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[[Image:Mooko-Suenaga.jpg|thumb|290px|A Mongol bomb thrown against a charging Japanese Samurai during the [[Mongol Invasions of Japan]], [[1281]].]]
Gunpowder is considered one of the [[Four Great Inventions of ancient China|Four Great Inventions]] of the Chinese. The first type of gunpowder was [[black powder]]. Which was invented in [[808]] by a [[Daoist]] named [[Qing Xuzi]], according his composed work, he used sulfur, charcoal and niter as fuel when he tried to make those pills, which resulted an accidental explosion. This explosion made the discovery of the gunpowder. Many, however, considered there's no single inventor, since the references of gunpowder could easily found in chronicles and the earliest could dated back [[4th century BC|4th]] to [[2nd century BC|2nd-century BC]] (classic ''Shennong Yaojing'') in [[China]], since both important ingredient, potassium nitrate and sulfur had been discovered around this era by [[Chinese]] alchemists and physician. Historians of various cultures have postulated that it was invented between the seventh or ninth centuries by either the [[China|Chinese]] or the [[Arabs]]. Others credit [[Roger Bacon]], an English [[Alchemy|Alchemist]]. It is also possible that black powder was invented independently by more than one culture at around the same time. Regardless of origin, it was the first chemical propellant and the first explosive recorded in history.
The Chinese employed gunpowder most commonly in fireworks, while the earliest references of usage in military affairs dated back to [[904]] in the battle of [[Yuzhang]] (now [[Jiangxi]]) led by [[Zheng Fan]]. Other uses included weapons to make noise for startling enemy horses, and explosive grenades of foul-smelling materials to spread a terrible stench. The Arabs are generally credited with being the first to purify gunpowder to contain almost no sodium nitrate (only potassium nitrate) and to have a high enough quality to use effectively as a combat explosive. By the [[15th century]] they had invented both a [[rocket]] and [[torpedo]], both spear-tipped. The spear would lodge into a boat or other large surface and then the explosives would detonate as the propellant burned out.
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