For human beings, the invention of projectile weapons is of great significance. People who hold projectile weapons have the ability from near to far, and completely overwhelm any land animals in strength. Primitive people invented many kinds of projectile weapons, such as crossbow weapons and javelin weapons (including harpoon). ), throwing short weapons (flying axes and swords, etc. ) and various tools for throwing stones, among which crossbow weapons, commonly known as bows and arrows, have the longest use time and the widest range.

Compared with other projection weapons, bows and arrows have many advantages, such as high accuracy, long range and small movement (easy to form dense queues). One of the biggest advantages is that bows and arrows (especially crossbows) can be fired for a long time, and then they can be released appropriately according to the actual situation, which is convenient for waiting for the opportunity, which is not available in other projection weapons.

There are bows and arrows invented independently all over the world, and the bows and arrows equipped in different regions have different appearances. For example, there are longbows in Britain and crossbows in Japan. Although the shapes of these bows and arrows are obviously different, their working principles are the same: first, pull the bow arm to store energy by bending the bow arm, then release the energy instantly by letting go, and then eject the arrow into the distance with the help of the bowstring.

So how did humans invent bows and arrows? Foreigners can't explain clearly, but there are many explanations in ancient China.

The first statement comes from the Spring and Autumn Period of Wu and Yue Dynasties, that is, the origin of slingshots. This view holds that China people invented the slingshot first, and then invented the bow and arrow on the basis of the slingshot.

In the Spring and Autumn Period, wuyue said that "crossbows are born of bows and bows are born of bullets", which means that crossbows are developed from bows and bows are developed from slingshots. According to the book, in ancient times, people were not buried in coffins like later generations, but wrapped in imperata and thrown into the wild. Their children couldn't bear to let their parents' bodies be bitten by birds and animals, so they made slingshots, guarded them and drove them away.