明清王朝红夷大炮的盛衰史及其问题研究

A history of rise and decline of Duth Cannons in Ming and Qing dynasties

明末,明政府从澳门葡萄牙人引进的红夷大炮,其技术特征和射程远胜于中国传统火炮,其在明清王朝经历了几次发展高峰。第一次鸦片战争中清军仍用红夷大炮与船坚炮利的英军作战,但已存在“时代差”。红夷炮 200多年的发展无质的飞跃的主要原因是由明清王朝一系列综合因素造成的。

At the end of Ming Dynasty, the Ming government introduced the Duth cannons from Portuguese in Macao. The technological features and shot-range were far better than the Chinese traditional cannons. Although the Duth cannons had gone through several times of improvement in Ming and Qing Dynasty, by the time of the First Opium War, the Qing army still had to use them to fight against the more advanced weapons used by Great Britain. The stagnation in further improvement of the Duth cannons during more than 200 years was due to some problems during the time, which were analyzed in this paper.