Wujing Zongyao

Timeline

1. c. 1040–1043Kaifeng (Eastern Capital) · KaifengEmperor Renzong of Song ordered scholar-officials and military officers including Zeng Gongliang and Ding Du to gather ancient and contemporary military methods, weapons and frontier defense systems, opening a bureau in the eastern capital to compile the work in response to the Western Xia wars and the reform of the imperial guards.
2. 1044Kaifeng (Eastern Capital) · KaifengThe work was presented around the fourth year of Qingli; its section on fire attack first recorded gunpowder and weapons such as the thunderclap fireball in written entries and proportions, bringing knowledge of eleventh-century military gunpowder into an official text.
3. 1050–1126Kaifeng and the Song-Xia frontier · ChinaAfter completion it circulated as an official military canon in the eastern capital and along the frontiers; its sections on formations, city defense and firearms provided an institutional textual basis for late Northern Song fortification and weapons manufacture.
4. 1201–1510Jiangnan printing centers · JiangnanMost original Northern Song manuscripts were lost; the work survived through Southern Song excerpts and Ming Zhengde and Jiajing printed editions. Reprinting made the gunpowder formula and weapon illustrations standard citations for later military studies and history of technology.
5. 1901East Asia and international sinological institutions · ChinaSince the twentieth century, historians of science and military history have treated its fire-attack section as the world's earliest systematic gunpowder text; critical annotations, facsimiles and translations have brought the work into global narratives of technological history.