was long bow really eclipsed by 1600?

Oh yes they had, but centuries of isolation had put China of that time far behind times.China's efforts to reorganise a modern army were too late to stop the colonial onslaught.

Who would have known,that had there been no isolation,Chinese fleets may have been the one landing on London,Bombay or even be seen on the hudson.

 

right , kaiser , china and japan were fine being isolated until about 1800 when weapons technolgy advanced at a rapid rate without their notice...japan basically surrendered to one us frigate ..and realized they had made a terrible mistake in ignoreing change..

 

I have never read of a battle that they fought in the rain. Maybe there is a reason for that?

 

Precisely!

 

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The english archers had been fighting for close to a century against
barbarians living in even more rain drenched climate , wales , ireland ,
scotland , they would have an instinctive feel for rain damage ,

the italians , mongol ,persians, parthians , arabs, kipchak etc etc fought
in glorious dry surounding , a wet day must have been a rarity .

also I've heard of horsehair and silk mentionned as string material .





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Horsehair was favoured for tension & torsion weapons since Ancient times.