<P> To clarify for the purposes of this section and any other references to "firearms" or "guns" in this article, what is meant is a gunpowder weapon which uses "the explosive force of the gunpowder to propel a projectile from a tube: cannons, muskets, and pistols are typical examples ." </P> <P> The early fire lance, considered to be the ancestor of firearms, is not considered a true gun because it did not include projectiles . Later on, shrapnel such as ceramics and bits of iron were added, but these didn't occlude the barrel, and were only swept along with the discharge rather than make use of windage . These projectiles were called "co-viatives ." The commonplace nature of the fire lance, if not in quantity, was apparent by the mid 13th century, and in 1257 an arsenal in Jiankang Prefecture reported the manufacture of 333 "fire emitting tubes" (突 火筒). In 1259 a type of "fire - emitting lance" (突 火槍) made an appearance and according to the History of Song: "It is made from a large bamboo tube, and inside is stuffed a pellet wad (子 窠). Once the fire goes off it completely spews the rear pellet wad forth, and the sound is like a bomb that can be heard for five hundred or more paces ." The pellet wad mentioned is possibly the first true bullet in recorded history depending on how bullet is defined, as it did occlude the barrel, unlike previous co-viatives used in the fire lance . </P> <P> Fire lances transformed from the "bamboo - (or wood - or paper -) barreled firearm to the metal - barreled firearm" to better withstand the explosive pressure of gunpowder . From there it branched off into several different gunpowder weapons known as "eruptors" in the late 12th and early 13th centuries, with different functions such as the "filling - the - sky erupting tube" which spewed out poisonous gas and porcelain shards, the "orifice - penetrating flying sand magic mist tube" (鑽 穴 飛 砂 神 霧 筒) which spewed forth sand and poisonous chemicals into orifices, and the more conventional "phalanx - charging fire gourd" which shot out lead pellets . The character for lance, or spear (槍), has continued to refer to both the melee weapon and the firearm into modern China, perhaps as a reminder of its original form as simply a tube of gunpowder tied to a spear . </P> <P> Traditionally the first appearance of the hand cannon is dated to the late 13th century, just after the Mongol conquest of the Song dynasty . However a sculpture depicting a figure carrying a gourd shaped hand cannon was discovered among the Dazu Rock Carvings in 1985 by Robin Yates . The sculptures were completed roughly 250 km northwest of Chongqing by 1128, after the fall of Kaifeng to the Jin dynasty . If the dating is correct this would push back the appearance of the cannon in China by a hundred years more than previously thought . The bulbous nature of the cannon is congruous with the earliest hand cannons discovered in China and Europe . </P>

Who perfected new forms of warfare that linked eurasia and asia