Bowyer Bowyer A bowyer is someone who makes bows. Bows are used for hunting and for archery. The development of gunpowder and muskets slowly led to the replacement of bows as weapons of war which decreased the importance of bowyers. Historically, a huge variety of bows have been produced for food gathering, warfare, and recreation. Who created these bows depended mainly on the type of bow being produced, but also on the quantity required. The skills required tend to divide traditional bowyers into two groups: In clans or social groups that used wooden self bows (bows made entirely from one piece
Chinese archery target. Ritual archery served as a counterpoint to the typical portrayal of archers, who were often skillful but brash. Confucius himself was an archery teacher, and his own view on archery and archery rituals was that ""A refined person has no use for competitiveness. Yet if he cannot avoid it, then let him compete through archery!"" Although civil archery rituals fell out of favor after the Zhou dynasty, examinations inspired by the Zhou-era rituals became a regular part of the military syllabus in later dynasties such as the Han, Tang, Song, Ming and Qing. These exams provided merit-based means of