1. Crossbows date all the way back in early China during 600 BC. Greco-Roman soldiers were also avid
users of the crossbows. After their reign, the technology was lost until William the Conqueror and his
Norman army reintroduced the crossbow. Although we say crossbow, they called it the arbalest. At that
period, the range of a crossbow was around 360 yards, however, it could only be shot 1 bolt per reload,
unlike the Chinese repeater crossbows. The crossbow was so easy to use that plain soldiers could kill a
fully armored knight with it. During that time, it was said that a knight was worth 10 soldiers. Because of
that, the crossbow was viewed as a weapon with no honor. The Pope even went so far to ban it from
Roman Catholic lands!
The advent of the crossbow completely changed warfare and it would spread from its origin, Asia, all the
way to Europe through the Middle East by the Middle Ages. One may think that the crossbow equalized
the playing field – archers would not need nearly as much finesse and raw strength to shoot a deadly
crossbow as they would have with a regular bow.
The crossbow was most likely first invented in of the early city-states of China or around Central Asia,
before 400 BC. The date of the invention is a bit cloudy and no one really knows who thought of it first.
Literary evidence suggests that it came from an Central Asian origin, the technology then spreading to
China, but evidence in general is too scarce to really pinpoint the origin accurately.
Of course, the only credible person that can attribute to the invention of the crossbow would be the
grand Sun Tzu. He said that an inventor from 800 BC named Q’in thought up of the crossbow first.
However, his life and his book, the Art of War, were not credible, and therefore cannot be used as solid
evidence of the early invention of the crossbow.
Two archeologists, Zhu Fenghan and Yang Hong, think that the crossbow was invented around 2000 BC,
based on bone, stone, and shell that might be crossbow parts, evidence. The first crossbows with bronze
casing were found in Qufu, China in a grave found to be from 600 BC. That grave is in Shandog Province,
more specifically, the State of Lu, during 771-476 BC.
Mounting archeological evidence implies that crossbows were produced en-masse in China during the
Autumn Period. A 450 BC grave in Hubei Province contained bronze crossbow bolts and a burial in
Hunan Province around 350 BC yielded a crossbow made of bronze. The famous Terracotta Warriors
buried with Shi Huangdi wield crossbows. Another example of crossbow evidence was a burial grave in
Hubei Province around 400 BC.
Zhege Nu crossbows, or repeating crossbows, could fire several bolts before having to reload all over
again. Sources credited this invention to a strategist named Zhuge Liang during the Three Kingdoms
period. However, another repeating crossbow from 500 years back in Qinjiazui proved that he was not
the original inventor. Although it does seem that he just improved on the overall scheme. More
development on the repeating crossbow led to ones that could fire 10 bolts in 15 seconds.
By the turn of the second-century BC, crossbows were standard all across China. Increasing amounts of
modern historians credit the repeating crossbow as the key component of the Han’s victory over
Xiognue. Them and countless of other tribes of Central Asia used regular bows with extreme finesse, but
they were easily defeated by crossbow infantry, especially in rigid battles and sieges.
Around this time, the Roman soldiers received crossbow technology through a short skirmish between
Roman legionnaires and Han Chinese soldiers. Slowly, the crossbow started to supersede the hand bow.

2. This was for a number reason. The first one being that a soldier could master a crossbow after a week of
training, whereas a long bowman could take years to master the bow and arrow. Later on, steel bolts
and crossbows were developed which could pierce armor more effectively than arrows. In European
warfare, crossbowmen and archers held a central position in formation. They usually engaged the
enemy before the infantry or knights in order to kill off a few soldiers. Not only were they valuable in the
offensive, but were instrumental in infantry counter-attacks. As for this reason, they were more
esteemed than other soldiers.
King Sejong of Korean Joseon Dynasty distributed repeating crossbows to his military after witnessing
the great potential it had in a visit to the imperial court of China. Chinese troops still used this weapon
even up to the second Qing Dynasty, counting the Sino-Japanese War of 1894. Not surprisingly,
crossbows could not beat Japanese guns and cannons and the Chinese were utterly defeated. This was
the last major battle to use crossbows.