1.
Mongol invasions of Japan
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The Mongol invasions of Japan, which took place in 1274 and 1281, were major military efforts undertaken by Kublai Khan to conquer the Japanese archipelago after the submission of Goryeo to vassaldom. Ultimately a failure, the attempts are of macro-historical importance because they set a limit on Mongol expansion. The Mongol invasions are considered a precursor to modern warfare. One of the most notable innovations during the war was the use of explosive. After a series of Mongol invasions of Korea between 1231 and 1281, Goryeo signed a treaty in favor of the Mongols and became a vassal state, Kublai was declared Khagan of the Mongol Empire in 1260 and established his capital at Khanbaliq in 1264. The Mongols also made attempts to subjugate the peoples of Sakhalin—the Ainu, Orok. In 1266, Kublai Khan dispatched emissaries to Japan with a saying, Cherished by the Mandate of Heaven. The sovereigns of small countries, sharing borders with other, have for a long time been concerned to communicate with each other. Especially since my ancestor governed at heavens command, innumerable countries from afar disputed our power, Goryeo rendered thanks for my ceasefire and for restoring their land and people when I ascended the throne. Our relation is feudatory like a father and son and we think you already know this. Japan was allied with Goryeo and sometimes with China since the founding of your country, however and we are afraid that the Kingdom is yet to know this. Hence we dispatched a mission with our letter particularly expressing our wishes, enter into friendly relations with each other from now on. We think all countries belong to one family, how are we in the right, unless we comprehend this. Nobody would wish to resort to arms, Kublai essentially demanded that Japan become a vassal and send tribute under a threat of conflict. A second set of emissaries were sent in 1268, returning empty-handed like the first, after discussing the letters with his inner circle, there was much debate, but the Shikken had his mind made up, he had the emissaries sent back with no answer. The Mongols continued to send demands, some through Korean emissaries and some through Mongol ambassadors on March 7,1269, September 17,1269, September 1271, however, each time, the bearers were not permitted to land in Kyushu. The Imperial Court suggested compromise, but really had little effect in the matter, after acknowledging its importance, the Imperial Court led great prayer services, and much government business was put off to deal with this crisis. The Khan was willing to go to war as early as 1268 after having been rebuffed twice, Kublai Khan founded the Yuan dynasty in 1271
2.
Samurai
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Samurai were the military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan. In Japanese, they are referred to as bushi or buke. In both countries the terms were nominalized to mean those who serve in close attendance to the nobility, the pronunciation in Japanese changing to saburai. According to Wilson, a reference to the word samurai appears in the Kokin Wakashū. By the end of the 12th century, samurai became almost entirely synonymous with bushi, the samurai were usually associated with a clan and their lord, and were trained as officers in military tactics and grand strategy. While the samurai numbered less than 10% of then Japans population, following the Battle of Hakusukinoe against Tang China and Silla in 663 AD, which led to a retreat from Korean affairs, Japan underwent widespread reform. One of the most important was that of the Taika Reform and this edict allowed the Japanese aristocracy to adopt the Tang dynasty political structure, bureaucracy, culture, religion, and philosophy. As part of the Taihō Code of 702 AD, and the later Yōrō Code, the population was required to regularly for census. With an understanding of how the population was distributed, Emperor Monmu introduced a law whereby 1 in 3–4 adult males were drafted into the national military and these soldiers were required to supply their own weapons, and in-return were exempted from duties and taxes. This was one of the first attempts by the Imperial government to form an organized army modeled after the Chinese system and it was called Gundan-Sei by later historians and is believed to have been short-lived. The Taihō Code classified most of the Imperial bureaucrats into 12 ranks and those of 6th rank and below were referred to as samurai and dealt with day-to-day affairs. Although these samurai were civilian public servants, the word is believed to have derived from this term. Military men, however, would not be referred to as samurai for many more centuries, Emperor Kanmu introduced the title of seii-taishōgun, or Shogun, and began to rely on the powerful regional clans to conquer the Emishi. Skilled in mounted combat and archery, these clan warriors became the Emperors preferred tool for putting down rebellions, though this is the first known use of the Shogun title, it was a temporary title, and was not imbued with political power until the 13th century. At this time, the Imperial Court officials considered them to be merely a military section under the control of the Imperial Court, ultimately, Emperor Kanmu disbanded his army. From this time, the Emperors power gradually declined, while the Emperor was still the ruler, powerful clans around Kyoto assumed positions as ministers, and their relatives bought positions as magistrates. To amass wealth and repay their debts, magistrates often imposed heavy taxes, through protective agreements and political marriages, they accumulated, or gathered, political power, eventually surpassing the traditional aristocracy. Some clans were formed by farmers who had taken up arms to protect themselves from the Imperial magistrates sent to govern their lands
3.
Yuan dynasty
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The Yuan dynasty, officially the Great Yuan, was the empire or ruling dynasty of China established by Kublai Khan, leader of the Mongolian Borjigin clan. His realm was, by point, isolated from the other khanates and controlled most of present-day China and its surrounding areas. Some of the Mongolian Emperors of the Yuan mastered the Chinese language, while others used their native language. The Yuan dynasty is considered both a successor to the Mongol Empire and an imperial Chinese dynasty and it was the khanate ruled by the successors of Möngke Khan after the division of the Mongol Empire. In official Chinese histories, the Yuan dynasty bore the Mandate of Heaven, following the Song dynasty, the dynasty was established by Kublai Khan, yet he placed his grandfather Genghis Khan on the imperial records as the official founder of the dynasty as Taizu. In addition to Emperor of China, Kublai Khan also claimed the title of Great Khan, supreme over the other khanates, the Chagatai, the Golden Horde. As such, the Yuan was also referred to as the Empire of the Great Khan. However, while the claim of supremacy by the Yuan emperors was at times recognized by the khans, their subservience was nominal. In 1271, Kublai Khan imposed the name Great Yuan, establishing the Yuan dynasty, dà Yuán is from the clause 大哉乾元 in the Commentaries on the Classic of Changes section regarding Qián. The counterpart in Mongolian language was Dai Ön Ulus, also rendered as Ikh Yuan Üls or Yekhe Yuan Ulus, in Mongolian, Dai Ön is often used in conjunction with the Yeke Mongghul Ulus, resulting in Dai Ön Yeke Mongghul Ulus, meaning Great Mongol State. Nevertheless, both terms can refer to the khanate within the Mongol Empire directly ruled by Great Khans before the actual establishment of the Yuan dynasty by Kublai Khan in 1271. Genghis Khan united the Mongol and Turkic tribes of the steppes and he and his successors expanded the Mongol empire across Asia. Under the reign of Genghis third son, Ögedei Khan, the Mongols destroyed the weakened Jin dynasty in 1234, Ögedei offered his nephew Kublai a position in Xingzhou, Hebei. Kublai was unable to read Chinese but had several Han Chinese teachers attached to him since his early years by his mother Sorghaghtani and he sought the counsel of Chinese Buddhist and Confucian advisers. Möngke Khan succeeded Ögedeis son, Güyük, as Great Khan in 1251 and he granted his brother Kublai control over Mongol held territories in China. Kublai built schools for Confucian scholars, issued paper money, revived Chinese rituals and he adopted as his capital city Kaiping in Inner Mongolia, later renamed Shangdu. Many Han Chinese and Khitan defected to the Mongols to fight against the Jin, two Han Chinese leaders, Shi Tianze, Liu Heima, and the Khitan Xiao Zhala defected and commanded the 3 Tumens in the Mongol army. Liu Heima and Shi Tianze served Ogödei Khan, Liu Heima and Shi Tianxiang led armies against Western Xia for the Mongols
4.
Chinese language
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Chinese is a group of related, but in many cases mutually unintelligible, language varieties, forming a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Chinese is spoken by the Han majority and many ethnic groups in China. Nearly 1.2 billion people speak some form of Chinese as their first language, the varieties of Chinese are usually described by native speakers as dialects of a single Chinese language, but linguists note that they are as diverse as a language family. The internal diversity of Chinese has been likened to that of the Romance languages, There are between 7 and 13 main regional groups of Chinese, of which the most spoken by far is Mandarin, followed by Wu, Min, and Yue. Most of these groups are mutually unintelligible, although some, like Xiang and certain Southwest Mandarin dialects, may share common terms, all varieties of Chinese are tonal and analytic. Standard Chinese is a form of spoken Chinese based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin. It is the language of China and Taiwan, as well as one of four official languages of Singapore. It is one of the six languages of the United Nations. The written form of the language, based on the logograms known as Chinese characters, is shared by literate speakers of otherwise unintelligible dialects. Of the other varieties of Chinese, Cantonese is the spoken language and official in Hong Kong and Macau. It is also influential in Guangdong province and much of Guangxi, dialects of Southern Min, part of the Min group, are widely spoken in southern Fujian, with notable variants also spoken in neighboring Taiwan and in Southeast Asia. Hakka also has a diaspora in Taiwan and southeast Asia. Shanghainese and other Wu varieties are prominent in the lower Yangtze region of eastern China, Chinese can be traced back to a hypothetical Sino-Tibetan proto-language. The first written records appeared over 3,000 years ago during the Shang dynasty, as the language evolved over this period, the various local varieties became mutually unintelligible. In reaction, central governments have sought to promulgate a unified standard. Difficulties have included the great diversity of the languages, the lack of inflection in many of them, in addition, many of the smaller languages are spoken in mountainous areas that are difficult to reach, and are often also sensitive border zones. Without a secure reconstruction of proto-Sino-Tibetan, the structure of the family remains unclear. A top-level branching into Chinese and Tibeto-Burman languages is often assumed, the earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones from around 1250 BCE in the late Shang dynasty
5.
Pinyin
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Pinyin, or Hànyǔ Pīnyīn, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese in mainland China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Taiwan. It is often used to teach Standard Chinese, which is written using Chinese characters. The system includes four diacritics denoting tones, Pinyin without tone marks is used to spell Chinese names and words in languages written with the Latin alphabet, and also in certain computer input methods to enter Chinese characters. The pinyin system was developed in the 1950s by many linguists, including Zhou Youguang and it was published by the Chinese government in 1958 and revised several times. The International Organization for Standardization adopted pinyin as a standard in 1982. The system was adopted as the standard in Taiwan in 2009. The word Hànyǔ means the language of the Han people. In 1605, the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci published Xizi Qiji in Beijing and this was the first book to use the Roman alphabet to write the Chinese language. Twenty years later, another Jesuit in China, Nicolas Trigault, neither book had much immediate impact on the way in which Chinese thought about their writing system, and the romanizations they described were intended more for Westerners than for the Chinese. One of the earliest Chinese thinkers to relate Western alphabets to Chinese was late Ming to early Qing Dynasty scholar-official, the first late Qing reformer to propose that China adopt a system of spelling was Song Shu. A student of the great scholars Yu Yue and Zhang Taiyan, Song had been to Japan and observed the effect of the kana syllabaries. This galvanized him into activity on a number of fronts, one of the most important being reform of the script, while Song did not himself actually create a system for spelling Sinitic languages, his discussion proved fertile and led to a proliferation of schemes for phonetic scripts. The Wade–Giles system was produced by Thomas Wade in 1859, and it was popular and used in English-language publications outside China until 1979. This Sin Wenz or New Writing was much more sophisticated than earlier alphabets. In 1940, several members attended a Border Region Sin Wenz Society convention. Mao Zedong and Zhu De, head of the army, both contributed their calligraphy for the masthead of the Sin Wenz Societys new journal. Outside the CCP, other prominent supporters included Sun Yat-sens son, Sun Fo, Cai Yuanpei, the countrys most prestigious educator, Tao Xingzhi, an educational reformer. Over thirty journals soon appeared written in Sin Wenz, plus large numbers of translations, biographies, some contemporary Chinese literature, and a spectrum of textbooks
6.
Grenade
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A grenade is a small bomb typically thrown by hand. A variety of hand grenades exist, the most common being explosive grenades designed to detonate after impact or after a set amount of time, Grenadiers were originally soldiers who specialized in throwing grenades. The word grenade derives from the French word for an explosive shell. Its first use in English dates from the 1590s and it is likely derived from Old French pomegranate and influenced by Spanish granada, as the fragmenting bomb is reminiscent of the many-seeded fruit. Rudimentary incendiary grenades appeared in the Eastern Roman Empire, not long after the reign of Leo III. Byzantine soldiers learned that Greek fire, a Byzantine invention of the century, could not only be thrown by flamethrowers at the enemy. The use of Greek fire spread to Muslim armies in the Near East, in China, during the Song Dynasty, weapons known as Zhen Tian Lei were created when Chinese soldiers packed gunpowder into ceramic or metal containers. In 1044, a military book Wujing Zongyao described various gunpowder recipes in which one can find, according to Joseph Needham, the Chinese also discovered the explosive potential of packing hollowed-out cannonball shells with gunpowder. The mid-14th-century book Huolongjing, written by Jiao Yu, recorded an earlier Song-era cast iron cannon known as the flying-cloud thunderclap cannon, the manuscript stated that, The shells are made of cast iron, as large as a bowl and shaped like a ball. Inside they contain half a pound of divine fire and they are sent flying towards the enemy camp from an eruptor, and when they get there a sound like a thunder-clap is heard, and flashes of light appear. If ten of these shells are fired successfully into the enemy camp, the first cast iron bombshells and grenades did not appear in Europe until 1467. A hoard of several hundred ceramic greandes were discovered during building works in front of a bastion of the Bavarian City of Ingolstadt. Lots of the grenades obtained their original blackpowder loads and igniters, most probably the grenades were intentially dumped the moat of the bastion before the year 1723. In 1643, it is possible that Grenados were thrown amongst the Welsh at Holt Bridge during the English Civil War and these grenades were not very effective and, as a result, saw little use. Improvised grenades were used from the mid-19th century, being especially useful in trench warfare. In the American Civil War, both sides used hand grenades equipped with a plunger that detonated the device on impact, the Union relied on experimental Ketchum Grenades, which had a tail to ensure that the nose would strike the target and start the fuse. The Confederacy used spherical hand grenades that weighed about six pounds and they also used Rains and Adams grenades, which were similar to the Ketchum in appearance and mechanism. Improvised hand grenades were used to great effect by the Russian defenders of Port Arthur during the Russo-Japanese War
7.
Song dynasty
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The Song dynasty was an era of Chinese history that began in 960 and continued until 1279. It succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, coincided with the Liao and Western Xia dynasties and it was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or true paper money nationally and the first Chinese government to establish a permanent standing navy. This dynasty also saw the first known use of gunpowder, as well as the first discernment of true north using a compass, the Song dynasty is divided into two distinct periods, Northern and Southern. During the Northern Song, the Song capital was in the city of Bianjing. The Southern Song refers to the period after the Song lost control of its half to the Jurchen Jin dynasty in the Jin–Song Wars. During this time, the Song court retreated south of the Yangtze, the Southern Song dynasty considerably bolstered its naval strength to defend its waters and land borders and to conduct maritime missions abroad. To repel the Jin, and later the Mongols, the Song developed revolutionary new military technology augmented by the use of gunpowder, in 1234, the Jin dynasty was conquered by the Mongols, who took control of northern China, maintaining uneasy relations with the Southern Song. Möngke Khan, the fourth Great Khan of the Mongol Empire and his younger brother Kublai Khan was proclaimed the new Great Khan, though his claim was only partially recognized by the Mongols in the west. In 1271, Kublai Khan was proclaimed the Emperor of China, after two decades of sporadic warfare, Kublai Khans armies conquered the Song dynasty in 1279. The Mongol invasion led to a reunification under the Yuan dynasty, the population of China doubled in size during the 10th and 11th centuries. The Northern Song census recorded a population of roughly 50 million, much like the Han and this data is found in the Standard Histories. However, it is estimated that the Northern Song had a population of some 100 million people and this dramatic increase of population fomented an economic revolution in pre-modern China. The expansion of the population, growth of cities, and the emergence of a national economy led to the withdrawal of the central government from direct involvement in economic affairs. The lower gentry assumed a role in grassroots administration and local affairs. Appointed officials in county and provincial centers relied upon the gentry for their services, sponsorship. Social life during the Song was vibrant, citizens gathered to view and trade precious artworks, the populace intermingled at public festivals and private clubs, and cities had lively entertainment quarters. The spread of literature and knowledge was enhanced by the expansion of woodblock printing. Technology, science, philosophy, mathematics, and engineering flourished over the course of the Song, although the institution of the civil service examinations had existed since the Sui dynasty, it became much more prominent in the Song period
8.
Cast iron
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Cast iron is a group of iron-carbon alloys with a carbon content greater than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its low melting temperature. Carbon ranging from 1. 8–4 wt%, and silicon 1–3 wt% are the main alloying elements of cast iron, Iron alloys with less carbon content are known as steel. While this technically makes the Fe–C–Si system ternary, the principle of cast iron solidification can be understood from the simpler binary iron–carbon phase diagram, cast iron tends to be brittle, except for malleable cast irons. It is resistant to destruction and weakening by oxidation, the earliest cast iron artefacts date to the 5th century BC, and were discovered by archaeologists in what is now Jiangsu in China. Cast iron was used in ancient China for warfare, agriculture, during the 15th century, cast iron became utilized for artillery in Burgundy, France, and in England during the Reformation. The first cast iron bridge was built during the 1770s by Abraham Darby III, cast iron is also used in the construction of buildings. Cast iron is made by re-melting pig iron, often along with quantities of iron, steel, limestone, carbon. Phosphorus and sulfur may be burnt out of the iron, but this also burns out the carbon. Depending on the application, carbon and silicon content are adjusted to the desired levels, other elements are then added to the melt before the final form is produced by casting. Cast iron is melted in a special type of blast furnace known as a cupola. After melting is complete, the molten cast iron is poured into a furnace or ladle. Cast irons properties are changed by adding various alloying elements, or alloyants, next to carbon, silicon is the most important alloyant because it forces carbon out of solution. A low percentage of silicon allows carbon to remain in solution forming iron carbide, a high percentage of silicon forces carbon out of solution forming graphite and the production of grey cast iron. Other alloying agents, manganese, chromium, molybdenum, titanium and vanadium counteracts silicon, promotes the retention of carbon, nickel and copper increase strength, and machinability, but do not change the amount of graphite formed. The carbon in the form of graphite results in an iron, reduces shrinkage, lowers strength. Sulfur, largely a contaminant when present, forms iron sulfide, the problem with sulfur is that it makes molten cast iron viscous, which causes defects. To counter the effects of sulfur, manganese is added because the two form into manganese sulfide instead of iron sulfide, the manganese sulfide is lighter than the melt so it tends to float out of the melt and into the slag
9.
Gunpowder
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Gunpowder, also known as black powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It is a mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate, the sulfur and charcoal act as fuels, and the saltpeter is an oxidizer. Black powder firearms are in limited use today in hunting, shooting, Black powder has been replaced for most industrial uses by high explosives such as dynamite. Black powder is assigned the UN number UN0027 and has a class of 1. 1D. It has a point of approximately 427–464 °C. The specific flash point may vary based on the composition of the gunpowder. Gunpowders specific gravity is 1. 70–1.82 or 1. 92–2.08, Gunpowder is classified as a low explosive because of its relatively slow decomposition rate and consequently low brisance. Low explosives deflagrate at subsonic speeds, whereas high explosives detonate, ignition of the powder packed behind a bullet must generate enough pressure to force it from the muzzle at high speed, but not enough to rupture the gun barrel. Gunpowder thus makes a good propellant, but is suitable for shattering rock or fortifications. Gunpowder was widely used to fill artillery shells and in mining and civil engineering to blast rock until the half of the 19th century. Black powder is used as a delay element in various munitions where its slow-burning properties are valuable. The spread of gunpowder across Asia from China is widely attributed to the Mongols, the earliest record of a written formula for gunpowder appears in the 11th century Song dynasty text, Wujing Zongyao. This discovery led to the invention of fireworks and the earliest gunpowder weapons in China, in the centuries following the Chinese discovery, gunpowder weapons began appearing in the Muslim world and Europe. The technology spread from China through the Middle East or Central Asia, the earliest Western accounts of gunpowder appear in texts written by English philosopher Roger Bacon in the 13th century. The most ardent protagonists were Nathaniel Halhad, Johann Backmann, Quintin Craufurd, however, due to lack of sufficient proof, these theories have not been widely accepted. A major problem confronting the study of the history of gunpowder is ready access to sources close to the events described. The translation difficulty has led to errors or loose interpretations bordering on artistic licence, early writings potentially mentioning gunpowder are sometimes marked by a linguistic process where old words acquired new meanings. For instance, the Arabic word naft transitioned from denoting naphtha to denoting gunpowder, saltpeter was known to the Chinese by the mid-1st century AD and there is strong evidence of the use of saltpeter and sulfur in various largely medicinal combinations
10.
Fuse (explosives)
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In an explosive, pyrotechnic device, or military munition, a fuse is the part of the device that initiates function. In common usage, the fuse is used indiscriminately. The simplest form of fuse is the fuse, believed to date back to the 10th century. This simple fuse consisted of lightweight paper filled with loose gunpowder and this simple form of burning fuse can still be found today in many modern fireworks. A version of this simple fuse is called visco fuse, and consists of the burning core coated with wax or lacquer for durability, early fuses for grenades also consist of an wooden plug with an longitudinal hole filled with a slow burning gunpowder mixture inserted into the grenade. Such fuses were in use until the 18th century, the commercial and military version of a burning fuse referred to as safety fuse is a textile tube filled with combustible material and wrapped to prevent external exposure of the burning core. Safety fuses are used to initiate the detonation of explosives through the use of a blasting cap, Safety fuses are typically colored green or black or fluorescent orange to distinguish them from detonating cords such as Primacord, which are brightly colored or transparent. Fuses are found in pyrotechnics, model cannons, matchlock firearms, some improvised explosive devices, a slow match is a very slow-burning fuse consisting of a hemp or cotton rope saturated with an oxidizer such as potassium nitrate. Slow matches are used as a source of fire for manually lighting other devices, such as matchlock guns, todays punks used for lighting consumer fireworks are a type of slow match. A black match is a type of fuse consisting of cotton string coated with a slurry of black powder. This acts as a simple pass-fire, and was used to fire ancient cannons and they are used today in fireworks construction. A quick match or piped match is a type of black powder fuse that burns very quickly and they consist of black match covered with a loose paper wrap. When lit, the flame propagates quickly down the pipe from the hot gases produced by the burning powder. Quick matches are used in professional fireworks displays to pass fire nearly instantly between devices that must be separated while firing simultaneously, such as a finale rack. Devices which should fire in sequence can be branched from a single master fuse, a visco fuse has a core of black powder with one or more textile overwraps. The outer layers may be coated with wax or nitrocellulose lacquer for water resistance and these fuses are widely used in modern pyrotechnics because they burn at a uniform rate, with an easily visible external flame. Depending on their treatment, visco fuses are water resistant. A safety fuse consists of a black powder core in a tube, covered with asphaltum or other waterproofing agent
11.
Military of the Qing dynasty
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The Qing dynasty was established by conquest and maintained by armed force. Therefore, military institutions, leadership, and finance were fundamental to the initial success. The early military system centered on the Eight Banners, an institution that also played social, economic. The Banner system was developed on a basis as early as 1601, and formally established in 1615 by Jurchen leader Nurhaci. After 1644, the Chinese troops that surrendered to the Qing were integrated into the Green Standard Army, garrisoned in cities, soldiers had few occasions to drill. The Qing nonetheless used superior armament and logistics to expand deeply into Central Asia, defeat the Dzungar Mongols in 1759, despite the dynastys pride in the Ten Great Campaigns of the Qianlong Emperor, the Qing armies became largely ineffective by the end of the 18th century. It took almost ten years and huge financial waste to defeat the badly equipped White Lotus Rebellion, the Taiping Rebellion, a large-scale uprising that started in southern China, marched within miles of Beijing in 1853. The Qing court was forced to let its Han Chinese governors-general, first led by Zeng Guofan and this new type of army and leadership defeated the rebels but signaled the end of Manchu dominance of the military establishment. The military technology of the European Industrial Revolution made Chinas armament, in 1860 British and French forces in the Second Opium War captured Beijing and sacked the Summer Palace. The shaken court attempted to modernize its military and industrial institutions by buying European technology and this Self-Strengthening Movement established shipyards and bought modern guns and battleships in Europe. The Qing navy became the largest in East Asia, but organization and logistics were inadequate, officer training was deficient, and corruption widespread. The Beiyang Fleet was virtually destroyed and the ground forces defeated in the 1895 First Sino-Japanese War. The Qing created a New Army, but could not prevent the Eight Nation Alliance from invading China to put down the Boxer Uprising in 1900, the revolt of a New Army corps in 1911 led to the fall of the dynasty. Sometime before 1607, these companies were grouped into larger units called gūsa, or banners, differentiated by colors, yellow, white, red. In 1615 a red border was added to each flag to form a total of eight banners that Jurchen troops carried into battles, as Qing power expanded north of the Great Wall, the Banner system kept expanding too. Hong Taiji was more prudent in integrating Chinese troops, in 1629, he first created a Chinese army of about 3000 men. In 1631 these Chinese troops absorbed men that could build and operate European-style cannon, by 1633 they counted about 20 companies and 4,500 men fighting under black standards. These Chinese companies were grouped into two banners in 1637, four in 1639, and finally eight banners in 1642 and these Hanjun banners are known as the Chinese or Chinese-martial banners
12.
Chariots in ancient China
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The ancient Chinese chariot was used as an attack and pursuit vehicle on the open fields and plains of Ancient China from around 1200 BCE. Chariots also allowed military commanders a mobile platform from which to control troops while providing archers and soldiers armed with dagger-axes increased mobility and they reached a peak of importance during the Spring and Autumn period, but were largely superseded by cavalry in the Han Dynasty. Traditional sources attribute the invention of the chariot to the Xia dynasty minister Xi Zhong, however archeological evidence shows that small scale use of the chariot began around 1200 BCE in the late Shang dynasty. Contemporary oracle bone inscriptions of the character 車 depict a chariot-like two wheeled vehicle with a pole for the attachment of horses. General Wei Qings army, setting off from Dingxiang, encountered the Xiongnu Chanyus army of 80,000 cavalry, Wei Qing ordered his troops to arrange heavy-armoured chariots in a ring formation, creating mobile fortresses. At the front end of the pole there was a horizontal draw-bar about one metere long with wooden yokes attached, to which the horses would be harnessed. Wooden wheels with a diameter of between approximately 1.2 -1.4 m were mounted on a three meter long axle and secured at each end with a bronze hubcap. Wheels of the Shang period usually had 18 spokes, but those of the Zhou period numbered from 18 to 26, chariot wheels of the Spring and Autumn period had between 25 and 28 spokes. The carriage body was one metre long and 0.8 metres wide with wooden walls. With the arrival of the Spring and Autumn period improvements had made to the chariot’s design. The angle of the curved draw pole had increased raising the end of the pole and this reduced the amount of effort required by the horse pulling the chariot and increased its speed. The width of the body had also increased to around 1.5 m allowing soldiers greater freedom of movement. Key components such as the pole, hubcap and yoke were reinforced with decorated copper castings and these chariots were variously referred to as “gold chariots”, “attack chariots” or “weapons chariots”. Examples of the engineering involved included the use of sophisticated spoked wheels. Thus the so-called war chariot was only for war, for hunting. Usually a chariot carried three armored warriors with different tasks, one, known as the charioteer was responsible for driving, a second, the róngyòu, whose role was short range defence, made up the third member of the crew. Weapons carried on the chariot consisted of close-combat and long range weapons, the most important close-combat weapon aboard the chariot was the dagger-axe or gē, a weapon with a roughly three meter shaft. At the end of the device there was a sharp dagger on one side
13.
War wagon
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The war wagon was a medieval innovation that was fully developed by the Hussite Wars around 1420 by Hussite forces rebelling in Bohemia. Devices with a function may have existed earlier. For example, the Dongwu Che was a kind of mobile armoured cart used in Ancient China from the 5th century BC and it was used for the purpose of protecting warriors on the battlefield. Groups of them could form defensive works, but they also were used as hardpoints for formations or as firepower in pincer movements and this early use of gunpowder and innovative tactics helped a largely peasant infantry stave off attacks by the Holy Roman Empire larger forces of mounted knights. After the Hussite wars, they stayed in usage as the special weapon of Bohemian mercenaries which prevailed against knights or foot soldiers
14.
Chinese armour
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China has a long history of armour and weapons development. China has many varieties of armour, but the most common were of the lamellar, coat of plates, brigandine, initially, armour was exclusively for nobles. Later, bronze and leather armour was introduced, and simple one-piece breastplates, coat of plates, most of these were highly elaborate and decorated, and were often very heavy. The majority of noblemen fought mounted on war chariots, so the weight of the armour was not a factor in its construction. After the fall of the Shang dynasty, the Zhou dynasty used many weapons, however, the Zhou incorporated some of their own different styles of armour. One type was the gé jiǎ, a coat of animal hide formed on a wooden dummy. The hide used was of buffalo and rhinoceros, because of the disappearance of the rhinoceros in the region, buffalo came to be most common material. Another type of armour used by the Zhou was the wei jia, red lacquer was often used to form a protective layer for most armour used by the Zhou. Chariots were used extensively during the Spring and Autumn period, the chariots were mainly used as a shock weapon and a platform for archers. Since the chariot was restricted to flat terrain, charioteers could be defeated when battling well-organized infantry, Shang chariots were often drawn by two horses, later, the Zhou introduced a four-horse chariot. The crew of the chariot was made up of noblemen, so all would have worn armour, Zhou chariots were protected by leather, and sometimes came with a canopy to protect the crew from the weather, but this was probably removed before going into battle. Chariot use declined during the Warring States period, probably because of the introduction of the crossbow, most of the states of the Warring States period maintained large armies, numbering anywhere from 30,000 to 100,000. With the technology and resources of the time, it was not possible to all soldiers with armour. Armour was most common for wealthier or higher ranked soldiers, during the Warring States era, most armour was made of leather or bronze, or a combination of both. The metal that was used most for military purposes was bronze, cast iron began to appear in the 5th century BC, but did not begin to replace bronze until the 2nd century BC. Most infantrymen wore lamellar or coat of plates cuirasses, the lamellar cuirass worn by these men was made of hundreds of small overlapping metal and/or leather plates laced together to make a flexible and light coat of armour. Coat of plates consisted of hundreds of small non-overlapping metal or leather plates stitched or riveted together, shoulder guards and helmets were often used, but leather caps seem to have been more common for ground infantry. During much of the Warring States period, most light cavalry units served as skirmishers - thus armour for cavalry was rare, armour for heavier cavalry tended to be lighter than that of the infantry
15.
History of crossbows
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It is not clear exactly where and when the crossbow originated, however it is believed to have been invented in Europe and China around 6th to 5th century BC. The earliest evidence of crossbows in ancient China and neighboring peoples dates back to at least the 6th century BC, according to Sir Joseph Needham in his Science and Civilisation in China, it is not possible to pinpoint exactly which of the East Asian peoples invented the crossbow. However, there is evidence that the crossbow was used for military purposes at least as far back as the Warring States period from the second half of the 4th century BC onwards. In terms of evidence, bronze crossbow bolts dating from as early as the mid-5th century BC have been found at a Chu burial site in Yutaishan, Jiangling County. The earliest handheld crossbow stocks with a trigger, dating from the 6th century BC, were found in Tombs 3 and 12 at Qufu, Shandong. Other early finds of crossbows were discovered in Tomb 138 at Saobatang, Hunan Province, however, ammunition for crossbows could have apparently also been shaped as spherical bullets. Jing Fang, a Western-Han era Chinese mathematician and music theorist, repeating crossbows, first mentioned in the Records of the Three Kingdoms, were discovered in 1986 in Tomb 47 at Qinjiazui, Hubei Province, and were dated to around the 4th century BC. The earliest Chinese documents mentioning a crossbow were texts from the 4th to 3rd centuries BC attributed to the followers of Mozi and this source refers to the use of a giant crossbow catapult between the 6th and 5th centuries BC, corresponding to the late Spring and Autumn Period. Sun Tzus influential book The Art of War refers to the characteristics, one of the earliest reliable descriptions of this weapon in warfare is of an ambush which took place at the Battle of Maling in 341 BC. Crossbow remains have also found amongst the soldiers of the Terracotta Army near the mausoleum of Chinas first emperor Qin Shi Huang. The repeating crossbow and multiple bow arcuballista were both developed in China, according to one authority, the crossbow had become nothing less than the standard weapon of the Han armies, by the second century BC. Crossbow technology was transferred from the Chinese to Champa, which Champa used in its invasion of the Khmer Empires Angkor in 1177, China transferred crossbow technology to Champa. When the Chams sacked Angkor they used the Chinese siege crossbow, crossbows were given to the Chams by China. Crossbows and archery while mounted were instructed to the Cham by a Chinese in 1171, according to the Chinese Wujing Zongyao military manuscript of 1044, the crossbow used en masse was the most effective weapon against northern nomadic cavalry charges. Elite crossbowmen were also valued as long-range snipers as was the case when the Liao Dynasty general Xiao Talin was picked off by a Song crossbowman at the Battle of Shanzhou in 1004. Crossbows were mass-produced in state armories with designs improving as time went on, such as the use of a mulberry wood stocks and brass, a crossbow in 1068 could pierce a tree at 140 paces. The earliest evidence for a form of the crossbow in Europe dates to the 5th century BC when the gastraphetes, the device was described by the Greek author Heron of Alexandria in his work Belopoeica, which draws on an earlier account of his famous compatriot engineer Ctesibius. Heron identifies the gastraphetes as the forerunner of the later catapult and it was used in the Siege of Motya in 397 BC
16.
Repeating crossbow
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The repeating crossbow has a very simple and rugged design. The basic construction of the weapon has remained much unchanged since its invention. The bolts of one magazine are fired and reloaded by simply pushing and pulling the lever back, in that one movement, a bolt would be dropped into place, the string tensioned, and then the bolt released. Another bolt would then be ready to take its place from the magazine above and this action however put the weapons string under heavy wear since it had forces straining it from both above and below. The lifting of the magazine especially, put pressure on the string. The bow string consists of animal sinew twisted into a cord of suitable strength, often reinforced with quills from bird feathers, the weapon used by the ancient militaries was developed into a composite-recurve variety for more power. The recurved repeating crossbow is still weaker than the regular recurved crossbow. The Chinese repeating crossbow had a range of 120 meters. Non-recurved versions of the crossbow were often used for home defense. The weapon was extremely easy to manufacture and use, and, in the hands of a trained soldier, in comparison, an arbalest could only deliver about two bolts a minute. The repeating crossbow, with its smaller and lighter ammunition, had neither the nor the accuracy of an arbalest. Thus, it was not very useful against more heavily armoured troops unless poison was smeared on bolts, in which case even a small wound might prove fatal. Since the repeating crossbow was shot from the hip, accuracy was poor, to get past these limits often large numbers of men would use it on the battlefield, allowing for large numbers of bolts to be fired. Archaeological evidence of the earliest repeating crossbow from Tomb 47 at Qinjiazui, Hubei Province has been dated to the 4th century BC, during the Spring, for this reason, it was named after him. Other repeating crossbows fired as many as 10 bolts before exhausting the magazine, the repeating crossbow was introduced into Korea by King Sejong, who during a trip to China saw the weapon and was impressed by its operation. In Korean it was called sunogung, alterations of the design included mountable siege crossbows with larger bolts and greater power which required two men to operate. There was also a version using two magazines, thus doubling the number of bolts discharged. The latter was used in extreme close-quarter combat because they had short range
17.
History of gunpowder
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Gunpowder is the first physical explosive and propellant. Before its invention, many incendiary and burning devices had been used, the invention of gunpowder is usually attributed to experimentation in Chinese alchemy by Taoists in the pursuit of immortality, and is popularly listed as one of the Four Great Inventions of China. It was invented during the late Tang dynasty but the earliest record of a written formula appeared in the Song dynasty. It was employed in warfare to some effect from at least the 12th century in such as fire arrows, bombs. While the fire lance was eventually supplanted by the gun, other weapons such as rockets continued to see use in China, Korea, India. Bombs too never ceased to develop and continued to progress into the day as grenades, mines. Gunpowder can also be used for purposes such as fireworks for entertainment. The evolution of guns led to the development of artillery during the 15th century, Firearms came to dominate early modern warfare in Europe by the 17th century. The use of technology also spread throughout the Islamic world and to India, Korea. The so-called Gunpowder Empires of the modern period consisted of the Mughal Empire, Safavid Empire. The use of gunpowder in warfare during the course of the 19th century diminished due to the invention of smokeless powder, Gunpowder is often referred to today as black powder to distinguish it from the propellant used in contemporary firearms. Although it is impossible to know if he was referring to gunpowder. The next possible reference to gunpowder appeared in the year 300 during the Jin dynasty, a Taoist philosopher by the name of Ge Hong wrote down the ingredients of gunpowder in his surviving works, collectively known as the Baopuzi. In 492, Taoist alchemists had noted that saltpeter, one of the most important ingredients in gunpowder, burns with a purple flame and this was probably because some weapons were deemed too onerous or ineffective to deploy. One of the first, if not the first of these weapons was the fire arrow, a later account of this event corroborated with the report and explained that by let fire is meant things like firebombs and fire arrows. Afterwards fire arrows started transitioning to rocket propelled weapons rather than being fired from a bow and these fire arrows were shown to the emperor in 970 when the head of a weapons manufacturing bureau sent Feng Jisheng to demonstrate the gunpowder arrow design, for which he was heavily rewarded. In 1000 a soldier by the name of Tang Fu also demonstrated his own designs of gunpowder arrows, gunpowder pots, and gunpowder caltrops, for which he was richly rewarded as well. One surviving source circa 1023 lists all the working in Kaifeng while another notes that in 1083 the imperial court sent 100,000 gunpowder arrows to one garrison and 250,000 to another
18.
Fire arrow
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Fire arrows are one of the earliest forms of weaponized gunpowder. The first fire arrows were bags of gunpowder attached the shaft of an arrow. Later on gunpowder rockets were used to provide rockets with propulsive force, fire arrows are the predecessors of fire lances, the first firearm. Although the fire arrow is most commonly associated with its rocket mechanism and this type of fire arrow served the function of an incendiary and was launched using a bow or crossbow. The rocket propelled fire arrow appeared later, by the mid 1300s rocket arrow launchers had appeared in the Ming dynasty and later on mobile rocket arrow launchers were utilized in both China and Korea. The fire arrows propelled by gunpowder may have had a range of up to 1,000 feet, fire arrows were first reported to be used by the Southern Wu in 904 during the siege of Yuzhang. In 969 gunpowder propelled rocket arrows were invented by Yue Yifang and Feng Jisheng, in 1083 Song records state that the court produced 350,000 fire arrows and sent them to two garrisons. On March 1,1126, the Song general Li Gang used a fire arrow machine known as the Thunderbolt Thrower during the Jingkang Incident, by 1127 the Jin were also using fire arrows produced by captured Song artisans. In 1159 fire arrows were used by the Song navy in sinking a Jin fleet, in 1161 the general Yu Yunwen used fire arrows at the Battle of Caishi, near present-day Maanshan, during a Jin maritime incursion. The Mongols also made use of the fire arrow during their campaigns in Japan, as a result of the Mongolian military campaigns the fire arrow later spread into the Middle East. In 1374 the kingdom of Joseon also started producing gunpowder and by 1377 were producing fire arrows and cannons, korean fire arrows were used against the Japanese during the invasion of Korea. In 1380 an order of wasp nest arrow rocket launchers were ordered by the Ming army, in 1451 a type of mobile arrow rocket launcher known as the Munjong Hwacha was invented in Joseon. The Japanese version of the fire arrow were known as bo-hiya, Japanese pirates in the 16th century were reported to have used bo hiya. During one sea battle it was said the bo-hiya were falling like rain, andrade, Tonio, The Gunpowder Age, China, Military Innovation, and the Rise of the West in World History, Princeton University Press, ISBN 978-0-691-13597-7. Chase, Kenneth, Firearms, A Global History to 1700, Cambridge University Press, liang, Jieming, Chinese Siege Warfare, Mechanical Artillery & Siege Weapons of Antiquity, Singapore, Republic of Singapore, Leong Kit Meng, ISBN 981-05-5380-3 Lu Zhen. Alternative Twenty-Five Histories, Records of Nine Kingdoms, needham, Joseph, Science & Civilisation in China, V,7, The Gunpowder Epic, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-30358-3
19.
Fire lance
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The fire lance was a gunpowder weapon that appeared in 10th century China during the Jin-Song Wars. It is considered to be a proto-gun, the predecessor of the cannon. Fire lances were relatively short range weapons and were used to give its user an advantage in close quarters combat, the first fire lances consisted of a tube, usually bamboo, containing gunpowder and a slow match, strapped to a spear or other polearm weapon. Once ignited, the tube would ideally eject a stream of flames in the direction of the spearhead. Co-viative projectiles such as pellets or pottery shards were later added to the gunpowder. Upon firing, the gunpowder charge ejected the projectiles along with the flame, metal fire lance barrels appeared around the mid 13th century and these began to be used independently of the lance itself. The independent metal barrel was known as an eruptor, and became the forerunner of the hand cannon, the first fire-lances appeared in the Song dynasty as early as the year 950 and were mentioned in the military text Wujing Zongyao of 1044. They were at this point antipersonnel weapons, in 1163 fire lances were attached to war carts known as at-your-desire-carts used to defend mobile firembomb trebuchets. In the late 1100s shrapnel such as iron pellets and porcelain shards were added to the gunpowder tube. Some fire lances discarded the spearhead altogether and relied solely on their firepower, by 1232 the Jin were also using fire lances, but with improved reusable barrels consisting of durable paper material. Jin soldiers also used them in combat and in one instance. In 1259 a pellet wad that occluded the barrel was recorded to have used as a fire lance projectile. By 1276 fire lances had transitioned to metal barrels, the metal-barreled fire lance began to be used independently of the lance around the mid to late 13th century. These proto-cannons which fired co-viative projectiles, known as eruptors, were the forerunners of the hand cannon, needham, Joseph, Science & Civilisation in China, V,7, The Gunpowder Epic, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 0-521-30358-3. Little Bit of Info on the Fire Lance Medieval Chinese Armies, ISBN 1-85532-599-3 Chinese Siege Warfare, Mechanical Artillery & Siege Weapons of Antiquity
20.
Hand cannon
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The hand cannon or gonne is the first firearm and the successor of the fire lance. It is the oldest type of arms as well as the most mechanically simplistic form of firearm. Unlike matchlock firearms it requires direct manual external ignition through a hole without any form of firing mechanism. It may also be considered a forerunner of the handgun, in modern usage, the term hand cannon may also be used colloquially to refer to a pistol or revolver chambered for a powerful cartridge, such as the.454 Casull or.500 S&W Magnum. This term is sometimes used to refer to a novelty toy gun known as pocket artillery. Hand cannons first saw use in China sometime during the 13th century and were spread from there to the rest of the world. However the earliest artistic depiction of a cannon is a hand cannon wielding rock sculpture found among the Dazu Rock Carvings dated to 1128. Other specimens are also older and have been dated to the Western Xia period. The Heilongjiang hand cannon weighs 7.8 pounds, and could be carried by a soldier, the earliest reliable evidence of hand cannons in Europe comes from the 14th century, during which time both Europeans and Arabs appear to have begun using them. In East Asia, the Koreans acquired knowledge of the cannon from China in the 14th century. The hand cannon consists of a barrel, a handle, extant samples show that some hand cannons also featured a metal extension as a handle. The hand cannon could be held in two hands, but another person is shown aiding in the ignition process using smoldering wood, coal, red-hot iron rods. The hand cannon could be placed on a rest and held by one hand, projectiles used in hand cannons were known to include rocks, pebbles, and arrows. Eventually stone projectiles in the shape of balls became the form of ammunition. Later hand cannons have been shown to include a pan attached to the barrel. The flash pan had a cover and, later on. These features were carried over to subsequent firearms, the hand cannon was the first firearm used in the history of warfare, the first hand held fireweapon, and the predecessor of subsequent firearm weapons. In Europe depictions of hand cannons appeared as early as 1326, the first recorded use of gunpowder weapons in Europe was in 1331 when two mounted Germanic knights attacked Cividale del Friuli with gunpowder weapons of some sort
21.
Hongyipao
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The term red barbarian cannon derives from the weapons supposed Dutch origins, as the Dutch were called red haired barbarians in southern China. However, the cannons were produced by the Portuguese at Macau. The Dutch ship may have been in fact an English ship, the English ship Unicorn sank near Macau. Breech loading swivel cannons from Portugal entered the Chinese weaponry after a Ming fleet defeated the Portuguese at the Battle of Xicaowan in 1521, however its possible that individuals in China had been able to purchase Portuguese style cannons even earlier from pirates. After the Ming dynasty suffered a series of defeats against the Later Jin, attempts were made to bring Portuguese gunners to the north as well, but they were repeatedly turned away because Chinese officials harbored suspicions against them. Yu Zigao, commander of Zhejiang and Fujian, ordered several red-barbarian cannon in 1624 prior to his expedition against the Dutch outpost on Penghu Island in the Pescadores. Several Ming officials who supported the use of the new technology were Christians, among them Xu Guangqi, and Sun Yuanhua, the Tianqi Emperor asked a German Jesuit, Johann Adam Schall von Bell, to establish a foundry in Beijing to cast the new cannons. The first pieces produced there could throw a forty-pound shot, in 1623 some hongyipao were deployed to Chinas northern frontier at Sun Yuanhuas request under generals such as Sun Chengzong and Yuan Chonghuan. They were used to repel Nurhaci at the Battle of Ningyuan in 1626, after the Later Jin captured a Ming artillery unit at Yongping in 1629, they too began production of the hongyipao. The manufacture and use of the hongyipao within the Later Jin Banner armies were carried out by Han Chinese defectors called ujen coohai, the Jurchen forces did not manufacture nor wield the guns themselves. The Later Jin army under Nurhacis son Hong Taiji used these cannons along with the cannons to great effect at the Battle of Dalinghe in 1631. Han Bannermen specializing in artillery and muskets played a role during Qing sieges of Ming fortifications. Chinese gunsmiths continued to modify red barbarian cannons after they entered the Ming arsenal, in 1642 Ming foundries merged native casting technology with European cannon designs to create a distinctive cannon known as the Dingliao grand general. Unlike traditional iron and bronze cannons, the Dingliao grand generalrs inner barrel was made of iron, scholar Huang Yi-long describes the process, The resulting bronze-iron composite cannons were superior to iron or bronze cannons in many respects. They were lighter, stronger, longer lasting, and able to more intensive explosive pressure. Chinese artisans also experimented with other such as cannons featuring wrought iron cores with cast iron exteriors. While inferior to their counterparts, these were considerably cheaper. Both types met with success and were considered among the best in the world during the 17th century, soon after the Ming started producing the composite metal Dingliao grand generals in 1642, Beijing was captured by the Manchu Qing dynasty and along with it all of northern China
22.
The Art of War
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The Art of War is an ancient Chinese military treatise dating from the 5th century BC. Attributed to the ancient Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu the text is composed of 13 chapters and it is commonly thought of as a definitive work on military strategy and tactics. It was placed at the head of Chinas Seven Military Classics upon the creation in 1080 by Emperor Shenzong of Song. It has had an influence on Eastern and Western military thinking, business tactics, legal strategy, the book was first translated into French in 1772 by the Jesuit Jean Joseph Marie Amiot and a partial translation into English was attempted by British officer Everard Ferguson Calthrop in 1905. The first annotated English translation was completed and published by Lionel Giles in 1910, leaders such as Mao Zedong, General Võ Nguyên Giáp, General Douglas MacArthur and leaders of Imperial Japan have drawn inspiration from the work. This text was identified with the received Master Suns Art of War. The prominent strategist, poet, and warlord Cao Cao in the early 3rd century AD authored the earliest known commentary to the Art of War, caos preface makes clear that he edited the text and removed certain passages, but the extent of his changes were unclear historically. The Art of War appears throughout the bibliographical catalogs of the Chinese dynastic histories, in 1972, the Yinqueshan Han slips were discovered in two Han dynasty tombs near the city of Linyi in Shandong Province. The Sun Bin texts material overlaps with much of the Sunzi text, and this discovery showed that much of the historical confusion was due to the fact that there were two texts that could have been referred to as Master Suns Art of War, not one. The content of the text is about one-third of the chapters of the modern The Art of War. It is now accepted that the earlier The Art of War was completed sometime between 500 and 450 BC. The Art of War is divided into 13 chapters, the collection is referred to as being one zhuàn, detail Assessment and Planning explores the five fundamental factors and seven elements that determine the outcomes of military engagements. By thinking, assessing and comparing these points, a commander can calculate his chances of victory, habitual deviation from these calculations will ensure failure via improper action. The text stresses that war is a grave matter for the state. Waging War explains how to understand the economy of warfare and how success requires winning decisive engagements quickly and this section advises that successful military campaigns require limiting the cost of competition and conflict. Strategic Attack defines the source of strength as unity, not size, in order of importance, these critical factors are, Attack, Strategy, Alliances, Army and Cities. Disposition of the Army explains the importance of defending existing positions until a commander is capable of advancing from those positions in safety and it teaches commanders the importance of recognizing strategic opportunities, and teaches not to create opportunities for the enemy. Forces explains the use of creativity and timing in building an armys momentum, Military Maneuvers explains the dangers of direct conflict and how to win those confrontations when they are forced upon the commander
23.
Sun Bin's Art of War
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As a consequence, Sun Bins Art of War is sometimes conflated with Sun Tzus The Art of War. In April 1972, bamboo slips of both Sun Tzus and Sun Bins works were unearthed in the Yinque Hills, due to natural erosion, some of the bamboo slips were damaged and difficult to reinterpret. The current edition of Sun Bins Art of War contains 16 chapters from 222 bamboo slips, Sun believes that the historically progressive unification accomplished in war had been an important means of facilitating the submission of feudal lords. To start a war, one must have a storage of materials, Sun also pointed out that Warmongers will inevitably lose and those who expect to make a fortune out of war will also suffer defeat and disgrace. Sun Bin advises King Wei and Tian Ji, engaging them in a discussion on his basic thoughts about strategy. The chapter focuses on attacks on weakly defended key enemy positions and on the military philosophy of using Tao. Set in the Battle of Maling, Sun Bin and Tian Ji discuss the problems of battlefield positions in field operations, the combination of terrain, weapons and the types of soldiers is emphasized. Comments on the principles of building and training an army. On the topic of building an army, Sun Bin focuses on the employment of the best soldiers in terms of field command and he stresses five factors that will lead to constant victory, The commander who has won the sovereigns trust and has an independent command will win. The one who knows the art of war will win, the one who gets uniform support from his soldiers will win. The one whose work in concert with each other will win. The one who is good at analysing and utilising terrain will win, there are also five corollaries that will lead to constant defeat, The one whose command is constrained by the sovereign will be defeated. The one who does not know the art of war will be defeated, the one who does not have the support of his soldiers will be defeated. The one whose subordinates do not work in harmony will be defeated, the one who does not know to use spies will be defeated. Discusses the methods of a commander and the principles of battle formation and it emphasises that a commander must be well versed in both meteorology and geography. He also must get the support of his people at home, in a direct battle, he knows well the basic points of the eight formations. If one is sure of victory he will fight, if unsure he should not fight, Sun Bin also emphasises that in laying a formation, the army can be divided into three divisions. In each, the best soldiers should be placed as a vanguard and he emphasises dividing the army into three teams and engaging one team in battle in while leaving the other two strictly in defence
24.
Wujing Zongyao
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The Wujing Zongyao, known in English as the Complete Essentials for the Military Classics, is a Chinese military compendium written from around 1040 to 1044. It contains the earliest known written formulas for gunpowder, made from saltpeter, sulphur, the book was compiled during the Northern Song dynasty by scholars such as Zeng Gongliang, Ding Du and Yang Weide, whose writing influenced many later Chinese military writers. The compendium was published under the auspices of Emperor Renzong, who authored the books preface. The book covers a range of subjects, everything from naval warships to different types of catapults. In addition to formulas for gunpowder, the compendium contains details on various weapons such as incendiary bombs, fire arrows, incendiary projectiles, grenades. The Wujing Zongyao was compiled under the sponsorship of Emperor Renzong of Song. A team of Chinese scholars compiled the treatise of the Wujing Zongyao from 1040 to 1044 and its chief editor was Zeng Gongliang, while he was assisted by the prominent astronomer Yang Weide and the scholar Ding Du. After five years, the book was published with a preface authored by Emperor Renzong, historian Peter Lorge theorizes that the purpose of the compendium was to disseminate military knowledge to a wider government audience. Emperor Renzong was concerned that many officials were unfamiliar with the military classics, Lorge remarks that Zeng Gongliang, the chief editor, was a government official rather than a military general. The book was written to be read by other government officials. Parts of the Wujing Zongyao were copied form older sources, historian Ralph D. Sawyer calls it essentially a cut-and-paste job, the book contains many passages from earlier classical military writings whose original authors are left unidentified, a common practice at the time. During the Song dynasty, the Wujing Zongyao was appended to two books, the Xingjun xuzhi and the Baizhan qifa, which were written by anonymous authors. The Wujing Zongyao was one of 347 military treatises listed in the chapters of the Song Shi. After the original was lost, there was only a number of surviving copies rewritten by hand. Nevertheless, from a copy of the Wujing Zongyao, it was remade into a newly published edition in 1231 AD during the Southern Song dynasty era. Then there was an edition of the entire Wujing Zongyao in 1510 AD. After the edition of 1510 was printed, other Ming Dynasty copies were made and this included the Jiajing edition, the Wanli edition of Quanzhou, and the Wanli edition of Jinling by Tang Xinyün. During the Qing Dynasty it was reprinted in two different editions during the 18th century, and again in 1934 with the Shanghai edition
25.
The General's Garden (Tangut translation)
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The Tangut translation of The Generals Garden is a unique manuscript translation in the Tangut language and script of a Chinese military text, The Generals Garden. The manuscript was collected from the fortress city of Khara-Khoto by Aurel Stein in 1914, and is held at the British Library in London. The translation dates to the 12th or early 13th century, the Tangut text may therefore represent a version that is closer to the original Chinese text than the extant Ming Dynasty Chinese editions. The manuscript is a paper scroll, when found by Stein it was twisted up, but has since been mounted on backing paper as a scroll,230 cm long and 20 cm high. The beginning of the scroll, comprising about a half of the text, is missing, additionally, the bottom of the scroll along its entire length has been severely damaged, with the result that each column of Tangut text is missing a few characters at the bottom. There are a total of 115 surviving columns of text, each comprising between 4 and 18 Tangut characters, depending upon the level of damage. Imre Galambos estimates that the manuscript would have had twenty characters per column. The Tangut characters are written in an elegant calligraphy in standard character forms, red marks and editorial signs are used to indicate copying errors such as reversed characters or characters that should be deleted. The surviving text of the manuscript is divided into 18 sections, with the title, however, as the bottom of the manuscript is damaged, the section titles and numbers are missing or incomplete in most cases. Fortunately, the numbers for the last few sections can be made out. This contrasts with the Ming editions of the Chinese text, which comprise fifty sections, only the last 18 sections of the Tangut manuscript have survived, corresponding to sections 21–23, 26–29,32, 34–36, 38–40, 42–43,45, and 46/50 of the Chinese version. Thus the missing first half of the Tangut text must have comprised 19 sections corresponding to sections 1-21 of the Chinese version. As the vast majority of surviving texts in the Tangut language are Buddhist in nature, however, it is not the only Tangut translation of a Chinese military text. In contrast to the editions of the Tangut translations of the three military classics, the Tangut version of the Generals Garden only exists in manuscript form. The Generals Garden is considered to be a Song Dynasty forgery incorporating elements of Sun Tzus Art of War, the Tangut translation differs from the Chinese version in two important respects. Firstly, the Tangut translation comprises 37 sections, whereas the earliest Chinese version of the text comprises fifty sections, the Tangut translation only discusses the Lords of the Steppes in the north, and omits any description of the barbarians of the south, east and west. Galambos sees this as a change so that the text reflects the geopolitical situation of the Western Xia state rather than the Chinese state. Ksenia Kepping suggests that the Lords of the Steppes mentioned in the Tangut translation refers to the Mongols who mounted raids on the Western Xia from 1205 onwards
26.
Huolongjing
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The Huolongjing is a 14th-century military treatise compiled and edited by Jiao Yu and Liu Bowen of the early Ming dynasty in China. Its intended function was to serve as an outline for the use of fire weapons involving gunpowder. The Huolongjing provides information on various compositions, which are given names such as magic gunpowder, poison gunpowder. Among the bombs described, there are hollow cast iron grenade bombs, shrapnel bombs, mine devices include land mines and naval mines as well as the latters use of a complex trigger mechanism. Although the book was published sometime during the 14th century as a compilation of material written since the late 13th century, the Huolongjings main purpose was to provide a collected summary of gunpowder weapons in use up until the end of the 14th century. He described the uses of magic gunpowder, poison gunpowder, or blinding and burning gunpowder in warfare. For this, Jiao Yu wrote, even flying in the air cannot escape the effects of the explosion. During the 14th century, Chinese gunpowder solutions had reached their maximum explosive potential, at least six formulas in use by the Chinese that were considered to have reached the maximum explosive force for gunpowder. The root of all this was the 1044 military handbook, the Wujing Zongyao, later, Wei Xing of the Song Dynasty was said to have created a gunpowder formula of saltpetre, sulphur, and willow charcoal for his projectile carriages for launching fire–stones up to 400 yards. Its value in festival entertainment could be seen in firework displays and he advised that a piece of hemp cloth should be used to strengthen the wad of paper and sealed with molten pine resin. Although he described the fire arrow in great detail, it was mentioned by the much earlier Xia Shaozeng, although written in 1630, the Wulixiaoshi of Fang Yizhi said that fire arrows were presented to Emperor Taizu of Song in 960. By the time of Jiao Yu, the fire arrow had taken on a new meaning. The simple transition of this was to use a tube instead of a bow or ballista firing gunpowder-impregnated fire arrows. The historian Joseph Needham wrote that this discovery came sometime before Jiao Yu during the late Southern Song Dynasty, at the front end there is a carton tube bound on to the stick, where the rising gunpowder is lit. When you want to fire it off, you use a frame shaped like a dragon, in the late 14th century, the rocket launching tube was combined with the fire lance. This involved three tubes attached to the same staff, as the first rocket tube was fired, a charge was ignited in the leading tube which expelled a blinding lachrymatory powder at the enemy, and finally the second rocket was fired. An illustration of this appears in the Huolongjing, and a description of its effectiveness in obfuscating the location of the rockets from the enemy is provided, the Huolongjing also describes and illustrates two kinds of mounted rocket launchers that fired multiple rockets. Rockets described in the Huolongjing were not all in the shape of fire arrows
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Jixiao Xinshu
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The Jixiao Xinshu or New Treatise on Military Efficiency was a military manual written by the Ming dynasty general Qi Jiguang. The book discusses military strategy, combat tactics, weapons and equipment, training, armed and unarmed fighting techniques, logistics, several contemporary martial arts styles of Qis era are mentioned in the book, including the staff method of the Shaolin temple. In the late 16th century the military of the Ming dynasty was in poor condition, as the Mongol forces of Altan Khan raided the northern frontier, Chinas coastline fell prey to wokou pirates, who were ostensibly Japanese in origin. Qi Jiguang was assigned to the defense of Zhejiang in 1555, where he created his own standards of organization, equipment, tactics, training. He published his thoughts on military techniques, tactics, and strategies in the Jixiao Xinshu after achieving several victories in battle, there are two editions of the Jixiao Xinshu. The first edition was written from 1560-1561 and consists of 18 chapters and it is known as the 18 chapter edition. The second edition was published in 1584 during Qis forced retirement with re-edited and it is known as the 14 chapter edition. Excluding the corporal and cook/porter, the ten remaining men could be split into two identical five-man squads and this was so that when Japanese pirates made it past the long lances, the saber-and-shield men formed a protective screen for the vulnerable lancers. In battle, the two men had different roles. The one on the right would hold the position of the squad, while the one on the left was to throw javelins. The two men with multiple tip bamboo spears would entangle the pirates while the lancers attacked them, the trident carriers guarded the flanks and rear. Qi became enamored with the musket after his defeats and became one of the proponents of their use in the Ming army. Ideally an entire team would have 10 musketeers, but often had 4 or 2 in practice. The optimal musket formation that Qi proposed was a 12 man musket team similar to the mandarin duck formation. However, instead of fighting in a hand to hand formation, they operated on the principle of the volley fire. Or if melee is not a possibility, then, Each squad was drilled in coordinated, because Qis troops were recruited from among peasants, and were not considered the equals of their Japanese foes, Qi Jiguang emphasized the use of combined arms and squad tactics. Units were rewarded or punished collectively, an officer was executed if his entire unit fled the enemy, and if a leader was killed in battle. The resulting weapons produced under this system varied widely in quality, muskets in particular exploded with alarming frequency, leading Qi to eschew reliance on firearms in favor of using melee tools such as swords, rattan shields, and sharpened bamboo poles
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Wubei Zhi
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Wubei Zhi, also commonly known by its Japanese translated name Bubishi, is the most comprehensive military book in Chinese history. It was edited by Mao Yuanyi, an officer of waterborne troops in the Ming Dynasty, Wubei Zhi contains 240 volumes,10405 pages, and more than 200,000 Chinese characters, which makes it the longest book in Chinese history regarding military affairs. Wubei Zhi consists of five sections, Bing Jue Ping, Zhan Lue Kao, Zhen Lian Zhi, Jun Zi Sheng, and Zhan Du Zai. Zhan Lue Kao This section comprises 31 chapters, and describes more than 600 specific examples of battle took place between the Eastern Zhou Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty. Among those are Battle of Maling, Battle of Red Cliffs, included into this section is the so-called Mao Kun map, the unique surviving map representing the Pacific and Indian Ocean shipping routes used by the fleets of Zheng He. Being known as an encyclopedia in ancient China, Wubei Zhi is one of the most influential works in Chinese history on warfare. Huolongjing A discussions of the Okinawan Bubishi and its significance to karate Ma, Huan, Mills, ying-yai Sheng-lan, The Overall Survey of the Oceans Shores 1433, London, Hakluyt Society
