blessed by a shaman. The Yuan imperial court retained its Mongolian and
steppe practices even within a nominally Chinese context. This was in sharp
contrast to the disappearance of archery from the Song court. Archery for
Mongols still had meaning beyond the prosaic ability to kill men or beasts.
Even so, the very real value of bows and arrows in warfare led to repeated
edicts by the Yuan emperor forbidding Chinese people (Hanren漢人),
sometimes more specifically southern Chinese (Nanren 南人,or
Jiangnanren江南人), from owning or manufacturing bows and arrows.^4
These prohibitions often extended to the possession, storage, or manufac-
ture of any kind of weapon, and to the practice of martial arts. Bows and
weapons were supposed to be collected by government officials, with spe-
cific provisions, in at least one edict, for what should be done with them
based upon their quality:
Divide the bows, arrows and weapons seized from the Han territory and Jiangnan
into three groups. The lower group, destroy them; the middle group, bestow them
on Mongols living nearby; the upper group, store them in the arsenal.^5
The private production of weapons was prohibited as the corollary to
government production of weapons:
The various circuits shall establish bureaus to manufacture military equipment.
Private manufacture is a capital offense. [If] there are those among the people who
have [military equipment] and do not report it to the officials, it is the same [offense]
as private manufacturing.^6
Sometimes these edicts were directed atHanrenor northern Chinese rather
than the southern Chinese from Jiangnan (the area south of the Yangzi
River). One edict was even directed at foreign Buddhist monks:“It is
forbidden for Western foreign monks to possess weapons.”^7 Of course,
that there were so many edicts repeating the prohibition on weapon
manufacture and ownership is proof that weapons were being widely
produced and used. This was clearly a problem as far as the government
saw it, though it never prohibited Mongols from making or owning
weapons.
One of the punishments for someone from Jiangnan having a bow and
arrows was registration as a soldier.^8 Service in the Yuan military was clearly
not something that a southern Chinese wanted to enter into. Although
Hanrenwere repeatedly prohibited from possessing weapons, and even
from practicing martial arts (wuyi),^9 they could be subject to military service.
One edict specified thatHanrenwere strictly forbidden to possess weapons;
those who were on the military registers were to be issued weapons when
they went on campaign, and on returning were required to hand them back
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