Although the destructive effects of gunpowder were described in the earlier
Tang dynasty by a
Daoist alchemist, the earliest-known existent written formulas for gunpowder come from the
Wujing Zongyao text of 1044, which described explosive bombs hurled from catapults.
[51] The earliest developments of the gun barrel and the projectile-fire
cannon were found in late Song China. The first art depiction of the Chinese '
fire lance' (a combination of a temporary-fire flamethrower and gun) was from a Buddhist mural painting of
Dunhuang, dated circa 950.
[52] These 'fire-lances' were widespread in use by the early 12th century, featuring hollowed bamboo poles as tubes to fire sand particles (to blind and choke), lead pellets, bits of sharp metal and pottery shards, and finally large gunpowder-propelled arrows and
rocket weaponry.
[53] Eventually, perishable bamboo was replaced with hollow tubes of cast iron, and so too did the terminology of this new weapon change, from 'fire-spear' ('huo qiang') to 'fire-tube' ('huo tong').
[54] This ancestor to the gun was complemented by the ancestor to the cannon, what the Chinese referred to since the 13th century as the 'multiple bullets magazine erupter' ('bai zu lian zhu pao'), a tube of bronze or cast iron that was filled with about 100 lead balls.
[55] In 1132, at the
Siege of De'an, Song Chinese forces used fire lances against the rival
Jurchen-led
Jin dynasty.
[56]
