Chongtong

Chongtong
Chongtong
Hangul 총통
Hanja 銃筒
Revised Romanization chongtong
McCune–Reischauer ch'ongtong

The Chongtong was the general name of Korean gunnery used during the early to mid Joseon Dynasty. There were many different types, including: Cheonja ("Sky" or "Heaven"), Jija ("Earth"), Hyeonja ("Black"), Hwangja ("Yellow") or ("Gold"), Se, and Seungja ("Victory"). There were also several others.

Contents


The following are several of the many kinds of Chongtong:

Cannons

Cheonja-Chongtong

The 'Sky' or 'Heaven' (Hangul: 천자총통; Hanja: 天字銃筒) type cannon was the largest of the chongtong. Its length was about 1.3 m and the bore was about 13 cm. One of the projectiles it fired was a 30 kg 'daejanggunjeon', a large rocket-shaped arrow with an iron head and fins. The cheonja could fire one of these up to about 1.4 km.

Jija-Chongtong

The 'Earth' (Hangul: 지자총통; Hanja: 地字銃筒) cannon was a little smaller, about 1 m long with a bore of about 10 cm. It could fire a 16.5 kg 'janggunjeon' (similar to the daejanggunjeon, only smaller) about 1 km.

Hyeonja-Chongtong

The 'Black' (Hangul: 현자총통; Hanja: 玄字銃筒) type was about 0.8 m long with a bore of about 8 cm and could fire a 'chadajeon' (similar to the janggunjeon) that weighed about 3.5 kg up to about 1 to 2 km.

Hwangja-Chongtong

The 'Yellow' (Hangul: 황자총통; Hanja: 黃字銃筒) was the smallest of the cannons. It resembled the European hand-cannon. Its bore was about 5 cm and shot a large arrow (similar to the chadaejeon) that weighed about 1.5 kg or four ordinary arrows at once which had a range of about 730 m.

Handheld guns

Se-Chongtong

The Se-chongtong (Hangul: 세총통; Hanja: 細銃筒) had a range of about 150 m.

Seungja-Chongtong

The 'Victory' (Hangul: 승자총통) fired various small projectiles like balls, grapeshot, arrows, etc.

Other firearms used by Koreans in the 16th century

  • Samchongtong
  • Chongtongwan-gu
  • Janggunhwatong
  • Ilchongtong
  • Yichongtong
  • Paljeonchongtong
  • Sajeonchongtong
  • Bullanggi (breech-loading swivel gun introduced from Europe via China)
  • Wan-gu mortars
  • Baekjachong

See also


Stub icon This article related to weaponry is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.