The Manchu archery tradition
It is hard to trace back the exact origins of Manchu archery but it is known that archery was present amont the people that have inhabited the region of present day Manchuria for many centuries. Without doubt, the Manchu archery tradition influenced, and was influenced by, the traditions of neighboring cultures. Among them were the Mongols, Koreans and Chinese who all had strong and long standing archery traditions of their own.

Defining Manchu archery
When I speak of Manchu archery, I am strictly speaking of the style of bows, arrows, and the method of using them that was introduced into China by the Manchus around the17th century, the time when they conquered China from the Ming dynasty. We may never really know the true roots of this tradition because there is so little material left for us to study about the pre-conquest Manchus. What we do know is that at the time of conquest, the Manchus introduced a type of bow, arrow and shooting technique that was distinctly different from that of any of their neighbours. It did not only spread into China as a result of the conquest, but it also influenced the bow designs of the Mongols and Tibetans. Indeed, what is now seen as a traditional Mongolian bow has little resemblance with the bows seen on artwork dating from the time of the great mongol conquests, instead it is a shortened version of the Manchu bow. Where many military aspects from the Ming dynasty remained in use under the Manchu Qing dynasty, such as the cannon divisions, musketeers and the rattan shield divisions, the Manchu bow got to supplant the native Chinese bow completely. By the 18th century, Han Chinese were as good with Manchu bow and arrow as the Manchus themselves, as is exemplified by published findings of garrisson inspections. Eventually its Manchu origins became obscured and today these bows are, with some justification, often referred to as Chinese bows.

The Manchu bow belongs to the family of Asian composite recurve bows. The name derives from the fact that they are made of composite materials, with limbs laminated from a type of horn on one side and a type of sinew on the other side of a wood or bamboo core. When the limb is bent, the horn compresses and the sinew stretches: both materials do what they resist best. This creates a bow limb that can store more potential energy than a limb made entirely of any one material. The term recurve points to the fact that these bows are made with a curve in the opposite direction from the strung condition. This increases the initial amount of tension on the string when strung. Asian composite recurve bows have another trick up their sleeve: rigid ears. These come in a variety of shapes and sizes and generally work as levers to help bend the bow's limbs, and therefore making the draw feel more smooth with no excessive "stacking" in the draw weight. Ears also increase the draw length of the bow, and enable the limb ends to be squeezed together rather than pulled back at the end of the draw. Asian composite bows are probably the most advanced type of traditional bow with a history that started more than 5000 years ago.

Manchu bow peculiarities
The Manchu bow stands out from this family by being the largest of Asian composite recurve bows. Some Manchu bows can reach up to nearly 190 cm when strung, but the majority is around 160-170 cm from ear to ear in strung condition. What makes the bow so big are primarily its rigid ears, the largest in the family. The ears on the Manchu bow are made to work as such effective levers that the draw weight builds up very smoothly, with only little increments even at the very end of the draw. Thus, slight fluctuations on draw length do not result in notable fluctuations in power transferred to the arrow. This way they solve one of the archer's main challenges: the need for very consistent draw lengths. They also help to make possible a very long draw, suitable to shoot large arrows with. Lastly, the lever-action enables one to pull a heavier bow than one normally could. All this does comes with a price: arrow speed, which translates to range. This is because the ears add weight to the end of the limbs, whose inertia limits the acceleration of the limbs. To summarize, the Manchu bow is designed to shoot large projectiles very accurately, but does so at the expense of range.

Why this design?
Before the Manchus set out to conquer China they lived in small villages in present day Manchuria. They did not practise agriculture until the 16th century and primarily lived off the hunt and trade in animal deritives like fur. They even used the bow for fishing. When resources were limited, they were known to raid nearby settlements. As hunters pur sang they did not bet on long distance arrow showers in their daily hunts, but instead aimed for instant kills on relatively short distances. Their prey frequently being boar, bear and even the great Siberian tiger, they needed to have quite some impact power. The comparatively slow, but powerful and stable Manchu bow provided just this: accuracy and impact power on reasonable distances. It is then no wonder that the Manchus used the weapon and tactics derived from their daily hunts in warfare. Manchus are seen in artwork carrying to war almost the same amount of arrows as they did to the hunt: around ten to twenty large arrows, pointing again to their preferance of a small number of well-aimed shots rather than hails of arrows.

A heavy Manchu bow, military arrow and a typical Qing saber.
The arrow is 103 cm long and weighs some 100 grams.

Significance of the Manchu bow
The Manchu bow played a major role in their conquest of not only China, but also the Qing expansion into Eastern Turkestan, Tibet, and Taiwan. The Qing even exterminated the entire Dzungar empire in the process, settled border conflicts and succesfully quelled internal rebellions in the Southen provinces. In artwork and period accounts one frequently finds the opposing forces shooting with muskets only while the Manchu troops use a mix of archers and musketeers. This was they effectively combined the bow's greater reliability, rate of fire and manouverability from the horse with the longer range and more devastating impact of their muskets. We may conclude that their bow was not an inefficient composite bow design as is commonly thought. It was a very specialized weapon, deliberately built as it was, that was used to great effect. Despite its proven effectiveness in the in the17th and 18th centuries, the old methods seized to work in the 19th century when the firearms adopted by other cultures rapidly became more effective. Even in the latter part of the 19th century most Manchu bannermen were noted to be better with bow and arrow than they were with their firearms. (That were outdated as well.) It resulted in some decisive defeats against various modern armed forces in the 19th century contributed to the dynasty's ultimate fall. Western observers noted that they nevertheless fought bravely and the defeats were mainly due to their old equipment and the limited resources of the Qing empire at that time. In 1901 the bow was finally taken out of the military exams.

By Peter Dekker
June 2008

Selected sources
Selby, Stephen - Chinese Archery
Elliott, Mark C. - The Manchu Way
Heath, Ian - Armies of the 19th century: China
Struve, Lynn A. - Voices from the Ming-Qing cataclysm
Crossley, Pamela Kyle - Orphan Warriors
Crossley, Pamela Kyle - The Manchus
Giles, Herbert A. -China and the Manchus
Butz, Herbert et al. - Bilder für die halle des purperglanzes
Lu, Yun et al. - Huangchao Liqi Tushi
Perdue, Peter C. - China marches West