Wujing Zongyao
The earliest surviving chemical formula of gunpowder dates to 1044 in the form of the military manual "Wujing Zongyao", also known in English as the "Complete Essentials for the Military Classics", which contains a collection of factoids on Chinese weaponry. However the 1044 edition has since been lost and the only currently extant copy is dated to 1510 during the Ming dynasty. The "Wujing Zongyao" served as a repository of antiquated or fanciful weaponry, and this applied to gunpowder as well, suggesting that it had already been weaponized long before the invention of what would today be considered conventional firearms. These types of gunpowder weapons styles an assortment of odd names such as "flying incendiary club for subjugating demons", "caltrop fire ball", "ten-thousand fire flying sand magic bomb", "big bees nest", "burning heaven fierce fire unstoppable bomb", "fire bricks" which released "flying swallows", "flying rats", "fire birds", and "fire oxen". Eventually they gave way and coalesced into a smaller number of dominant weapon types, notably gunpowder arrows, bombs, and guns. This was most likely because some weapons were deemed too onerous or ineffective to deploy.