page_title: Economy of the Song dynasty
section_title: Gunpowder production
hierarchical_section_title: Economy of the Song dynasty / Handicraft industry / Gunpowder production
caption_attribution_description: The earliest known written description of the formula for gunpowder, from the Chinese Wujing Zongyao military manuscript that was compiled by 1044 during the Song Dynasty of China. It was written and compiled by the 11th century Song scholars Zeng Gongliang (曾公亮), Ding Du (丁度), and Yang Weide (楊惟德). The entry for this specific page is headed with the title "method for making the fire-chemical" ("huo yao fa"). This picture can also be found on page 119 of Joseph Needham's book Science and Civilization in China: Volume 5, Part 7.
context_page_description: For over three centuries during the Song dynasty China experienced sustained growth in per capita income and population, structural change in the economy, and increased pace of technological innovation. Movable print, improved seeds for rice and other commercial crops, gunpowder, water-powered mechanical clocks, the use of coal as a source of fuel for a variety of industries, improved techniques for iron and steel production, pound locks and many other technological innovations transformed the economy. In north China, the main fuel source for ceramic kilns and iron furnaces shifted from wood to coal. This made the job a lot faster because coal burns quicker.
  During the Song dynasty, there was also a notable increase in commercial contacts with global markets. Merchants engaged in overseas trade through investments in trading vessels and trade which reached ports as far away as East Africa. This period also witnessed the development of the world's first banknote, or printed paper money, which circulated on a massive scale. Combined with a unified tax system and efficient trade routes by road and canal, this meant the development of a truly nationwide market.
context_section_description: During the Song period, there was a great deal of organized labor and bureaucracy involved in the extraction of resources from the various provinces in China. The production of sulfur, which the Chinese called 'vitriol liquid', was extracted from pyrite and used for pharmaceutical purposes as well as for the creation of gunpowder. This was done by roasting iron pyrites, converting the sulphide to oxide, as the ore was piled up with coal briquettes in an earthenware furnace with a type of still-head to send the sulfur over as vapour, after which it would solidify and crystallize. The historical text of the Song Shi (History of the Song, compiled in 1345 AD) stated that the major producer of sulfur in the Tang and Song dynasties was the Jin Zhou sub-provincial administrative region (modern Linfen in southern Shanxi). The bureaucrats appointed to the region managed the industrial processing and sale of it, and the amount created and distributed from the years 996 to 997 alone was 405,000 jin (roughly 200 tons). It was recorded that in 1076 AD the Song government held a strict commercial monopoly on sulfur production, and if dye houses and government workshops sold their products to private dealers in the black market, they were subject to meted penalties by government authorities. Even before this point, in 1067 AD, the Song government had issued an edict that the people living in Shanxi and Hebei were forbidden to sell foreigners any products containing saltpetre and sulfur. This act by the Song government displayed their fears of the grave potential of gunpowder weapons being developed by Song China's territorial enemies as well (i.e. the Tanguts and Khitans).
  Since Jin Zhou was in close proximity to the Song capital at Kaifeng, the latter became the largest producer of gunpowder during the Northern Song period. With enhanced sulfur from pyrite instead of natural sulfur (along with enhanced potassium nitrate), the Chinese were able to shift the use of gunpowder from an incendiary use into an explosive one for early artillery. There were large manufacturing plants in the Song dynasty for the purpose of making 'fire-weapons' employing the use of gunpowder, such as fire lances and fire arrows. While engaged in a war with the Mongols, in 1259 the official Li Zengbo wrote in his Ko Zhai Za Gao, Xu Gao Hou that the city of Qingzhou was manufacturing one to two thousand strong iron-cased bomb shells a month, dispatching to Xiangyang and Yingzhou about ten to twenty thousand such bombs at a time.  One of the main armories and arsenals for the storage of gunpowder and weapons was located at Weiyang, which accidentally caught fire and produced a massive explosion in 1280 AD.
caption: The earliest known written formula for gunpowder, from the Wujing Zongyao manuscript compiled in 1044.
exif: {}