Fire arrow

This article is about the rocket-propelled projectile. For incendiary arrows shot with a bow or crossbow, see Flaming arrow. For other uses, see Fire Arrow (disambiguation).
An arrow strapped with gunpowder ready to be shot from a bow. From the Huolongjing
Depiction of rocket arrows, from the Huolongjing. The right arrow reads 'fire arrow', the middle is an 'arrow frame in the shape of a dragon' and the left is a 'complete fire arrow'.

Fire arrows were one of the earliest forms of weaponized gunpowder, being used from the 9th century onward. Not to be confused with earlier incendiary arrow projectiles, the fire arrow was a gunpowder weapon which receives its name from the translated Chinese term huǒjiàn (火箭), which literally means fire arrow. In China a 'fire arrow' referred to a gunpowder projectile consisting of a bag of incendiary gunpowder attached to the shaft of an arrow. Fire arrows are the predecessors of fire lances, the first firearm.[1]

Later rockets utilizing gunpowder were used to provide arrows with propulsive force and the term fire arrow became synonymous with rockets in the Chinese language. In other languages such as Sanskrit 'fire arrow' (agni astra) underwent a different semantic shift and became synonymous with 'cannon'.[2]

  1. ^ Andrade 2016, p. 31.
  2. ^ Needham 1986, p. 68.