Chu-ko-nu

Origins

The crossbow was a major weapon in China from the Warring States period onward, and it is covered in the entries on the Crossbow and the Han Crossbow. Repeating crossbows were also developed early. In the 1980s archaeologists excavating a tomb of the state of Chu at Qinjiazui in Hubei province found a small repeating crossbow of lacquered wood, dated to around the fourth century BC. It could shoot two bolts at a time from a magazine, and it shows that the basic principle was known long before the Han dynasty.

The weapon's later name comes from Zhuge Liang (181-234), the chief minister of the state of Shu during the Three Kingdoms period, whose family name was Zhuge, written Chu-ko in the older Wade-Giles spelling. Chinese sources credit him with improving a repeating crossbow that could shoot ten bolts. What exactly he designed is not known, and the attribution to him of the later weapon is traditional rather than proven. Zhuge Liang became a legendary figure, and many inventions were credited to him in later centuries.

Design & Construction

The best-known form of the weapon is the one described and illustrated in Ming dynasty military works such as the Wubei Zhi of 1621 and preserved in examples from the Qing period. It had a wooden stock, a short, fairly light bow of wood, bamboo or composite construction, and a wooden box magazine on top holding about ten short bolts. The magazine was joined to a lever pivoted on the stock. Pushing the lever forward allowed a notch at the rear of the magazine to catch the string. Pulling it back drew the string, and as the lever reached the end of its travel the string was pushed free and loosed the bolt that had dropped into the groove from the magazine. The next bolt then fell into place. There was no separate trigger. A practiced user could empty the magazine in perhaps fifteen or twenty seconds, far faster than any ordinary crossbow could be reloaded. Some versions shot two bolts at a time.

Combat Use

The price of speed was power. The bow had to be light enough to be drawn by one arm working a lever, so its bolts had short range and little force, and they were unlikely to pierce good armor. Chinese writers therefore recommended it for defending walls, gateways and boats, for use against unarmored men, and for household defense against bandits. Bolts were sometimes tipped with poison, which made even a light wound dangerous. A group of men with repeating crossbows could pour out a heavy volume of shot at close range, and in that role it was comparable to other Chinese volley weapons such as the Korean Hwacha used by its neighbor.

Legacy

The repeating crossbow remained in use in China through the Ming and Qing dynasties, long after firearms had become common, because it was cheap, easy to learn and needed no gunpowder. Surviving examples in Western and Chinese museums are mostly of this late type, often plain and practical rather than decorated. It became one of the best-known Chinese weapons in the West in the nineteenth century, when examples were collected and described by writers such as Ralph Payne-Gallwey. It remains a popular subject for reconstruction and for modern interest in the history of Chinese technology.