Description

This treatise, with rich illustrations, is entitled Huo gong qie yao (All essential matters on firearms). Its alternative title is Ze ke lu (Rules for defense). The text was originally dictated by Tang Ruowang (the Chinese name of the German Jesuit missionary Johann Adam Schall von Bell, 1592–1666) in 1643 and copied by the late-Ming scholar and expert on firearms, Jiao Xu (active 1643). Jiao Xu expressed his view that the technical standards of Chinese cannons and other artillery weapons were not inferior to those of the West and ...