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CHU-KO-NU - THE MANCHURIAN REPEATING CROSSBOW



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CHU-KO-NU THE MANCHURIAN REPEATING CROSSBOW by George, 22 June 1995



Introduction: Since comparatively little information had been published relating to the Chu-ko-nu, I have always had the desire to write a full description of it, accompanied by precisely dimensioned drawings. This would enable the motivated reader and bowyer to make an exact replica - an enterprise I would heartily applaud! (Two have been made from the drawings so far! Editor) General Background: The Chu-ko-nu is equipped with a magazine which holds 10 steel-tipped bolts, about 5/16" in diameter and 7.25" long, which it shoots in succession. It is operated by grasping the handle of its stock in the left hand and working the lever with the right, the piece being held just above waist level and being steadied solely by the grip of the two hands on the handles, as with a pair of large garden shears. It was conceived, reportedly, by a certain Chu Ko Liang during the later Han period (c.23-220 A.D.) and was based on an earlier design, known as the lien nu or ts'an lien, which had a capacity of four bolts (1). It was designed primarily for a high "rate of fire" for use against massed troops at ranges probably not exceeding 50-75 yards. While certainly not as accurate as single-shot crossbows, which are deliberately aimed from the shoulder, its ability to discharge missiles at rates of up to about two per second, against an extended target, could create pandemonium and a high casualty rate in the ranks of the enemy. Cavalry would be especially vulnerable, since the horse presents a large target, and a wounded animal is difficult to control. The chu-ko-nu was thus particularly effective as a fortress defense weapon against troops approaching and massing about its ramparts. As shown in an early photograph, a rectangular flanking tower of the battlemented walls of Peking is a stone structure some 100 feet high and 150 wide (2). Each corner of the fort has such a tower. The walls of its upper half are perforated with rectangular window-like openings which were designed for archers defending the city. There are 4 rows and 14 columns of these openings in each of the two outer-facing walls, making a total of 112 openings. If a chu-ko-nu, with a nominal rate of fire of one bolt/second, were being used at each opening, the total downpour on besieging troops would be a prodigious 6,720 bolts per minute! The chu-ko-nu is of quite ancient origin, there being reason to believe that its lineage dates back to, at least, about 250 BC. The earlier lien nu version reportedly was used in 210 BC by the first Ch'in emperor for shark shooting (1). During the 1st century BC, the retreat of 5,000 Chinese troops before a much greater force of Hsiung Nu (Hun) cavalry was successfully covered by 1,000 crossbowmen, who



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CHU-KO-NU - THE MANCHURIAN REPEATING CROSSBOW



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are said to have shot 500,000 bolts in a day (1). This is quite a feat which, if reported accurately, indicates that the chu-ko-nu may well have been part of the armamentarium of these crossbowmen. There is no doubt whatever that the chu-ko-nu was used as late as the Boxer Rebellion. The writer clearly recalls a published photo of a ravaged Peking fort, showing an abandoned chu-ko-nu, at the top of a battlement, its muzzle thrust upward and its bow in full profile, vividly silhouetted against the bright featureless sky! Description: Especially since it is quite rare, it would be both instructive as well as historically interesting to quote the earliest source of information known to me, a work by J.G.Wood, which describes the chu-ko-nu in some detail (3). It is of little consequence that the weapon he describes differs in some minor details from mine, since the operation and principle are the same. My specimen is shown in Fig.1 and his in Fig.2, a cut from his book. >>>