Hui Ping (灰瓶) and Yan Guan (煙罐) (Patreon)

Hui Ping (灰瓶, lit. 'Ash bottle') and Yan Guan (煙罐, lit. 'Smoke jar') were two oft-overlooked Ming less-lethal weapons commonly used in siege defence and naval warfare. As their namesakes suggest, Hui Ping was a ceramic bottle filled with quicklime powder, meant to be thrown at enemy soldiers to blind and suffocate them, whereas Yan Guan was a black powder-based ceramic smoke bomb used to either create smoke screen, generate choking smoke, or possibly both.

Due to their similarity and near-identical functions, Hui Ping and Yan Guan were often mentioned together in Ming records, although they were still distinct from each other.