Ancient Chinese Warfare (91 page)

67
For an early form of this conclusion see Cheng Te-k’un,
Archaeology in China: Chou China
, 265-272, or Kawamata Masanori,
Koshi Shunju
4 (1987): 35-58.

1
Minimal numbers of bones have been discovered at the Yangshao cultural site of Pan-p’o and the Lungshan site of Pao-t’ou Chuan-lung-ts’ang, creating a sort of thread through time. (See Wang Hsün, KKWW 1997:3, 61-68.) The early (Lungshan) Shang site of T’ang-yang Pai-chü also shows evidence of horse raising, as does Ch’eng-tzu-yai. The Anyang area shows a distinct lack of bones except when deliberately interred in graves or horse-and-chariot pits. (See Yüan Ching and T’ang Chi-ken, KK 2000:11, 75-81, who, however, conclude that horses were being imported and rather than eaten, interred with the deceased. Wang Hai-ch’eng, 2002, 38-40 and 47-52, provides a summary of current knowledge.)

2
For example, see Shih Chang-ju, KKHP 2 (1947): 21-22. As already noted, it has been claimed that Shang intelligence efforts relied on mounted riders and that small contingents of “horse” sometimes preceded the army into the field. Although the complete lack of evidence strongly implies that early riding simply did not exist, insofar as the absence of evidence doesn’t prove nonexistence and it seems unlikely that people working closely with horses would not have begun riding, if only for herding, training, and control purposes, dogmatic assertions of impossibility are hardly justified. Moreover, if Anthony’s view that the horse was ridden even before the chariot appeared is correct, this knowledge would certainly have accompanied the chariot’s introduction into China.

3
Wang Yü-hsin, CKSYC 1980:1, 99-108; Liu Yi-man and Ts’ao Ting-yün, HCCHS 2005:5, 24-32. (For examples of horse-focused inquiries see HJ22247 and HJ22347.) The “Hsi-ts’u” in the
Yi Ching
also suggests horses were classified by their distinctive features, including colors.

4
Wang Yü-hsin, 99-105.

5
Prognosticatory inquiries reflect this importance insofar as humans and oxen were the most likely sacrificial offerings, followed by sheep, pigs, dogs, and finally horses. (Liu and Ts’ao, 29, estimate that queries about oxen or men number somewhere between 300 and 1,000; those for sheep, pigs, or dogs about 100; and only a few refer to horses. However, horses captured from steppe enemies seem to have sometimes been sacrificed. [See Wang Yü-hsin, 106.])

6
Tso Chuan
, Chuang Kung, eighteenth year, records that a king gave three horses each to several feudal lords to preserve their loyalty. (Even the refugee Ch’ung Erh was twice given twenty teams of four horses as a hedge against his enmity should he become powerful [
Tso Chuan
, Hsi Kung, twenty-third year].)

7
Tso Chuan
, Hsüan Kung, second year. (He managed to escape when only half had been paid.)

8
Tso Chuan
, Hsiang Kung, second year. (Ch’i had mounted a generally successful invasion of Lai.)

9
Found in the
Tso Chuan
,
Kung-yang
, and
Ku-liang
for Hsi Kung’s second year, the episode is reprised in numerous early Warring States and Han texts, including the
Han Fei-tzu
(“Shih Kuo”),
Shuo Yüan
, and
Ch’un-ch’iu Fan-lu
, generally being employed to illustrate shortsightedness. It is also retold in the
Chan-kuo Ts’e
and
Shih Chi
; is included in the
Thirty-six Strategies;
and numbers as one of the important examples of unorthodox techniques in the military writings (such as the
Wu-ching Tsung-yao’s
“Ch’i Ping”). (For further discussion see Sawyer,
The Tao of Deception
.)

10
Or, according to the
Ku-liang
, their teeth had grown longer.

11
Note, for example, “Shan Kuo Kuei,”
Kuan-tzu
. China’s “horse problem” and its ill-fated attempts to rectify the shortage in later centuries have been extensively discussed in recent articles.

12
Kung-tzu Chia-yü
.

13
“Horses’ Hooves,”
Chuang-tzu
.

14
An incident in the
Chan-kuo Ts’e
(“Chao,” 4) affirms the general recognition that specialized knowledge is required to select horses, neither a well-known administrator nor one of the king’s concubines being considered capable of buying a horse. This belief is further reflected in two tales about Po Le. In the first, a merchant whose superlative horse had drawn no interest despite having been displayed in the market for three days paid him to simply look at it intently for a few moments and then glance at it over his shoulder as he walked away, manifesting an appearance of interest. Being observed, his behavior increased the horse’s value tenfold (
Chan-kuo Ts’e
, “Yen,” 2). In the second, Po recognized the great stallion Chi even though he had become decrepit and reduced to hauling salt wagons (
Chan-kuo Ts’e
, “Ch’u,” 4).

15
See Liu Yi-man and Ts’ao Ting-yün, HCCHS 2005:5, 28; Wang Yü-hsin, CKSYC 1980:1, 101.

16
The last four characters comprise a well-known Chinese aphorism generally translated as “eject the bit and gnaw the reins,” which is generally understood as meaning “the more you force a horse, the more it resists.” Although the dynamic tension of most bridles, coupled with their “oppressive” cheek pieces, makes it difficult to spit out a well-fitted bit, horses reportedly have other ways of shifting it onto their back teeth or chomping down on it, thwarting its effects. (The terms found in this passage have widely differing interpretations; the translation is, at best, an approximation of Chuang-tzu’s intent.)

17
The “Hsing-chün Hsü-chih” section of the Sung dynasty
Wu-ching Tsung-yao
contains a section on “Selecting Horses” (“Hsüan Ma”) for the cavalry that emphasizes the same ideas of measure and constraint. The text notes that horses are sensitive, riders and horses need to know each other, and training is required; “if the horses and men have not been trained, they cannot engage in battle.” The
Wu-tzu
states: “Only after the men and horses have become attached to each other can they be employed.” Even the trainer’s suitability was the subject of Shang divinatory inquiry (Wang Yü-hsin, 101).

18
“Hsing Shih” and “Hsing Shih Chieh,”
Kuan-tzu
.

19
“Hsiao Ch’eng,”
Kuan-tzu
.

20
“Yen Hui,”
Kung-tzu Chia-yü
.

21
In 549 BCE, Chin attacked Ch’i, prompting Ch’u to strike Chin’s ally of Cheng in order to draw off the invaders. After both sides had deployed, the Duke of Chin selected two men to ride forth and pique Ch’u. Because they were fighting within Cheng, they in turn asked Cheng to provide a chariot driver (who would be familiar with the terrain). However, being hot tempered, the driver didn’t react well to being forced to wait outside their tent while they ate. Therefore, when they had embarked on their mission and the two were riding in the chariot, nonchalantly playing their instruments, he suddenly rode into the enemy, compelling them to dismount and fight. However, the driver then turned about and started to depart, forcing them to hastily jump on before they cut down their pursuers with arrows. After the mission’s completion they severely berated him because all men in a chariot are supposedly brothers. At the Battle of Ta-chi another experienced warrior, disgruntled that he had been bypassed when the pre-battle feast of lamb had been portioned out, deliberately drove the commander’s chariot into the enemy, resulting in his capture (
Tso Chuan
, Hsüan Kung 2, 607 BCE). Incidents such as these suggest that penetrating the enemy’s ranks was not a primary chariot function.

22
Tso Chuan
, Ch’eng Kung, sixteenth year.

23
Tso Chuan
, Hsi Kung, fifteenth year. Although the dialogue is certainly a late reconstruction and may be completely fictional, it doesn’t lessen the validity of the insights or recognition of the need for horses to be well trained prior to combat employment.

24
Not being Spring and Autumn concepts,
ch’i
and
yin
are both anachronistic.

25
“Ma Chiang” (“Horse Generals,” synonymous with “cavalry generals”).

26
Tso Chuan
, Hsüan Kung, twelfth year.

27
As does Xenophon in
The Cavalry Commander
.

28
A similar statement (which will be cited below) is found in Sun Pin’s
Military Methods
.

29
“Obligations of the Son of Heaven.”

30
Wu-tzu
3, “Controlling the Army.”

31
Because the dialogue is prefaced by Marquis Wu asking whether “there are methods for taking care of the chariots and cavalry” and cavalry appears as a referent in the second paragraph, some analysts have dated the work to the late Warring States or early Han. However, most of the contents reflect chariot practices; references to cavalry may simply be later editorial accretions.

32
The
Hu-ch’ien Ching
includes a chapter titled “Cheng Ma” (“Expeditionary Horses”) that specifies the regulations that should govern the care and use of army horses and emphasizes the need to find grass and water. In addition to citing a number of measures from the
Wu-tzu
, it discusses several steps for securing the camp, including putting donkeys on the perimeter to thwart raiders.

33
Cited in
Wu-pei Chih
,
chüan
141.

34
For a discussion of the horse’s inherent symbolism and felt power, see Elizabeth A. Lawrence,
Hoof beats and Society
.

35
Gallic War
, Book 4.

36
Tso Chuan
, Chao Kung, first year. This episode, historically considered an example of unorthodox innovation, will be more fully reprised in the next section. (For further discussion of the unorthodox aspects, see Sawyer,
Tao of Deception
.) Somewhat more than two centuries later King Chao Wu-ling’s forceful adoption of barbarian dress to facilitate the cavalry’s development evoked similar opposition.

37
The
Ku-chin T’u-shu Chi-ch’eng
(
chüan
34 of “Shen Yi Tien”) also preserves information on the seasonal horse sacrifice in its section “Ma Shen” (“Horse Spirits”).

38
The selections are taken from “Ma Chan,” which itself contains sections entitled “Horse Divination” (
ma chan
) from the
Sung Shu
and “Horse Oddities” (
ma yi
) collected from the Chou onward.

39
In many cases a single chariot and a pair of horses have been found together, though there are also instances of multiple chariots with correspondingly larger numbers of horses. Whether buried intact or in sections, Shang chariots exist mainly as vestiges, just impressions in the sand. The horses are normally aligned along the shaft and the deceased is sometimes accompanied by dogs or grooms.

40
Ch’ien-pien
2.19.1 refers to 20 pairs, while HJ21777 and HJ11459 each note 50 pairs. According to Li Hsüeh-ch’in, HCCHS 2005:4, 38-40, a Chou fragment has 200 plus 50 for 250 pairs.

41
Based on finds at Hsiao-t’un Kung-tien-ch’ü, M20, Shih Chang-ju concluded that a Shang chariot that employed four horses had been discovered, but his conclusions have generally been challenged and Shih subsequently recanted his conclusion in “Shuo-ming.” However, it continues to be cited as evidence that four-horse chariots existed in the Shang. (Based on the excavation of at least two late tombs in which four horses had been offered in sacrifice, Yang Pao-ch’eng, KK 1984:6, 547, similarly concluded that the Shang started using teams of four. However, in the absence of definitive evidence that the four were actually harnessed together, they might represent two teams of two.)

42
This is the view long held by a number of analysts in varying degree, including Kawamata Masanori,
Koshi Shunju
4 (1987): 38-58.

43
Some interments contain astonishing numbers of horses. For example, at Lin-tzu in Shandong, site of the ancient state of Ch’i, one assemblage dating to Duke Chin’s era (547-489 BCE) contains 600 skeletons, of which 228 have been excavated. “Kuei Tu” in the
Kuan-tzu
speaks of
an army of a million men that includes 10,000 chariots and 40,000 horses, clearly a ratio of four horses to one vehicle.

44
For example, although a Kuo noblewoman named Liang Chi was accompanied by nineteen chariots and thirty-eight horses, thus meeting the rule for a single pair, she far exceeded the allowable five chariots and ten horses that her status allowed. Conspicuous consumption became so ostentatious that critics not only decried the trend and abuses of privilege, but also concluded that they indicated character flaws. Even a high polish could indicate weakness of character and presage ill results (
Tso Chuan
, Hsiang Kung, twenty-eighth year). Similarly,
Kuan-tzu
(“Li Cheng,” 4) notes that opulent chariots are a sign of misplaced priorities; the
Yi Ching
’s “Chieh” observes that inappropriately riding in a chariot only attracts robbers.

45
See Chou Hsin-fang, CKSYC 2007:1, 41-57. Chou concludes that privileges were not really systematized until Ch’in Shih-huang’s reign; six were employed by both the king and feudal lords, and the question of the emperor having six stemmed from an ongoing debate between old and new text schools.

46
Tombs from the earls of Wei in the Western Chou at Hsin-ts’un in Chün-hsien have yielded twelve chariots and seventy-two horses—a very early, quite substantial representation of six horses per chariot, including one described as a war chariot. (See Hu-pei-sheng K’ao-ku-suo, KK 2003:7, 51-52.)