Ancient Chinese Army System

The military system has appeared in the world for five or six thousand years. It has been more than 4,000 years since the military system was created in China at the beginning of the Xia Dynasty. Over the past 4,000 years, due to the changes in the social and political system, the improvement of productivity level and the influence of long and continuous wars, the military system has an extremely rich content.

China had already established and developed a military system reflecting the will of the slave-owning class during the Xia, Shang and Western Zhou periods, and the king of each dynasty was both the supreme ruler of the country and the highest military commander. Noble ministers managed the civil affairs in normal times, but in wartime they were the leaders of the army and commanded the troops to fight. The king not only possessed a powerful royal family and royal army, but also could mobilize the armies of the vassal states and vassals. The largest unit of the army was the division. Soldiers were made up of slave owners and commoners, who were recruited as soldiers in times of war, but worked as farmers at home in normal times, and slaves served with the army in odd jobs. The army gradually developed into a chariot-based army, armed with bronze weapons, as well as wooden, stone and bone weapons, mainly swords, spears, gorges, bows, vectors, shields, armor and chariots. A simple but severe reward and punishment system was established for the participants in the war, such as "Shangshu - Gan Oath", which reads: "If you use your life, you will be rewarded by your ancestors. If you fail to use your life, you will be killed in the community." During the Spring and Autumn Period, with the gradual disintegration of slavery and the rise of feudalism, the Zhou royal family gradually declined, and the military power of the vassals and ministers was expanding. The vassal states began to change the military system: the abolition of the system of slaves can not serve as soldiers, began to implement the county conscription system; appeared in the civil and military division, began to implement the appointment and dismissal system of military officials; southern Wu, Chu, Yue and other countries established a certain scale of the boat division, and some of the vassals also established the infantry, the car army, although it is still the main types of soldiers, but the status of the beginning of the decline in the status of the infantry is gradually rising; the highest unit of the army is the army.

The Warring States period was a period of unusually active change in the military system. At that time, the feudal system began to establish, with the development of the feudal economy and the widespread adoption of iron weapons, the annexation wars between the vassal states were continuous. In order to realize the richness and strength of the military, all countries changed their military systems, and a series of military systems reflecting the will of the emerging landlord class appeared. Such as deprivation of private arms, the establishment of a unified army; centralization of military power, by the king of the state directly hold the army recruitment power, the implementation of the seal, the tiger's talisman to appoint generals to send troops; the army set up a full-time military officer, the implementation of the civil and military division of duties; the establishment of a system of promotion of the title of the reward according to the military service; in the main implementation of conscription system at the same time, but also appeared in the recruitment system of the peasant as a soldier; the establishment of cavalry, the expansion of infantry, so that the infantry developed into the main types of troops, Qin, Chu and other states Qin, Chu and other states also established a navy.

Since 221 B.C., the Qin Dynasty unified China, to the end of the Qing Dynasty 1840 Opium War, &127; in more than two thousand years of long years, successive feudal dynasties have established a military system in line with their own characteristics. In the military leadership, the establishment of the military power is highly centralized in the emperor's system, the emperor of each dynasty is the highest military commander-in-chief, supplemented by the prime minister as the core of the highest military decision-making group, and set up the central military administrative organs and military command organs. In terms of the armed forces system, it usually adopted a combination of the central army, local army, border guards and popular armies, with the central army as the main body of the system. In terms of the composition of the military types, the vehicle soldiers gradually disappeared, the infantry and cavalry became the main types of soldiers, and a certain number of naval forces, to the Song and Jin dynasties established artillery units - a gunnery army, the Yuan Dynasty, artillery Wandoufu, the formation of the Ming Dynasty firearms unit called the Shenji Battalion. In terms of weaponry, before the Song Dynasty, the army had been fighting with cold weapons such as swords, spears, swords, halberds and bows and arrows, and from the Song Dynasty onwards, they began to use firearms such as muskets, artillery, rockets, fireballs, etc., and gradually entered into the era when cold and hot weapons were used in parallel. In the military service system, each dynasty used conscription system, conscription system, the system of the world's soldiers or a combination of military service system, but regardless of the form of military service, farmers have always been the main component of the army soldiers. Successive feudal dynasties attached great importance to the use of legal means to implement the military system, many military content, such as the establishment of the army, the army's deployment, the Fans on the guards, the parade on duty, cantonments and garrisons, military duty, military officers selected, plus rank promotion, soldiering picking point, punishment for desertion, munitions supply, military secrets, military service, military tax, post passages, stables and storerooms management and weapons manufacturing and distribution, etc., through the form of legal promulgation. The government has been able to implement the law.

After the Opium War, China gradually became a semi-feudal and semi-colonial society, and the army became a tool to protect the interests of the feudal landlord class and the buyer bourgeoisie. The military system during the early years of the Qing Dynasty, the period of the Beiyang Warlords and the period of the Kuomintang government also took on a feudal and bought-and-paid-for nature. During this period, the weaponry completed the transition from cold weapons to hot weapons; the national military leadership, the military establishment, the military education and training system and the military management system and so on gradually to the recent and modern transition.