The formation and development of ancient Chinese military thought has gone through which stages

The formation and development of ancient Chinese military thought went through four stages.

The first stage: the initial formation period - 21st century BC to 8th century BC (Xia, Shang and Western Zhou period)

The main features of military thought:

1. The concept of war centered on the concept of heavenly destiny.

2. "Rites" and "punishments" as the basis of military governance.

The second stage: the period of rapid development - from the 8th century B.C. to the end of the 3rd century B.C. (Spring and Autumn and Warring States Period)

The main features of military thought:

1. The formation of a more complete view of war.

2. A number of general guiding principles of war were put forward.

3. The combination of military struggle with political and diplomatic struggle.

The third stage: the period of rich development - from the end of the 3rd century B.C. to the 13th century (the period from the Qin to the Five Dynasties)

The main features of military thought:

1. Transformation from the creation of the school of thought to the synthesis of the strengths of the various schools of thought, and the organization of military thought.

2. Some of the military ideas put forward by pre-Qin were developed.

3. Strategic thinking tended to be perfected and matured.

The fourth stage: the period of systematic perfection - from the 14th century to the 1840s (from the Ming Dynasty to the late Qing Dynasty)

The main features of military thought:

1. Martial arts began to be incorporated into the national education system, and the orthodox status of the book of military affairs was established.

2. The number of military books was numerous and complete, and the study of military thought developed towards systematization.

3, the influence of firearms on military thinking, in the organization and command of the way, military training methods have also changed accordingly.

Expanded information:

The struggle for supremacy in the Spring and Autumn and the warring states provided a broad field of practice for ancient Chinese military thought.

Theory comes from practice and is used to guide practice at the same time. The lords of the Spring and Autumn period wanted to dominate the world, and the kings of the Warring States period wanted to unify the world. Whether it is to dominate the world or to unify the world, it is necessary to make the opponent yield. To make the opponent yield, it is impossible to expect "to yield without fighting".

So, the next thing is to conquer each other, that is, there should be able to conquer the generals and strategists to lead the troops to go on a campaign, so as to give a variety of military thinking provides a broad platform for practice! From Sun Bin's plan to kill Pang Juan and Gou Juan's destruction of Wu, to Bai Qi's killing of 400,000 soldiers at the Battle of Changping and Qin's unification of the six kingdoms, any kind of military thinking has a chance to try its hand on the brutal battlefield and prove itself correct.

Of course, there were those like Zhao Xie who died in battle! But in any case, the practice of war did promote the great development of war theories and war ideas.

Baidu Encyclopedia - Ancient Chinese Military Thought