Soldiers of the Dragon. Chinese Armies 1500 BC-AD 1840

253 Pages·2007·51.51 MB·English

by  C.J. Peers

SOLDIERS
OF THE
DRAGON
SOLDIERS
OF THE
DRAGON
Chinese Armies 1500 BC-AD 1840
CJ Peers
First published in Great Britain in 2006 by Osprey Publishing, Midland House,
West Way, Botley, Oxford OX2 OPH, United Kingdom.
443 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10016, USA.
Email: [email protected]
Previously published as Men-at-Arms 218: Ancient Chinese Armies 1500-200 BC;
Men-at-Arms 284: Imperial Chinese Armies (1) 200 BC-AD 589; Men-at-Arms 295: Imperial Chinese
Armies (2) 590-1260 AD; Men-at-Arms 251: Medieval Chinese Armies 1260-1520; and
Men-at-Arms 307: Late Imperial Chinese Armies 1520-1840, all written by CJ Peers.
© 2006 Osprey Publishing Ltd
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A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 10: 1 84603 098 6
ISBN 13: 978 1 84603 098 7
Page layout by Ken Vail Graphic Design, Cambridge, UK
Index by Alison Worthington
Typeset in Baskerville MT, Helvetica, LegacySan, RotisSemiSerif and RotisSerif
Originated by United Graphics, Singapore
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Front cover: Chinggis Khan fighting the Chinese in the mountains. A miniature painting illustrating
a scene from Ahmad Tabrizi's Shahanshahnama. (Permission British Library Or 2780 f49v)
Title page: Huang Ch'ao's peasant army attacks Ch'ang-an, the T'ang capital, in 874. (© Stephen
Turnbull)
Contents
Introduction 7
Chronology 10
Part I - Ancient Chinese Armies 1500-200 BC 14
Part II - Imperial Chinese Armies 200 BC-AD 1260 60
Part III - Medieval Chinese Armies 1260-1520 156
Part IV - Late Imperial Chinese Armies 1520-1840 192
Conclusion 241
Bibliography 242
Index 244

Introduction
China is the oldest of the world's surviving civilizations, and its history forms a
continuous narrative stretching back 3,500 years. Though it has always been
admired for its contributions to art and science, China's military achievements
have until recently been underrated in the West. This book aims to redress this
balance and show the enormous contribution that the Chinese fighting man has
made to the theory and practice of war. It includes a brief outline of the major
wars and campaigns, as well as a survey of the development of weaponry,
organization and methods of command.
This book's general structure follows the traditional division of Chinese
history into dynasties, each of which took its name from its ruling family or from
a title adopted by the regime's founder. Not all of the rulers of these dynasties
were native Chinese, as conquering tribes like the Mongols and the Manchus
routinely adopted the customs and administrative methods of their subjects. The
approach used here covers all those regimes that ruled over at least part of what
is now China and adopted a native dynastic title. This is not always ideal,
especially when discussing times when several such dynasties flourished
simultaneously, but it does help to divide this enormous subject into more
manageable periods. The most important of the 30 or so dynasties covered in this
book are as follows:
SHANG, c. 1500 to c. 1027 BC
CHOU, c. 1027 to256BC
CH'IN, 221 to 207 BC
HAN, 202 BC to 220 AD
T'ANG, 618 to 907 AD
SUNG, 960 to 1279 AD
YUAN (Mongol), 1260 to 1368 AD
MING, 1368 to 1644 AD
CH'ING (Manchu), 1644 to 1911 AD
OPPOSITE The Simatai
section of the Great Wall
Scholars - both Western and Chinese - have traditionally described China's north of Peking
history as a series of cycles. Successive dynasties rose and united the country (© Stephen Turnbull)
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SOLDIERS OF THE DRAGON
under a single emperor, who ushered in a period of peace and prosperity, then
gradually declined in virtue and the ability to govern. Eventually the 'mandate
of heaven' would be withdrawn from the regime, leading to natural disasters,
popular rebellions and the collapse of central authority. A period of
fragmentation and chaos would follow lasting perhaps only a few years,
perhaps a century or more - until the next dynasty arose in its turn. To some
extent this scheme does reflect reality, and it is worth looking briefly at some of
the conflicting factors that combined to impose these cycles.
Most Chinese accepted in principle the ancient idea that the empire should
have a single ruler the 'One Man' of Chou tradition - but it was also
understood that the people were entitled to depose and replace an emperor who
failed to fulfil his obligations. An emperor's control over his empire was
complicated by China's susceptibility to various natural disasters, such as floods
and earthquakes. In a society where the emperor was regarded as an
intermediary between earth and heaven, such phenomena could easily be
blamed on his shortcomings. The process of centralization was hindered by the
fact that China is geographically diverse and criss-crossed with rivers and
mountains that present formidable barriers to campaigning armies. A recurring
theme through the centuries is the split between northern China, centred on the
Yellow River valley, and the lands south of the Yangtze. Northern China was
influenced by the nomads of the steppes, and provided pasture land for horses,
while southern China was largely a rice-growing region, inhospitable to cavalry,
where most communication was by water. Areas beyond the Yellow and Yangtze
rivers, centred on fertile plains encircled by mountain ranges, resisted most
attempts at conquest from the outside. Predominant among these were ancient
Ch'in, the 'land within the passes' in the north-west; and the modern province
of Szechwan (ancient Shu) west of the Yangtze gorges.
As a result of these conditions, internal conflict in China, to say nothing of
wars against foreign invaders, was almost continuous. The sources that describe
these conflicts are extensive. Written history has a long pedigree in China, and
numerous chronicles and memoirs survive, dating back as far as the Chou era.
Although much traditional historical writing is of uncertain date or provenance,
its overall reliability is impressive. For example, the list of Shang dynasty kings
given by the Han historian Ssu-ma Chien, writing a millennium later,
corresponds closely to the names on oracle bones excavated from Shang sites by
modern archaeologists. The 'official histories', which were customarily produced
for each dynasty by its successor, tend to be rather dry records of government
business, but can contain useful details on military organization. There are also
numerous surviving military manuals, ranging from the philosophical works of
the Chou era to the illustrated encyclopaedias of the Ming. A small but growing
proportion of this material is available in translation. A great deal of
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