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Similar fables to King Arthur and Robin Hood in other cultures? (self.asklemmy)

submitted 5 months ago by ozoned to c/[email protected]

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Basically the title. In the US I've heard the fables of King Arthur and Robin Hood constantly. What are some other fabled heroes from antiquity that are less well known? Something from a non-Western culture.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

This crazy Wizard/Inventor named Zhuge Liang invented hot air balloons and used them as communication between troop formations. No wait, this one is actually true and not a legend.

He’s also the guy after whom the "zhuge nu" (which you may also have heard called a "chu ko nu"—a repeating crossbow) is named. Though it seems likely that he was actually not involved in inventing it.

[–] dragontamer 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

The Chu Ko Nu was more of a party-trick than a real weapon though. The amount of power behind each bolt was miniscule.

The actual "rapid-fire warbow" the Chinese used was the lol rocket-launcher. (Or really, Koreans did it first, strapping Chinese rockets to a bunch of arrows and lighting all of them at the same time, causing devastating effects on the battlefield). See Hwacha: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hwacha

Zhuge Liang's biggest battlefield contribution in practice was probably the popularization of the "Ox Cart", aka the Wheelbarrow. The Shu's army could march further since they had such contraptions powering their logistics. Kinda funny to think that things like Wheelbarrows were still the stuff of sci-fi in the year 200 AD, but that's where technology was in practice.

EDIT: The fact that Zhuge Liang's lanterns (aka: hot air balloons) got practical usage back then is incredible though.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

Yeah true. The Wikipedia page for zhuge nu actually mentions that it was primarily a self-defence weapon for women, not a battlefield weapon.

I find it amusing that the Wikipedia page for Huo Che makes no mention of the Korean Hwacha, other than in its "see also" section. That said, which one was done first seems...debatable, I wouldn't feel comfortable coming down too strongly in favour of either one being the first.