[Captain Gill writes (River of Golden Sand, I. p. 148): "The word 'P'ao'
which now means 'cannon,' was, it was asserted, found in old Chinese books
of a date anterior to that in which gunpowder was first known to
Europeans; hence the deduction was drawn that the Chinese were acquainted
with gunpowder before it was used in the West. But close examination shows
that in all old books the radical of the character 'P'ao' means 'stone,'
but that in modern books the radical of the character 'P'ao' means 'fire';
that the character with the radical 'fire' only appears in books well
known to have been written since the introduction of gunpowder into the
West; and that the old character 'P'ao' in reality means 'Balista.'"
- H.C.]
["Wheeled boats are mentioned in 1272 at the siege of Siang-yang. Kublai
did not decide to 'go for' Manzi, i.e. the southern of the two Chinese
Empires, until 1273. Bayan did not start until 1274, appearing before
Hankow in January 1275. Wuhu and Taiping surrendered in April; then
Chinkiang, Kien K'ang (Nanking), and Ning kwoh; the final crushing blow
being dealt at Hwai-chan. In March 1276, the Manzi Emperor accepted
vassaldom. Kiang-nan was regularly administered in 1278." (E. H. Parker,
China Review, xxiv. p. 105.) - H.C.]
Siang-yang has been twice visited by Mr. A. Wylie. Just before his first
visit (I believe in 1866) a discovery had been made in the city of a
quantity of treasure buried at the time of the siege. One of the local
officers gave Mr. Wylie one of the copper coins, not indeed in itself of
any great rarity, but worth engraving here on account of its connection
with the siege commemorated in the text; and a little on the principle of
Smith the Weaver's evidence: - "The bricks are alive at this day to testify
of it; therefore deny it not."
[Illustration: Coin from a treasure hidden at Siang-yang during the siege
in 1268-73, lately discovered.]
[1] And to the Bern MS. which seems to be a copy of it, as is also I think
(in substance) the Bodleian.
[2] In this note I am particularly indebted to the researches of the
Emperor Napoleon III. on this subject. (Etudes sur le passe et
l'avenir de l'Artillerie; 1851.)
[3] Thus Joinville mentions the journey of Jehan li Ermin, the king's
artillerist, from Acre to Damascus, pour acheter cornes et glus pour
faire arbalestres - to buy horns and glue to make crossbows withal
(p. 134).
In the final defence of Acre (1291) we hear of balistae bipedales
(with a forked rest?) and other vertiginales (traversing on a pivot)
that shot 3 quarrels at once, and with such force as to stitch the
Saracens to their bucklers - cum clypeis consutos interfecerunt.
