Military history of China before 1912: Difference between revisions

Math, calligraphy, literature, equestrianism, archery, music, and rites were the [[Six Arts]].<ref name="Hao2012">{{cite book |author=Zhidong Hao |title=Intellectuals at a Crossroads: The Changing Politics of China's Knowledge Workers |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RqVIRz_8U9EC&pg=PA37&dq=yuanzhang+archery&hl=en |date=1 February 2012 |publisher=SUNY Press |isbn=978-0-7914-8757-0 |pages=37–}}</ref>

 

 

The Imperial exam included archery. Archery on horseback was practiced by Chinese living near the frontier. Wang Ju's writings on archery were followed during the Ming and Yuan and the Ming developed new methods of archery.<ref name="Selby2000" />{{rp|271–}} Jinling Tuyong showed archery in Nanjing during the Ming.<ref name="Fei2009">{{cite book |author=Si-yen Fei |title = Negotiating Urban Space: Urbanization and Late Ming Nanjing |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=zMb7ubCq61UC&pg=PR9&dq=hongwu+archery&hl=en |year=2009 |publisher=Harvard University Press |isbn = 978-0-674-03561-4 |pages = x–}}</ref> Contests in archery were held in the capital for Garrison of Guard soldiers who were handpicked.<ref name="Liew1998">{{cite book |author=Foon Ming Liew |title=The Treatises on Military Affairs of the Ming Dynastic History (1368-1644): An Annotated Translation of the Treatises on Military Affairs, Chapter 89 and Chapter 90: Supplemented by the Treatises on Military Affairs of the Draft of the Ming Dynastic History: A Documentation of Ming-Qing Historiography and the Decline and Fall of |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=79faAAAAMAAJ&q=hongwu+archery&dq=hongwu+archery&hl=en |date = 1 January 1998 |publisher=Ges.f. Natur-e.V. |isbn=978-3-928463-64-5 |page=243}}</ref>

The Chinese armies which received the modern equipment and training were the Han Chinese [[Xiang Army]], the Muslim [[Kansu Braves]],<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z2japTNPRNAC&pg=PA514&dq=dong+fuxiang+catholic&hl=en&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1 |title=Han-Mongol encounters and missionary endeavors: a history of Scheut in Ordos (Hetao) 1874–1911|author=Patrick Taveirne|year=2004|publisher=Leuven University Press|location=Leuven, Belgium|page=514|isbn=90-5867-365-0|accessdate=2010-06-28}}</ref> and three Manchu [[Eight Banners|Banner]] Divisions. The three Manchu divisions were destroyed in the Boxer Rebellion.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QiM2pF5PDR8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=manchu+han&hl=en&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1#v=onepage&q=manchus%20took%20part%20metropolitan%20banners%20peking%20field%20force%20tiger%20spirit%20division%20center%20division&f=false|title=Manchus & Han: Ethnic Relations and Political Power in Late Qing and Early Republican China, 1861-1928|author=Edward J. M. Rhoads|year=2001|publisher=University of Washington Press|location=|page=72|isbn=0-295-98040-0|accessdate=2010-06-28}}</ref> The [[Xiang Army]] employed the new weaponry to achieve victory in the [[Dungan revolt (1862–1877)|Dungan revolt]], with German Dreyse Needle Guns and Krupp artillery. The Lanzhou arsenal in China in 1875 was able to produce modern European munitions and artillery by itself, with no foreign help.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Md801mHEeOkC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Modern+Chinese+Warfare&hl=en&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1#v=snippet&q=needle%20rifles%20artillery%20lanzhou%20arsenal%20shells%20ammunition&f=false|title=Modern Chinese warfare, 1795-1989|author=Bruce A. Elleman|year=2001|publisher=Psychology Press|location=|page=77|isbn=0-415-21474-2|accessdate=2010-06-28}}</ref> A Russian even saw the arsenal make "steel rifle-barrelled breechloaders".<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pEfWaxPhdnIC&dq=ma+hua-lung+ch%27ing+loyalist&q=arsenal+at+lanchow+cartridges+steel+barrelled+breechloaders#v=snippet&q=arsenal%20at%20lanchow%20cartridges%20steel%20barrelled%20breechloaders&f=false|title=Late Ch'ing, 1800-1911|author1=John King Fairbank |author2=Kwang-ching Liu |author3=Denis Crispin Twitchett |year=1980|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=|isbn=0-521-22029-7|page=240|accessdate=2010-06-28}}</ref>

 

 

In addition to modern equipment, Chinese weapons, like fire arrows, light mortars, [[Dao (sword)|dadao]] swords, matchlocks, bows and arrows, crossbows, and [[halberds]] continued to be used alongside the western weaponry. Chinese [[gingal]] guns firing massive shells were used accurately, and inflicted severe wounds and death on the Allied troops during the [[Boxer Rebellion]].<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wWvl9O4Gn1UC&q=gingals+pure+chinese#v=snippet&q=gingals%20pure%20chinese&f=false|title=Some did it for civilisation, some did it for their country: a revised view of the boxer war|author=Jane E. Elliott|year=2002|publisher=Chinese University Press|location=|page=527|isbn=962-996-066-4|accessdate=2010-06-28}}</ref> In some cases, primitive weapons like Chinese spears were more effective than British bayonets in close quarter fighting.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wWvl9O4Gn1UC&q=chinese+soldiers+modern+rifles+krupp+artillery#v=onepage&q=chinese%20long%20spears%20english%20bayonet&f=false|title=Some did it for civilisation, some did it for their country: a revised view of the boxer war|author=Jane E. Elliott|year=2002|publisher=Chinese University Press|location=|page=137|isbn=962-996-066-4|accessdate=2010-06-28}}</ref>

 

During the [[Boxer Rebellion]], Imperial Chinese forces deployed a weapon called "[[Naval mine|electric mines]]" on June 15, at the river [[Peiho river]] before the [[Battle of Dagu Forts (1900)]], to prevent the western [[Eight-Nation Alliance]] from sending ships to attack. This was reported by American military intelligence in the United States. War Dept. by the United States. Adjutant-General's Office. Military Information Division.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?&ct=result&id=UHbxAAAAMAAJ&dq=June+15%2C+it+was+learned+that+the+mouth+of+the+river+was+protected+by+electric+mines%2C+that+the+forts+at+Taku+were&q=electric+mines|title=Reilly's Battery: a story of the Boxer Rebellion|author=Monro MacCloskey|year=1969|publisher=R. Rosen Press|location=|page=95|isbn=|accessdate=February 19, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LYYLAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA533&dq=June+15,+it+was+learned+that+the+mouth+of+the+river+was+protected+by+electric+mines,+that+the+forts+at+Taku+were&hl=en&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1 |title=Reports on military operations in South Africa and China|author=Stephan L'H. Slocum, Carl Reichmann, Adna Romanza Chaffee, United States. Adjutant-General's Office. Military Information Division|year=1901|publisher=G.P.O.|location=|page=533|isbn=|accessdate=February 19, 2011}}</ref> Different Chinese armies were modernized to different degrees by the Qing dynasty. For example, during the Boxer Rebellion, in contrast to the Manchu and other Chinese soldiers who used arrows and bows, the Muslim [[Kansu Braves]] cavalry had the newest carbine rifles.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iWxKQejMtlMC&pg=PA193&dq=kansu+braves+ketteler&hl=en&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3#v=snippet&q=kansu%20carbines&f=false|title=The boxer rebellion: the dramatic story of China's war on foreigners that shook the world in the summer of 1900|author=Diana Preston|year=2000|publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA|page=145|isbn=0-8027-1361-0|accessdate=2010-06-28}}</ref> The Muslim [[Kansu Braves]] used the weaponry to inflict numerous defeats upon western armies in the [[Boxer Rebellion]], in the [[Battle of Langfang]], and, numerous other engagements around [[Tianjin]].{{sfnb|Elliott|2002| p = [https://books.google.com/books?id=wWvl9O4Gn1UC&pg=PA204&dq=doing+fuxiang+russian&hl=en&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4 204]}}

 

Historians have judged the Qing dynasty's vulnerability and weakness to foreign imperialism in the 19th century to be based mainly on its maritime naval weakness while it achieved military success against westerners on land, the historian Edward L. Dreyer said that "China’s nineteenth-century humiliations were strongly related to her weakness and failure at sea. At the start of the Opium War, China had no unified navy and no sense of how vulnerable she was to attack from the sea; British forces sailed and steamed wherever they wanted to go......In the Arrow War (1856-60), the Chinese had no way to prevent the Anglo-French expedition of 1860 from sailing into the Gulf of Zhili and landing as near as possible to Beijing. Meanwhile, new but not exactly modern Chinese armies suppressed the midcentury rebellions, [[Treaty of Saint Petersburg (1881)|bluffed Russia into a peaceful settlement of disputed frontiers in Central Asia]], and [[Battle of Bang Bo (Zhennan Pass)|defeated the French forces on land in the Sino-French War (1884-85)]]. But the defeat of the fleet, and the resulting threat to steamship traffic to Taiwan, forced China to conclude peace on unfavorable terms."<ref>{{cite thesis |last=PO |first=Chung-yam |date=28 June 2013 |publisher=Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg |title=Conceptualizing the Blue Frontier: The Great Qing and the Maritime World in the Long Eighteenth Century |type= |chapter= |page=11 |docket= |oclc= |url=http://archiv.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/volltextserver/18877/1/PhD_Dissertation_CyPO.pdf |access-date=}}</ref>