New Book on Chinese/Manchu Archery Equipment
This book, which has come out recently, is one of a series of books on the treasures of the Palace Museum in Beijing. It is richly illustrated and is particularly strong on Qing Manchu bows and the specialized arrow sets used for different purposes. (Peter Dekker, please note.) It is in Chinese only; but the photos are well worth it.
Pictorial Record of Armaments and Military Equipment
《故宮博物院藏文物珍品全集?清宮武備》
編者：徐啟憲
出版社：商務印書館(香港)有限公司
本卷收錄清代宮廷所藏武備286件（套）及極少量的明代武器，分類排序，也收了數量頗豐的西洋火器。珍藏品包括刀劍等冷兵器；火槍火砲等熱兵器；鎧甲、鞍韉等軍事裝備;同時亦收入宮廷繪畫，反映帝王狩獵、軍隊以火器操練、清軍作戰等情節，讓讀者可以具體看見當時武備的使用情況。
Price: HK$420
Pictorial Record of Armaments and Military Equipment
《故宮博物院藏文物珍品全集?清宮武備》
編者：徐啟憲
出版社：商務印書館(香港)有限公司
本卷收錄清代宮廷所藏武備286件（套）及極少量的明代武器，分類排序，也收了數量頗豐的西洋火器。珍藏品包括刀劍等冷兵器；火槍火砲等熱兵器；鎧甲、鞍韉等軍事裝備;同時亦收入宮廷繪畫，反映帝王狩獵、軍隊以火器操練、清軍作戰等情節，讓讀者可以具體看見當時武備的使用情況。
Price: HK$420
Stephen,
I?m interested in the book. Where can I purchase it? You can contact me with the details.
Thank you.
I?m interested in the book. Where can I purchase it? You can contact me with the details.
Thank you.
I've asked the publisher's sales manager how you can obtain the book. I'll let you know after she responds.
S
S
Thank you for your help.
The publisher wrote:
For overseas mail order, pls ask your friends to place the order via our online bookshop:
http://www.cp1897.com.hk/product_info.p ... 9620753596
While our bookstore and online bookstore is launching sales promotion,
those who place the order for this title before 9 Nov 2008 can enjoy discount of 15%.
However, as our online bookshop is currently only available in Chinese, if there are any problems for your friends in placing the order via the web, pls ask them email me directly. Write in English to -
Ms. Angela Wu
The Commercial Press (HK) Ltd.
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 852-29041988
Fax: 852-25625978
S
For overseas mail order, pls ask your friends to place the order via our online bookshop:
http://www.cp1897.com.hk/product_info.p ... 9620753596
While our bookstore and online bookstore is launching sales promotion,
those who place the order for this title before 9 Nov 2008 can enjoy discount of 15%.
However, as our online bookshop is currently only available in Chinese, if there are any problems for your friends in placing the order via the web, pls ask them email me directly. Write in English to -
Ms. Angela Wu
The Commercial Press (HK) Ltd.
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 852-29041988
Fax: 852-25625978
S
Excellent. I got Selby's books but I've been looking for more Chinese books well illustrated dealing with Chinese archery.
Thanks, Stephen.
Thanks, Stephen.
Got the book today (got it along with Mr. Karpowicz book, just imagine how happy I am). What an exquisite book! I'm very grateful to Mr. Selby for the recommendation, otherwise I'd never notice about its existence.
The paintings are extremely beautiful, showing us about the life in the Quing court. The hunting paintings are great, very detailed. In one, there's a man shooting from horseback where you clearly can see how he shot through 2 deer! I never seen these paintings before.
It's also a plus that the museum items have a short description in English, though the book is heavily written in Chinese.
There are Manchu bows a galore and much more arrows. The points are shown in detail. I'm surprised by the quantities of whistling heads. In the paintings archers are shown with full quivers but 2-3 arrows are separated from the rest. My guess is that these special arrows were whistling arrows.
Thank you Mr. Selby. Maybe there are other books from the publisher that cover more archery related museum pieces? Any recommendation will be very much appreciated.
The paintings are extremely beautiful, showing us about the life in the Quing court. The hunting paintings are great, very detailed. In one, there's a man shooting from horseback where you clearly can see how he shot through 2 deer! I never seen these paintings before.
It's also a plus that the museum items have a short description in English, though the book is heavily written in Chinese.
There are Manchu bows a galore and much more arrows. The points are shown in detail. I'm surprised by the quantities of whistling heads. In the paintings archers are shown with full quivers but 2-3 arrows are separated from the rest. My guess is that these special arrows were whistling arrows.
Thank you Mr. Selby. Maybe there are other books from the publisher that cover more archery related museum pieces? Any recommendation will be very much appreciated.
I have received my copy this week. The book is extremely useful. It shows very early Manchu bows and quivers and bow cases. From my point of view the two things that stand out is how similar all the bow cases and quivers from Qianlong back to the start of the dynasty are to each other and how elegant and highly reflexed the early bows are.
Unlike some of the later bows, the string nocks are close to the tips of the bows, increasing their efficiency. The comparison of equipment with contemporary paintings emphasises how accurate the paintings were. It is a lucky chance we get to see such a direct comparison between art and reality.
Many of the bows have lost their handle wrapping which allows you to seen the exact shape of the grip before the lates of cork were applied.
One of the bows is reversed in its photograph. (Nearly all the flintlock guns are printed reversed left to right.) However, the high quality of the photos and their printing make up for these minor problems.
There are more forms of whistling arrows than I ever imagined. Some are so bizarre that they look like space age sculptures. Some even have two shapes of holes for generating the sound.
Unlike some of the later bows, the string nocks are close to the tips of the bows, increasing their efficiency. The comparison of equipment with contemporary paintings emphasises how accurate the paintings were. It is a lucky chance we get to see such a direct comparison between art and reality.
Many of the bows have lost their handle wrapping which allows you to seen the exact shape of the grip before the lates of cork were applied.
One of the bows is reversed in its photograph. (Nearly all the flintlock guns are printed reversed left to right.) However, the high quality of the photos and their printing make up for these minor problems.
There are more forms of whistling arrows than I ever imagined. Some are so bizarre that they look like space age sculptures. Some even have two shapes of holes for generating the sound.
Hi,
The book is indeed really nice and useful, I have been drooling over the various bows and arrows since I got it.
Funny how in the book also show the real Qianlong Heaven Series Nr. 1 saber, something they switched for a high officer's saber in the Palace Museum. I've always wondered how such a mixup came to being, all they have to do is draw the saber from its scabbard to check the serial number.
On the descriptions, be wary on any description of items that don't still have their original Imperial Household tags on them and thus had to be guessed. For example, some pretty standard 18th cent. military "Plum needle" arrows are described as "Fast arrows" for shooting birds. Such arrows did indeed exist, but looked a lot different from these, they did not have the long steel necks.
I am currently doing an annotated translation of a set of regulations on Qing era weapons, containing about 64 arrows. Many of these arrows, including the "Fast arrow" are described here so we can check the woodblock illustrations and descriptions with items presented. With a book like this, it was a sort of "coming home" where it really helped in figuring out what exactly was meant in the text. The diversity especially of hunting arrows is astounding.
That Kangxi walked the talk in archery becomes obvious from his 150 pound bow in there. Quite impressive for a guy that had to respond to hundreds of letters each day in calligraphy and with such a wide range of other hobbies and interests that one wonders how he managed to get the time to do all this.
Of special interest to me is Kangxi's bow, page 31 number 24. It appears to be made of one long single piece of horn running from knee to knee. I've examined a bow with a similar feature in the Metropolitan Museum of Arts and there is another in the Shenyang Palace Museum. All can be traced back to the imperial workshops but how they managed to do it is beyond me. Perhaps they heated the horn and managed to stretch it? Or they just reserved the longest horns in the empire for the imperial shops.
-Peter
The book is indeed really nice and useful, I have been drooling over the various bows and arrows since I got it.
Funny how in the book also show the real Qianlong Heaven Series Nr. 1 saber, something they switched for a high officer's saber in the Palace Museum. I've always wondered how such a mixup came to being, all they have to do is draw the saber from its scabbard to check the serial number.
On the descriptions, be wary on any description of items that don't still have their original Imperial Household tags on them and thus had to be guessed. For example, some pretty standard 18th cent. military "Plum needle" arrows are described as "Fast arrows" for shooting birds. Such arrows did indeed exist, but looked a lot different from these, they did not have the long steel necks.
I am currently doing an annotated translation of a set of regulations on Qing era weapons, containing about 64 arrows. Many of these arrows, including the "Fast arrow" are described here so we can check the woodblock illustrations and descriptions with items presented. With a book like this, it was a sort of "coming home" where it really helped in figuring out what exactly was meant in the text. The diversity especially of hunting arrows is astounding.
That Kangxi walked the talk in archery becomes obvious from his 150 pound bow in there. Quite impressive for a guy that had to respond to hundreds of letters each day in calligraphy and with such a wide range of other hobbies and interests that one wonders how he managed to get the time to do all this.
Of special interest to me is Kangxi's bow, page 31 number 24. It appears to be made of one long single piece of horn running from knee to knee. I've examined a bow with a similar feature in the Metropolitan Museum of Arts and there is another in the Shenyang Palace Museum. All can be traced back to the imperial workshops but how they managed to do it is beyond me. Perhaps they heated the horn and managed to stretch it? Or they just reserved the longest horns in the empire for the imperial shops.
-Peter
Hi,
The book is indeed really nice and useful, I have been drooling over the various bows and arrows since I got it.
Funny how in the book also show the real Qianlong Heaven Series Nr. 1 saber, something they switched for a high officer's saber in the Palace Museum. I've always wondered how such a mixup came to being, all they have to do is draw the saber from its scabbard to check the serial number.
On the descriptions, be wary on any description of items that don't still have their original Imperial Household tags on them and thus had to be guessed. For example, some pretty standard 18th cent. military "Plum needle" arrows are described as "Fast arrows" for shooting birds. Such arrows did indeed exist, but looked a lot different from these, they did not have the long steel necks.
I am currently doing an annotated translation of a set of regulations on Qing era weapons, containing about 64 arrows. Many of these arrows, including the "Fast arrow" are described here so we can check the woodblock illustrations and descriptions with items presented. With a book like this, it was a sort of "coming home" where it really helped in figuring out what exactly was meant in the text. The diversity especially of hunting arrows is astounding.
That Kangxi walked the talk in archery becomes obvious from his 150 pound bow in there. Quite impressive for a guy that had to respond to hundreds of letters each day in calligraphy and with such a wide range of other hobbies and interests that one wonders how he managed to get the time to do all this.
Of special interest to me is Kangxi's bow, page 31 number 24. It appears to be made of one long single piece of horn running from knee to knee. I've examined a bow with a similar feature in the Metropolitan Museum of Arts and there is another in the Shenyang Palace Museum. All can be traced back to the imperial workshops but how they managed to do it is beyond me. Perhaps they heated the horn and managed to stretch it? Or they just reserved the longest horns in the empire for the imperial shops.
-Peter
The book is indeed really nice and useful, I have been drooling over the various bows and arrows since I got it.
Funny how in the book also show the real Qianlong Heaven Series Nr. 1 saber, something they switched for a high officer's saber in the Palace Museum. I've always wondered how such a mixup came to being, all they have to do is draw the saber from its scabbard to check the serial number.
On the descriptions, be wary on any description of items that don't still have their original Imperial Household tags on them and thus had to be guessed. For example, some pretty standard 18th cent. military "Plum needle" arrows are described as "Fast arrows" for shooting birds. Such arrows did indeed exist, but looked a lot different from these, they did not have the long steel necks.
I am currently doing an annotated translation of a set of regulations on Qing era weapons, containing about 64 arrows. Many of these arrows, including the "Fast arrow" are described here so we can check the woodblock illustrations and descriptions with items presented. With a book like this, it was a sort of "coming home" where it really helped in figuring out what exactly was meant in the text. The diversity especially of hunting arrows is astounding.
That Kangxi walked the talk in archery becomes obvious from his 150 pound bow in there. Quite impressive for a guy that had to respond to hundreds of letters each day in calligraphy and with such a wide range of other hobbies and interests that one wonders how he managed to get the time to do all this.
Of special interest to me is Kangxi's bow, page 31 number 24. It appears to be made of one long single piece of horn running from knee to knee. I've examined a bow with a similar feature in the Metropolitan Museum of Arts and there is another in the Shenyang Palace Museum. All can be traced back to the imperial workshops but how they managed to do it is beyond me. Perhaps they heated the horn and managed to stretch it? Or they just reserved the longest horns in the empire for the imperial shops.
-Peter
Some female buffalo have very long and straight horns. With an empire to choose from, maybe some exceptional horns were discovered.