China: A Chinese triple bow crossbow for use by a four-man team, taken from an...

The Wujing Zongyao or 'Collection of the Most Important Military Techniques' is a Chinese military compendium written in 1044 CE, during the Northern Song Dynasty. Its authors were the prominent scholars Zeng Gongliang, Ding Du and Yang Weide, whose writing influenced many later Chinese military writers. The book covered a wide range of subjects, everything from naval warships to different types of catapults. Although the English philosopher and friar Roger Bacon was the first Westerner to mention the sole ingredients of gunpowder in 1267 (i.e. strictly saltpetre, sulphur, and charcoal) when referring to firecrackers in 'various parts of the world', the Wujing Zongyao was the first book in history to record the written formulas for gunpowder solutions containing saltpetre, sulphur, and charcoal, along with many added ingredients. It also described an early form of the compass (using thermoremanence), and had the oldest illustration of a Chinese Greek Fire flamethrower with a double-acting two-piston cylinder-pump that shot a continuous blast of flame.