Description
Jurchen – it is a bamboo-laminated bow, a stylization of composite recurve Manchu bows with long libms, heavy siyah and big string bridges. Such bows were common in China and in some nearby territories during the Manchurian Qing dynasty (1644-1911 CE).
Jurchen – is old names of Manchurian tribes. From the 10th century there are historical information about this people. In 12-13th century jurchen founded state Jin Empire, which was conquered by the Mongols. But at the beginning of the 17th century, the Jianzhou commander Nurhaci united the Jurchen tribes into a new state Later Jin. The term Manchu was in 1635 accepted to be sole name for that people. Shortly thereafter, the Chinese state Ming was conquered by the Manchurian. They founded new Qing dynasty. It was the last imperial dynasty, ruled China proper from 1644 to 1912 CE.
Manchurian warriors widely used long horn bows with siyahs in battles.
Such bow provide stability shooting with long and heavy arrows, which exceeded one meter in length. The Manchurian type of bow quickly supplanted other bow designs in the Empire of China, and became widespread throughout its territory. Also a variety of such bow (with a shorter length) began to be used in Tibet and Mongolia up to the present.
Our Jurchen bow also has a stiff long siyahs (near 23cm), reinforced with horn plates. The big string bridges made of a few layers of hard leather. Envelope size is about 186 cm. The bow has a leather grip, a horn pad is also present in the arrow place from the right side of the handle. Upon request it can be done from the left side, or on both sides. In the latter case, there will be a surcharge of $ 5.
Jurchen bow is suitable for the archers, who enjoys and practice of Manchu archery, the shooting technique with very long draw length, up to the shoulder of the pulling hand. Manchu style shooting commonly used thumb ring, but you can also draw the bow with ordinary 3 fingers way. This bow is especially suits for a tall archers with big draw length. An important point, all Manchu bows have long shoulders and massive siyahs, so there is a hand shock. We recomended to use heavy arrows to minimize it, not less than 12gpp, and for bows 35 pound and above (at 28″) not less than 14gpp. Also it is good for the normal life of the bow.
The bowstring and fabric case is complete with the bow.
Materials: ash and other hard wood, bamboo, horn
String material: Dacron B-50 (analog)
Total length tip to tip along the belly : 73″ (186cm)
The length of the string: 68″
Draw weight: 25-50# (at 28”)
Max. draw length depends on the draw weight:
for up to 25# draw weight – 38″ max draw length (draw weight is specified for draw length 28″)
for 25-29# draw weight – 37″ max draw length (draw weight is specified for draw length 28″)
for 30-34# draw weight – 36″ max draw length (draw weight is specified for draw length 28″)
for 35-38# draw weight – 35″ max draw length (draw weight is specified for draw length 28″)
for 39-42# draw weight – 34″ max draw length (draw weight is specified for draw length 28″)
for 43-46# draw weight – 33″ max draw length (draw weight is specified for draw length 28″)
for 47-50# draw weight – 32″ max draw length (draw weight is specified for draw length 28″)
More information about Manchu Archery you can find here: http://www.manchuarchery.org/
Link for the detailed analysis of original Manchu style bow 19th century http://www.atarn.org/chinese/visible_bow/visible.htm
Videoreview made by Armin Hirmer
Videoreview made by Jacek Kaminski (Chinese Archery UK)
