With respect to crossbow archery, Hua Yue further wrote:“The bar-
barians have long had the horse, the Han (Chinese) have long had the
crossbow.”^6 Hua’s point, written in the later part of the Song Dynasty, was
to reassert for the reader the fundamental differences in martial practice
between steppe and sedentary Chinese society. He was not attempting to
change what he saw as long-standing cultural orientations but to proceed
from these realities. Since things had always been this way, one should
work within these parameters. Yet at the same time, he just as clearly
understood that steppe people and Chinese people shared the bow in their
respective cultures. The differences were in the steppe use of the horse in
everyday life and then in warfare, and the Chinese use of the crossbow. The
crossbow was, and always had been, a distinctly Chinese weapon, and its
use was almost unheard of in the steppe.
These differences became more pronounced after the Song lost control
of north China to the Jurchen Jin. In the eleventh century the Song govern-
ment had struggled to provide enough horses for the army, but this became
even more difficult when the Song controlled none of the territory north of
the Huai River.^7 As hard as it was to get horses in southern China, it was
even harder to keep them healthy. The Song military’s offensive power was
severely curtailed by the lack of horses; its great defensive strength came
from naval forces and fortifications along the Huai River. Crossbows were
extremely effective in naval and siege warfare, andfirst the Jurchen and
then the Mongols found it very difficult to breach the Song defenses. The
emphasis on naval and siege warfare also boosted the use of earlyfirearms.
The main advantages of the crossbow were greater range and penetrat-
ing power. It could also be spanned (the string pulled back tofiring
position) using one’s legs and back strength, rather than arm strength,
and the string held in place until the trigger was pulled. Song soldiers were
tested on the draw weight of the crossbow they could span. They were also
tested on the draw weight of the bow they could pull. As in earlier times,
basic tests of strength were used as a measure of martial capability.
Crossbowfiring was tested mostly on the basis of range rather than
accuracy. This may well have been because it would have been nearly
impossible to pick out a target at long crossbow range with the naked eye.
The weakness of the crossbow was its slow rate offire. Xu Dong,
writing in the early eleventh century,figured that a crossbow could only
fire once or twice before enemy cavalry reached the shooter.^8 Crossbows
were therefore a specialty weapon on the battlefield that could only be used
in conjunction with bows and solid infantry formations, or from fortifica-
tions and ships. They were probably similar to earlyfirearms in rate offire,
122 The Five Dynasties, Ten Kingdoms, and Song Dynasty