Why are cold and hot weapons called "guns"? Why not continue to call firearms "spears"?

Speaking of the word "gun", what do you think of now? Most people should think of the most common light weapons in modern times, such as pistols, rifles and machine guns ... At the same time, some people will think of an ancient cold weapon with a sharp blade at the end of the rod for stabbing. That's interesting. There are so many Chinese characters. Why is the word "gun" used to represent two completely different weapons at the same time? This situation is rare. Let's talk about who first appeared two kinds of guns. Everyone knows that cold weapons must have appeared first. In fact, this kind of stinger had many names in ancient China, such as "spear", "beryllium" and "ling". Spear and beryllium appeared in Shang Dynasty and Eastern Zhou Dynasty respectively. When are they called guns? I don't know the exact time, but not later than the Qin Dynasty. Many ancient books have explanations for this. "Shuo Wen Jie Zi" says gun, but it is also true. Cang Xie in Han bamboo slips is also a weapon of human beings. The gun is sharp at both ends of the wood. Eastern Han dynasty Fu Qian's Popular Literature smashed wood and stole a gun. After Sui and Tang Dynasties, this kind of weapon was usually called "gun". Why was "gun" later used to refer to hot weapons? Actually, anyone with a little knowledge of history knows that there was a special name for small-caliber firearms in ancient China, which was called "spear". Until now, Japanese people used to call guns spears. For example, the familiar "March 8th Rifle" was originally called "March 8th Spear" in Japanese. The 99 short rifle is called "99 short spear"; Even the military bayonet is called "spear sword" by the Japanese. In other words, for small-caliber tubular hot weapons, there was a special name in ancient China, and that was "spear". There's nothing wrong with continuing. In fact, it existed in ancient China, and China also called it "shotgun" and "three-eye large-caliber short gun". However, there is one thing you may not know. Why is it called a gun? In fact, this is not entirely certain, but we can guess that this weapon is only made of bamboo, and it contains gunpowder (not today's gunpowder) and sub-nests (made of arsenic, etc.). ), when ignited, it can emit flames and smoke to scare off the enemy. This kind of weapon is actually similar to a pike in shape, and may even be tied to the bottom of a pike head made of bamboo, so they are also called guns, but. Judging from the silk painting "Demonization" found in Dunhuang Grottoes, China may have tied a flamethrower to his spear head as early as the Five Dynasties and turned it into a musket. By the Southern Song Dynasty, there were more documents about muskets. In the Southern Song Dynasty, the army used flying muskets or pear-blossom guns that could continuously spray sparks against the cavalry of the northern Jin State or Mongolia. Perhaps because of the relationship between muskets and muskets, "guns" began to refer to tubular shooting weapons. But later this weapon was called americium. What is the reason? This may be related to the development of firearms in Yuan Dynasty. Bamboo firearms were changed to metal firearms, so this weapon was changed to "spear". Of course, if firearms are called "guns", everyone will understand what they mean. Spear was a general term for all tube-fired firearms at the end of Yuan Dynasty and the beginning of Ming Dynasty. In Ming Dynasty, it was more and more called gun (this is actually a borrowed term. In the cold weapon era, "gun" refers to slingshots and other weapons), and "spear" was more and more represented as small-caliber tube-fired firearms. In the Ming Dynasty, guns mainly refer to cold weapons with long handles, while barrel firearms mainly refer to spears (if you have to call hot weapons "guns", it is generally understandable if there is no confusion, such as birdguns, which have strong eyes). After the Qing dynasty, guns were also commonly used to refer to spears, but they generally remained spears. However, some special homemade weapons in the Qing Dynasty, such as those used by the emperor, are still used to being called "guns". At this point, it may be clear to everyone that at first, small-caliber tubular firearms were called "guns", and later they were renamed "spears", and then "spears" became the mainstream name, but it is understandable to use "guns" to refer to hot weapons. Then why did the gun completely replace the spear? There is no way to prove this point, but we can guess that after entering the era of hot weapons, the guns with cold weapons are gradually eliminated, and the guns equipped by China's own system also lag far behind the advanced level in the world. Foreigners' firearms are so powerful that they are naturally one level higher than spears, so they are called more powerful guns, generally to distinguish cold weapons from hot weapons. There is also the famous "foreign gun team". Then, gradually, the firearms equipped by China were eliminated. Of course, the word "spear" was also eliminated. Now it is estimated that everyone is not used to using spears to call hot weapons, because now small-caliber tubular firearms are called "guns". But Japan is different. There is no historical reason why Japan calls a firearm a "gun", so this kind of firearm is still called a "spear" in Japanese. The meaning of the word "gun" in Japanese is very simple, that is, a gun with cold weapons! Author: Yun Fan