Editing Bomb (section)

==History==
{{see also|History of gunpowder}}

[[File:Bombs at Ningyuan.jpg|thumb|180px|right|An illustration depicting bombs thrown at Manchu assault ladders during the siege of Ningyuan, from the book ''Thai Tsu Shih Lu Thu'' (Veritable Records of the Great Ancestor) written in 1635. The bombs are known as "thunder crash bombs."<ref name="Needham1974">{{cite book|author=Joseph Needham|title=Science and Civilisation in China: Military technology : the gunpowder epic|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BZxSnd2Xyb0C&pg=PA191|year=1974|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-30358-3|page=191|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160826083747/https://books.google.com/books?id=BZxSnd2Xyb0C&pg=PA191|archive-date=2016-08-26}}</ref>]]

Gunpowder bombs had been mentioned since the 11th century. In 1000 AD, a soldier by the name of Tang Fu (唐福) demonstrated a design of gunpowder pots (a proto-bomb which spews fire) and gunpowder caltrops, for which he was richly rewarded.{{sfn|Andrade|2016|p=32}} In the same year, Xu Dong wrote that trebuchets used bombs that were like "flying fire", suggesting that they were incendiaries.{{sfn|Needham|1986|p=148}} In the military text ''[[Wujing Zongyao]]'' of 1044, bombs such as the "ten-thousand fire flying sand magic bomb", "burning heaven fierce fire unstoppable bomb", and "thunderclap bomb" (''pilipao'') were mentioned. However these were soft-shell bombs and did not use metal casings.{{sfn|Andrade|2016|p=16}}{{sfn|Needham|1986|p=169}}

Bombs made of cast iron shells packed with explosive gunpowder date to 13th century China.<ref name="needham"/> Explosive bombs were used in East Asia in 1221, by a [[Jin dynasty (1115–1234)|Jurchen Jin]] army against a [[Song dynasty|Chinese Song]] city.<ref name="Connolly">{{cite book|author=Peter Connolly|title=The Hutchinson Dictionary of Ancient and Medieval Warfare|date=1 November 1998|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-1-57958-116-9|page=356}}<!--|access-date=29 September 2012--></ref> The term for this explosive bomb seems to have been coined the "[[thunder crash bomb]]" during a [[Jin dynasty (1115–1234)|Jin dynasty]] (1115–1234) naval battle in 1231 against the [[Mongols]].<ref name="needham">Needham, Joseph. (1987). ''Science and Civilization in China: Volume 5, Chemistry and Chemical Technology, Part 7, Military Technology; the Gunpowder Epic''. Cambridge University Press. pp. 170–174.</ref>

[[File:てつはう（震天雷）.JPG|thumb|left|[[Thunder crash bomb]]s from the [[Mongol invasions of Japan]] (13th century) that were excavated from a shipwreck near the [[Liancourt Rocks]]]]

The ''History of Jin'' (金史) (compiled by 1345) states that in 1232, as the Mongol general [[Subutai]] (1176–1248) descended on the Jin stronghold of [[Kaifeng]], the defenders had a "[[thunder crash bomb]]" which "consisted of gunpowder put into an iron container&nbsp;... then when the fuse was lit (and the projectile shot off) there was a great explosion the noise whereof was like thunder, audible for more than thirty miles, and the vegetation was scorched and blasted by the heat over an area of more than [[Chinese units of measurement#Area|half a ''mou'']]. When hit, even [[Chinese armour|iron armour]] was quite pierced through."<ref name="needham"/>

The Song Dynasty (960–1279) official Li Zengbo wrote in 1257 that [[arsenal]]s should have several hundred thousand iron bomb shells available and that when he was in [[Jingzhou]], about one to two thousand were produced each month for dispatch of ten to twenty thousand at a time to [[Xiangyang District, Xiangfan|Xiangyang]] and Yingzhou.<ref name="needham"/> The Ming Dynasty text ''[[Huolongjing]]'' describes the use of poisonous gunpowder bombs, including the "wind-and-dust" bomb.<ref name="Needham1986"/>

During the [[Mongol invasions of Japan]], the Mongols used the explosive "thunder-crash bombs" against the Japanese. Archaeological evidence of the "thunder-crash bombs" has been discovered in an underwater  shipwreck off the shore of Japan by the Kyushu Okinawa Society for Underwater Archaeology. X-rays by Japanese scientists of the excavated shells confirmed that they contained gunpowder.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Delgado|first=James|title=Relics of the Kamikaze|journal=Archaeology|date=February 2003|volume=56|issue=1|publisher=Archaeological Institute of America|url=http://archive.archaeology.org/0301/etc/kamikaze.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131229155139/http://archive.archaeology.org/0301/etc/kamikaze.html|archive-date=2013-12-29}}</ref>