Hu dun pao

According to the Song dynasty military compendium Wujing Zongyao (published 1044), the hu dun pao is depicted as a traction trebuchet with a triangular frame.

[1] It is operated by a dedicated corps of 70 haulers, who took turns pulling the ropes attached to the trebutchet arm to send the projectile, a 16-pound (7.3 kg) stone or bomb, into flight.

[3] Similar triangular-framed trebutchets are found in Byzantine sources as labdarea (lambda-shaped machines) and as "Turkish trebuchets" (manjanīq turkī) by Mardi ibn Ali al-Tarsusi and the Templar of Tyre.

[5] By the publication of the 1350 edition Huolongjing during the Ming dynasty, the meaning of the character pao 砲 changed from "trebuchet" to "cannon",[6] mirroring the development of gunpowder artillery in China.

[9] According to Qi Jiguang's Treatise on Military Training (練兵實紀, Lianbing Shiji) of 1568, the "Crouching Tiger Cannon" was placed at various points on the Chinese frontier since the beginning of the Ming dynasty.