The first discovery and use of gunpowder in China is shrouded in mystery. We know that the accidental discovery of an explosive mix of saltpetre, carbon and sulfur was a result of the ancient Chinese alchemists search for medicinal chemical properties and a path to immortality. In the Cantongqi or "The Kinship of the Three" compiled in A.D. 142 by Wei Boyang of the Han Dynasty, we have a record of experiments conducted with heat, under three sets of circumstances where in the third set the ingredients were said to "fly and dance" in a violent reaction. By the 4th century A.D., Ge Hong, an alchemist of the Jin dynasty, recorded the chemical reactions caused when saltpetre, pine resin and certain carbonaceous materials were heated together, in his famous book Baopuzi or "Book of the Master of the Preservations of Solidarity".

10th century A.D. Painted Silk Banner found at Dunhuang of Mara the Temptress and Her Demons Attacking the Meditating Buddha with a Proto-Gun (Firelance) and Bomb.

Simply called Pao or explosive (similar word to Pao of the catapult) by the mid Tang dynasty of the 7th-8th centuries A.D., firecrackers and fireworks were evidently in use as amusement objects during festivities. In comparison, the first known record of gunpowder outside China was found in "The Book of the Assembly of Medical Samples" by Ibn al-Baitar published in A.D. 1240 where we learned that saltpetre was known since the 8th or 9th century A.D. in the Middle East as "Chinese Snow". It was in the late Tang that saw the first use of gunpowder in a military application. Tang military Engineers hurled ignited lumps of slow burning gunpowder mixtures in what was called Fei Huo or "Flying Fire" using catapults. In the painted silk banner of Mara the Temptress and her Demons attacking the Meditating Buddha ca. A.D. 950, it can be seen what seems to be something very similar to an explosive being hurled by one of the demons.

In the next stage in its simplest development form, gunpowder was used as a crude explosive, probably held within a pot or container and ignited to create an explosion. Following a logical path of development, the first evidence of the existence of soft case (layered paper) grenades was in the Wujing Zongyao A.D. 1044, after which a whole variety of types with different functions emerged over the next few centuries.

By A.D. 1126, Song defenders of the Jurchen siege of Bian Jin (modern day Kaifeng) were firing gunpowder strapped Huo Jians and flinging gunpowder-filled grenades at their attackers. Recorded in the Jin Shi or "History of the Jin Dynasty" is this passage:

"When it went off it made a report like sky-rending thunder. An area of more than half a mu was scorched on which men, horses and leather armour were shattered. Even iron coats of mail were riddled."

Li Gang, a Song military commander is credited to having used catapults called the Pili Pao or "Thunder Catapult" to fling what is believed to be soft-cased gunpowder grenades at the attacking Jurchens.

During the Jurchen siege of Xiangyang in A.D. 1206 to 1207, defenders of the Song dynasty fabricated baked or sun dried mud balls filled with noxious substances to be flung by their catapults. The reason for this was twofold. The first was to cause a spray of poisoned shrapnel upon impact so as to inflict widespread damage, and the second was to deny the attacking Jurchens the chance to reuse the projectiles by flinging them back at the city.

By A.D. 1231, the transition had been made for grenades, from soft casing to iron casing. The Jurchen Jin dynasty, having pushed the Song dynasty southward and occupied much of former Song territories in Northern China, were faced with increasingly aggressive attacks by the Mongols. The Jin was recorded to have used a type of iron casing bomb called the "Heaven Shaking Thunder Crash Bomb" in the defense of their cities.

Illustration showing "Ten Thousand Enemies" Soft case Grenades Thrown from the Battlements to Explode and Discharge Noxious Fumes

A variety of simple Yan Qiu or "smoke balls" were created using various combinations of incendiary concoctions housed in heavy paper spheres of usually 20 to 30 layers, with up to 100 layers in the heavier bombs. They were fairly elaborately designed and held together simply by glue and resin, with a central hollow filled with explosive mixtures. With some of the more complex devices, there were wrapped within the paper layers, thin layers of poisons or more incendiary mixtures.

Illustrations of Song Dynasty Bombs & Grenades
Yin Huo Qiu (Fire Attracting Ball), Qi Li Huo Qiu (Barbed Fire Ball) & Tia Cui Huo He (Steel Lipped Fire Crane)
Yan Qiu (Smoke Ball)	Zhu Huo He (Bamboo Fire Crane)
Du Yao Yan Qiu (Poisonous Drug Smoke Ball)	Du Yao Tan Qiu (Poisonous Smoke Ball)
Kun Qiu (Rolling Ball)
Yuan Dynasty Bombs & Grenades
Excavated Yuan dynasty ceramic Zhentianlei (thundercrash bomb) from the Takashima shipwreck of the AD 1281 Mongol invasions of Japan. X-rays of unexploded and intact bombs reveal gunpowder and metal shards for shrapnel encased inside. (KOSUWA) The only known painting of a Yuan Zhentianlei in action, commissioned by the Japanese General Takezaki Suenaga who was wounded during the battle and is represented by the injured mounted figure on the right.
Illustrations of Ming Dynasty Bombs & Grenades
Shen Huo Kun Yuan Qiu (God Fire Mixed Origin Ball) - is a bamboo length overlaid with many layers of paper where it is carried by hand to be thrown to explode, dispersing poisonous smoke.	Shao Zhei Mi Mu Chen Huo Qiu (Burning Thief Sight Losing Spiritual Fire Ball)
Tian Huo Qiu (Heavenly Fire Ball)
Huo Yao (Fire Goblin) - a projectile with releases both smoke and poisonous gas	Huo Dan (Fire Egg (or bullet)) - a small projectile fired from catapults with a poisonous concoction
3 types of Huo Zhuan (Fire Brick) with Fei Yan (Flying Swallows) - small firecrackers and caltrops which scatter on impact adhering to and igniting wooden structures, boats & siege machines, and Di Shu (Earth Rats) -small firecrackers that shoot outward to tumble and race across the floor away from the point of impact to explode and ignite a large area.
2 types of Feng Chen Pao (Wind-Dust Bomb) - one made with bamboo strips and the other using a vase.	Yi Mu Shi Si Zi Pao (One Mother with Fourteen Sons Bomb)
Tian Jiang Pao (Falling from Heaven Bomb) - hurled in a high arc by catapults into enemy concentrations to explode, dispersing tens of incendiary Huo Gui (Fire Ghosts) to ignite fires everywhere.	Hong Lei Pao (Colliding Thunder Bomb) - a spherical bomb made from multiple layers of heavy paper with half poisonous gunpowder and half explosive gunpowder, dispersing caltrops tipped in poison and DI Shu together with a cloud of poison on explosion.
Qun Feng Pao (Swarming Bees Bomb) - thrown by catapult, it encased 3 different types of projectiles, small explosive charges, small iron caltrops and miniature Fei Yen (Flying Swallows) which flew and clung to anything they impacted.	Da Feng Wuo (Big Bee's Nest) - miniature arrowheads and caltrops were scattered upon exploding.
Lan Ku Huo Yiu Shen Pao (Broken Bones Fire Oil Spiritual Bomb)	Wan Huo Fei Sa Shen Pao (God's Ten thousand Flying Sand Bomb) - a large helmet shaped bomb thrown by catapult to spray an obscuring fog mixed with poisons to attack the eyes.
Zhan Feng Shen Huo Liu Xing Pao (Against the Wind Spiritual Fire Comet Bomb)	Xi Gua Pao (Watermelon Bomb) - releases Huo Shu (fire rats) with hooks to stick onto material, and caltrops when exploded.
Li Chi Pao (Lychee Bomb) - a clay bomb shaped like the goose egg sized lychee fruit and carried in bags of 20-30 by soldiers to be thrown against the enemy to shatter as clay shrapnel and to scatter poison sand and gas.	Zhi Hu Yuan Pao (Paper Glue Round Bomb) - designed to disperse 20 to 30 caltrops, 10 to 20 Huo Shu when dropped over city walls to scatter amongst enemy troops, exploding and wounding feet with the scattered caltrops.
Shao Tian Meng Huo Wu Lan Pao (Burning Sky Fierce Fire Unstoppable Bomb) - combines 23 different types of incendiaries said to "fly, run, jump and leap", and deployed windward to create chaos.	Feng Lei Huo Gun (Wind, Thunder, Fire Roller) - a large diameter bamboo pipe of approximately 90cm stuffed with poisonous and incendiary gunpowder and 5 to 6 iron encased explosives which disperse at random as the bamboo pipe flew about from the resulting explosions in the midst of the enemy.
Fei Huo Chui (Flying Fire Pestle) - 20cm tall and 7.5cm in diameter, this inverted vase-like design is equipped with numerous spikes to stick to and ignite enemy ships and structures.	Different Types of Explosives

Other Types of Bombs

1. Da Huo Qiu (Great Fire Ball) - A special gunpowder formulation for slinging at the enemy to explode and scatter on impact, creating fires which could not be extinguished by water
2. Pi Li Huo Qiu (Thunderclap Fire Ball) - A long tube which explodes outward with a sound like a thunderclap to fumigate, burn or stun enemy troops in confined spaces like in an enemy mine