Huochong is a Chinese name for firearms. In pre-modern China, the terms chong and pao were used interchangeably at times without clearly distinguishing between a gun and cannon. By the early Ming dynasty (1368–1644), it could refer to both cannons or hand cannons. The term chong has been applied to numerous types of firearm weapons in China, including the hand cannons, bowl-mouth cannons, double edged gun, and big 100-bullet gun. The Koreans and Vietnamese also used the same terms to describe early firearms.