[History] Chou Military

[Acco]

Author: The Vandal
Original Thread: Chou Military

Chou Military

Western & Eastern Chou:

During the Chou's dynasty, there were constant threats of war, the Chou were essentially surrounded by enemies on all sides, in the western half of the Empire, they were constantly at war with the Empire's many vassal states, whose local warlords had a nasty habit of rebellion and shaky alliances, they were also threatened from the many "barbarian" Chinese tribes to the south. While the Chou are the ones credited for establishing the feudal system in China, the four great lords Yen, Lu, Ch'i and Sung were set under puppet rulers appointed by Chu overlords and land grants were given to Chou and Sung nobility. However with all this land giving it gave them insufficient land to maintain a effective or large royal army and ultimately they had to rely on armies supplied by their vassals, many of who had little loyalty to the emperor.. All was well for the Chou, they established the state of Ch'u in southern china and all was relatively calm until a civil war racked the land in 841 and finally in 711 BC the Jung (a barbarian tribe) from the west overran the Chou land and sacked the capital, Hao after many of the Chou great vassals refused to send their soldiers against the Jung, after the virtual collapse of all imperial Chou power, the former warlords and vassals created virtually 170 independent states , and all the western Chou held now was a minor state Chou.. which survived until 256 BC.

Western Chou Military:

Western Chou armies showed much more of a formal army then their Chang predecessors, and as a result many new forms of weapons and equipment began to come into use, such as a new form of the "Dagger-Axe" which had a huge shaft up to 18 feet, the blade extended down the shaft to give an effective cutting edge... The war chariot was also greatly improved upon; its wheels became larger, with more spokes and were dished outwards for extra strength. Four horses were the usual, but two horses were still in relative use at the time, as archaeologists can tell from burial chambers. The chariots were expertly decorated with bronze frontlets and strings of cowrie shells and the entire vehicles were covered with bells and ornaments which suggest it may be used more as a psychological weapon then for its mobility. Another development in this time was a new weapon called the Sword which had been unknown to the Shang but the early chou did use bronze sword of up to 18 feet long. Two types of armour used were the Kia which was a sleeveless coat of Rhino or buffalo hide formed on a wooden dummy or the Kiai which consisted of leather scales on fabric backing. The armies of Chou consisted of armies supplied by vassals, the largest vassals being forced to supply 3 armies, medium sized 2 and small 1, the exact size a of a army is unknown but it is generally accepted that a large army consisted of 3,000 chariots and up to 30,000 infantry which in all would give the emperor vast armies beyond anything Europe could comprehend, men were recruited by a system known as Ching- T'ien according to which each unit of 8 houses had to provide 1 recruit for armed service. The Shang system of small unit organization was maintained. Hsu-Ko chariots were deployed in units of 25 infantrymen in five ranks and armies were divided into three divisions, left, right and center which were perhaps corresponding to which vassals they were from. And it was said that peasants were undergoing a month of service every year in service of the emperor...

Eastern Chou:

The period between 770 and 256 BC are known as the Eastern Chou period after its capital at Lo-yi, it is usually divided into two sub-periods: the "springs" and "autumns" after the annals of the state of the Lu, which lasts up to 479 and then the "Warring states" period, which in the "chivalrous" attitudes of the former and the "ruthlessness" of the latter, in fact the warriors and their values had not changed at all over the time but the weapons of death had evolved heavily during that time and killing was truly taken to a art.
The Chinese/Barbarian distinction was still very unclear and sometimes hazy but tribes usually regarded as barbarian existed between the organized states and living in towns and maintaining like true Chinese and often supplying them to allies.
The 8th to the 5th century were the time of the greatest cultural differences between the states but on the inside it was becoming more centralized as civil service bases on merit replacing the old system of nobility.
A states power was bases on how many chariots it could field and this provides a rough estimate on some states rise to power, Tsin could only filed 700 chariots in 632 but in 537 had 4,900 or more, the same can be said of the rise of the future conqueror of china the Ch'in.
The 7th and 6th century were dominated by a series of wars between alliances headed by the major powers including Chou, which was caused by the emperors determination to create a bridgehead at Hwang Ho, northern victories originally prevented this but a victory in 638 at the Hung River and the northerner eventually abandoned military ambition and sued for peace.
The 5th century saw temporary a stalemate as the ambitions of the leading powers were thwarted by each other. Tsin which had long suffered from their in fighting and instability and alliances constantly fought and were in turn defeated by each other. However economically and culturally it was a age of great progress and the population increased from 12 million to more then 40 million but the pressure on the lands eventually caused the states to go to war and a loss of Chou power.

Military:

The 8th to 5th century were the heyday to the chariot , which appeared in greater numbers than ever before or since, but in a paradox now infantry began to overwhelm them. And the commoners’ morale was at an all time high during this time.
In the late 6th century the chariots reign was coming to an end, in part because of the state of the Wu, which never adopted them but were still successful. For a time continued to emphasize chariot archery between individual heroes such as Lang Shin but the large chariots forces were begging to end.
By the beginning of the 500's the sword was beginning to dominate the battlefield and even began to overthrow archery in chronicles which depicted heroic charges such as the battle in 520 where a Ch'i army routed the troops of Hua by throwing away their large armies and charging on foot with swords. Armour and bows were similar to earlier designs but the dagger-axe continued to evolve, the addition of a spear blade to the end shaft had turned it into a true halberd, spears were now classified into two types of spears one 9 ft long and another longer 18 ft. Swords were still of the short staping variety but steel began to hit the scene in the 5th century in the state of Ch'u and Han. Another development of the period was the crossbow ascribed to Chi'in Shih of Ch'u in the 6th century, it was effective at up to 600 paces but its advantage over the bow lay in its penetrating power at short range, because of its low rate of fire it was first a defensive weapon but by 340 it was beginning to be used in pitched battles and was perhaps another reason for the fall of the chariot.
The conventional way of recruiting in Eastern Chou remained the same as Western Chou, military expeditions either fell into two types a fa or a formal march with instruments ablaze or a Ch’in which was a stealthy raid or surprise attack.

Western Vs Eastern:

While it can be debated that the Western Chou were the more pioneering of the two empires it clearly lacked the staying power that the Eastern portion of the empire had, perhaps due to threat from internal strife and southern barbarian who knows perhaps if they had lasted it would have become the more successful of the two empires but that is another debate for another time. The eastern Chou was able to implement all the successful ideas of the day with the Western and Shang ideas of the past to have a long reign of superiority but in the end all empires come to a end and the Chou are no exception, eventually they fell to the Wu and Ch'in who would later dominate all of China.