What were some significant military advancements in medieval and ancient China?

montyp165 said:

Here's an interesting pic of a Chinese flintlock blunderbuss, the barrel and stock are Chinese with an English flintlock mechanism:

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Flintlock was never widespread in Qing China. They skipped right from matchlocks to percussion caps following the Opium War. When I visited the Taiping Rebellion museum in Nanjing I was surprised that all the firearms on display were converted to percussion caps (even a large Jingal).

siegecrossbow said:

Flintlock was never widespread in Qing China. They skipped right from matchlocks to percussion caps following the Opium War. When I visited the Taiping Rebellion museum in Nanjing I was surprised that all the firearms on display were converted to percussion caps (even a large Jingal).

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That's very similar to what the Japanese did with their matchlocks during the Boshin War following Commodore Perry's 'gunboat' diplomacy action, makes sense given how the general layout of muskets really didn't change prior to metal cartridge development.

montyp165 said:

That's very similar to what the Japanese did with their matchlocks during the Boshin War following Commodore Perry's 'gunboat' diplomacy action, makes sense given how the general layout of muskets really didn't change prior to metal cartridge development.

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True. But keep in mind that transition from percussion cap, or even matchlocks, to cartridge is trivially easy. In the post Civil War days many of the Springfield rifles were converted from percussion cap barrel loaders to single shot breech loaders and in Western United States, many outlaws converted their revolvers so they could accept metal cartridges. Many of the later Jingals manufactured in China used cartridges as well, and it is likely that many of them were previously matchlock muskets.