Did archers lay on their back to draw bows?

score:12

Accepted answer

Yes

It's a variant of the belt claw technique of arming crossbows. Possible reasons include extended range due to a greater pull and presenting a smaller target profile for opposing crossbowmen.

Bear in mind that military techniques varied throughout Chinese history, and that much of current theory is based on conjecture. Here's what we do know:

  • Chinese armies during the Warring States period (the period depicted in the film Hero) were swelled by the practice of levee en masse, hence the relatively large army sizes of ancient China in comparison to that of Europe.
  • The primary ranged weaponry of these conscript armies was the crossbow, which was easy to use, mass-producible, and customizable to fulfill different roles.
  • The Qin army practiced ranked crossbow volleys, where one rank fires while the other reloads, similar to Napoleonic infantry.

That's it. While there are a number of texts depicting military strategy, there are no surviving manuals depicting the nuts and bolts (pun intended) of military technique from the period. Much of what we do know of the armies of the Warring States was gleaned from the accounts of Sima Qian's Shiji, which gave only cursory mention to military technique, and from archeological finds from the Terracotta Army at Xian, which is akin to looking at a cup and guessing that I used it to drink coffee when I was really drinking whiskey.

The only evidence that shows that this version of the belt claw technique was used during the Warring States period is the record of the same technique being used during the Song dynasty, which arose more than one thousand years later, and the remains of similar equipment found with the Terracotta Army.

Upvote:0

The fighting style of Porus' soldiers was described in detail by Arrian:

The foot soldiers carry a bow made of equal length with the man who bears it. This they rest upon the ground, and pressing against it with their left foot thus discharges the arrow, having drawn the string far backwards for the shaft they use is little short for three yards long, and there is nothing can resist an Indian archer's shot, neither shield nor breast plate, nor any stronger defence if such there be.

Indian campaign of Alexander the Great - Wikipedia

Upvote:1

Found this image, I can't find one of it being fired, but you can see they definitely work in teams to load over-sized crossbows.

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