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Earliest known written formula for gunpowder, from the Wujing Zongyao of 1044 AD.. Gunpowder is the first explosive to have been developed. Popularly listed as one of the "Four Great Inventions" of China, it was invented during the late Tang dynasty (9th century) while the earliest recorded chemical formula for gunpowder dates to the Song dynasty (11th century).
The idea that gunpowder was a Chinese invention was not new to Europeans by then, and had been in circulation in Europe since at least the late 16th century. According to Juan de Mendoza, writing in 1585, the Chinese told the Portuguese that they had invented gunpowder, contradicting their own belief that "an Almane" had been the inventor.
China: Private trade of gunpowder ingredients is banned in the Song dynasty. [20] 1075: Sinosphere: Vietnam's Lý dynasty used fire arrows and against the Song dynasty during the Lý–Song War (1075–1077). [21] 1076: China: Trade of gunpowder ingredients with the Liao and Western Xia dynasties is outlawed by the Song court. [14] 1083: China
Gunpowder was invented in the 9th century by Chinese alchemists searching for an elixir of immortality. [19] By the time the Song dynasty treatise, Wujing Zongyao (武经总要), was written by Zeng Gongliang and Yang Weide in 1044, the various Chinese formulas for gunpowder held levels of nitrate in the range of 27% to 50%. [20]
Hand cannon, Ming dynasty, 1379 The first firearms were invented in China, following the invention of gunpowder.The earliest known depiction of a gunpowder weapon is the illustration of a fire lance on a mid-10th century silk banner from Dunhuang. [2]
Evidence of gunpowder's first use in China comes from the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (618–907). [336] The earliest known recorded recipes for gunpowder are written by Zeng Gongliang, Ding Du, and Yang Weide in the Wujing Zongyao, a military manuscript compiled in 1044 during the Song dynasty (960–1279). [337] [338] [339]
It is also known that an explosive material such as gunpowder must be invented 1st before inventing firearms (guns) in the Middle Ages. In Wikipedia's article about gunpowder, the first sentence of the third paragraph says " Gunpowder was, according to prevailing academic consensus, invented in the 8th century in China". But other sources say ...
[92] [93] Western writers from Marco Polo (1254–1324), to Niccolò Da Conti (1395–1469), to Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) commented on bulkhead partitions, which they viewed as an original aspect of Chinese shipbuilding, as Western shipbuilding did not incorporate this hull arrangement until the early 19th century. [94] [95]