Subject: hiya / qinjun ying imperial guard

Culture: Sino-Manchurian

Setting: Qing empire, China 18th-19thc

Object: guns

* Royal Armouries Museum > Oriental Gallery

"Matchlock fowling piece (chung) Chinese, 19th century This small bore fowling piece has a snapping matchlock mechanism

based on those fitted to guns introduced to China by the Portuguese." ...

"Matchlock fowling piece (chung) Chinese, 19th century The quality and small barrel of this gun suggests it was made for wildfowling use by a high official. The serpentine is operated by a simple link to the trigger, a system adopted from Turkish guns." ...

"Matchlock musket (chung) Chinese, 19th century The stock has a pierced lug near the muzzle,

where it was fitted with a bipod for ease of aiming. The barrel is inscribed with its issue number, 12." ...

"Matchlock musket (chung) Chinese, 19th century The mechanism of the Chinese matchlock is very simple;

a serpentine, into whose jaws the glowing match-cord was fitted, and trigger all in one piece, with an internal spring and pivot." ...