are the most popular among the poisonous projectiles. It is a special hidden weapon featured by intermixing gunpowder. It is educed from the muzzle-loading cannons of the past. It is made of bamboo pipe, which size is similar to that of a small handless wine cup. The pipe is around 4o cm long and has three iron hoops on the outside. Both ends of the pipe are wrapped with a thin iron coat; one end is the mouth of the cannon mouth, while the other is used to load the gunpowder.
