II.
THE MEDIEVAL WEAPONS

 

 

 

       

 

       As far the category of War Bow is concerned, at the time of Tây-Sơn, there were four famous Bows of Tây-Sơn illustrious Generals. It's about « Four Divine Bows » ( 四 神 弓 ) :

       1. « Bow with Metal Frame - Thiết-Thai Cung - 鐵 胎 弓 » : there's the Bow of General Nguyễn Quang Huy, originally from Phú-Yên. This Bow owns steel branches, witl a power allowing to shoot arrows more far than ordinaries Bows.
       This General was precisely the one who used this Bow with Metal Frame for shootinng on the left arm of Lord Nguyễn Phúc Ánh ( future Emperor Gia-Long of Nguyễn Dynasty ) in 1799. Because of this wound, Lord Nguyễn Phúc Ánh have must to retreat to Gia-Định to be treated. The Tây-Sơn King Thái-Đức nursed a deep affection and a great consideration for him ; he elevated him to the dignity of « Royal Protector Messenger » for going to govern the province of Bình-Thuận.       

       2. « Bow with Horse Tail Hairs - Vỹ-Mao Cung - 尾 毛 弓 » : there's the Bow of the well-read Mandarin La Xuân Kiều, originally of Phù-Cát department subdivision, at the same time endowed with letters and poetry in Nom characters and in Chinese characters and endowed with equestrian Archery.
       This Bow is made specially with precious wood and with a cord made of plated horse tail hairs.
       With this « Bow with Horse Tail Hairs », La Xuân Kiều could became famous as expert marksman of his time.       

       3. « Bow of Black-Veined Aloe Wood - Kỳ-Nam Cung - 楳 枏 弓 » : there's the Bow of General Lý Văn Bưu. The Central Body of this Bow (the grip) is inlaid with precious Black-Veined Wood, from where it's named.
       The General had used this Bow for saving villagers by killing ferocious tigers and for realizing numerous exploits of war in campaigns waged against Siameses and Mandchus.

       4. « Bow for Continual Firing - Liên-Phát Cung - 連 發 弓 » : there's the Bow of illustrious generallissimo Đặng Xuân Phong. The limbs of this Bow are made of forged steel having a high resilience power; by consequent, this Bow is very powerful.
        Thanks to his physical strength and his gifted competences for training, General Đặng Xuân Phong could shoot continually Four arrows in the same time.
        (The writer Quách-Tấn has erronemously writen "Five arrows in the same time" in his Book « Võ-Nhân Bình-Định - Men of Arms from Bịnh-Định », because he has never yet learned the Art of Arhery in general and those from Đại-Việt.in particular. And then, our Hand with Five Fingers owns only Four Interdigital Spaces, we can only catch Four Arrows for putting them on the cord and firing at the same time with our Thumb, that means to fire with the Thumb Archery Ring.)
       

 

 

 

Committee of Martial Arts Masters VÕ-TRẬN-ĐẠI-VIỆT Bình-Định Sa-Long-Cương FRANCE TRỊNH Quang Thắng.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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