The first dynasty was the Hsia (Xia), from about the 21st to the 16th Century BC. Modern archaeologists have uncovered urban sites, bronze implements, and tombs that point to the existence of Hsia civilization in the same locations cited in ancient Chinese historical texts, which were previously thought to be mythical. The Hsia period marked an evolutionary stage between the late Neolithic cultures and the Shang Dynasty.

The Shang Dynasty (or the Yin Dynasty in its later stages) is believed to have been founded by a rebel leader, who overthrew the last Hsia ruler. A line of hereditary Shang kings ruled over much of northern China, and Shang troops fought frequent wars with neighbouring Chinese states, and barbarian tribes from the Inner Asian steppes (Early Hu). The early (Hsia and Shang periods) armies fought in a ritualistic style similar to the Mycenaean Greeks, while later armies were much more ruthless.

A chieftain of a frontier tribe called Zhou overthrew the last Shang ruler. Sharing the language and culture of the Shang, the early Zhou rulers, through conquest and colonization, gradually extended Shang culture through much of China north of the Yangtze River. The Zhou Dynasty lasted longer than any other, from 1027 to 221 BC.

The early armies relied primarily on chariots, two and four-horse types with three crew (driver, archer and halberdier) supported by halberd or spear-armed foot, and archers. In 589 BC, a battle was fought involving about 800 chariots and 12,000 foot. Note that head taking was common among the later armies as a way to gain rewards and honours.

In 771 BC, the Zhou court was sacked, and its king killed by invading barbarians in alliance with rebel Chinese nobles. Because of this event, historians divide the Zhou era into Western Zhou (1027-771 BC) and Eastern Zhou (770-221 BC). With the royal line broken, the power of the Zhou court gradually diminished; the fragmentation of the kingdom accelerated. Eastern Zhou divides into two sub-periods. The first, from 770 to 476 BC, is called the Spring and Autumn Period, after a famous historical chronicle of the time. During the Spring and Autumn Period, there were over 150 states coexisting with Zhou, among them Qi, Lu, Jin, Yan, Qin, Chu, Wu, and Yue. The larger states, relying on their military and economic advantages, launched wars to expand their territories; absorbing smaller states so as to establish their dominance as overlords. The second is known as the Warring States Period or Zhanguo or Chan-Kuo (475-221 BC). During this era, there were seven competing Chinese kingdoms (Qi, Chu, Yan, Han, Zhao, Wei and Qin) and the rump of the Eastern Zhou kingdom.

Advances in military technology gave superiority to larger states with the resources to take advantage of the newer technology. Part of this technology was the casting of individual weapons that allowed the arming of foot soldiers. In previous eras aristocrats in chariots did most of the fighting. Chariots were not produced on a mass production basis so participation in the battles was limited to a small proportion of the population, the ruling elite of the city-states. Four-horse chariots had three crew; driver, officer and spearmen. This military technology made the consolidation of smaller states into larger states an inevitability; as the larger states could field larger armies.

The following sizes are recorded, although they are likely exaggerated but the ratios may be more probable:

Qin – one million infantry, 1,000 chariots, 10,000 cavalry
Wei – 360,000-400,000 infantry, 600 chariots, 5,000 cavalry
Zhao – 100,000 infantry, 1,000 chariots, 10,000 cavalry
Chu – one million infantry, 1,000 chariots, 10,000 cavalry
Yan – 100,000 infantry, 700 chariots, 6,000 cavalry

Ancient Chinese armour was basically lamellar. By about 700 BC, overlapping rectangular leather plates, sewn to a wool mantle, were in use. The leather plates were replaced with iron squares during the Han Dynasty, but the general pattern of Chinese armour continued for the next sixteen hundred years.

Qin

The unification of the various Chinese states was accomplished by the state of Qin (or Ch’in) and its ruler Ying Zheng, who became the first emperor, Shi Huangdi. Unfortunately, the dynasty did not last long after his death, and the next imperial dynasty, the Han, achieved supremacy in the civil wars that erupted after 210 BC.

The Terra Cotta soldiers discovered in 1974 within the massive tomb of the First Emperor provide some insight into the likely organization, attire and weapons of the Chinese armies. Military forces during the Eastern Zhou and Qin Dynasty were large, numbering in the hundreds of thousand. The infantry figures in Pit # 1 had two uniforms; green tunics with lavender collars and cuffs, dark blue pants and black shoes, and red tunics with light blue collars and cuffs. Armour was black for the first, and brown for the second. Armour was either lacquered leather or painted bronze. Weapons include the dagger-axe or halberd (ge or ji) and long spear for thrusting (mao), bows and crossbows as missile weapons, and swords (do).

Bronze armour and weapons were more common than iron during the whole period. Units were of 30 to 75 soldiers as minima, and up to several thousand in a formation. The infantry are arranged with crossbow in the van with a main body of spears and/or ge with archers on the flanks, and chariot-mounted officers.

Han

During this period, Chinese armies expanded the borders of the empire into Central Asia, Southeast Asia, Manchuria, Mongolia and Korea. There were also a number of major internal revolts including that of the Red Eyebrows, Greenwoodsmen (towards the end of the Western Han period in the First Century BC) and lastly, the Yellow Turbans, during which various warlords gained power and culminated in the fall of the dynasty.

The army benefited from the excellent administration developed by the Han civil service. The military was organized into regional commands and a general staff (Lieh Chun) supported field commanders. Units had colourful names like Smash Foe (P’o-hu), Volunteer Expert Marksmen, Winged Forest Orphans (an elite unit of orphaned sons of soldiers killed in battle), Liang Chia-tzu (elite noble cavalry) and Gallants from the Three Rivers (the best troops formed into a reserve equaling about 10 per cent of the army). Guard units included the Brave as Tigers and Feathered Forest (cavalry unit).

Chief attention was focused on defense of the northern frontier, with three types of military array. First there were garrison troops along the Great Wall and in other fixed defenses; second, there was the army of the General Who Crosses the Liao (du-Liao jiangjun), based on the Ordos loop of the Yellow River near modern Baotou, and commonly assisted by auxiliary troops from the Southern Hsiung-nu and other non-Chinese tributaries; and thirdly there were the citizen levies of the northern provinces, where every man was trained in war and could be required to serve in the field.

The early (Western Han) armies consisted of conscript, volunteers and convicts. The first were raised from men aged about 20 to 56 with one year of training and one with a garrison or field army usually as infantry. Former soldiers were used in militia units (pen-ming). Cavalry were normally nobles and non-Chinese (Hsiung-nu and other nomads). Convicts were used as a labour force, although some did fight. They were distinguished by red robes, metal neck collars and shaved heads. Later (Eastern Han) armies included more professional units and the retainers of the nobles (which led to the creation of private armies).

The Northern Army (bei jun), based at the capital, Luoyang, was the central strategic reserve of the empire, and was comprised five regiments (ying): the Archers Who Shoot at a Sound (shesheng), the Footsoldiers (bubing), the Elite Cavalry (yueji), the Garrison Cavalry (tunji) and the Chang River Regiment (Changshui), whose troopers were recruited from Wuhuan and other non-Chinese auxiliaries. The men of the Northern Army were professional, skilled soldiers, who could be sent to any point of danger or disturbance as reinforcements for forces recruited locally. The numbers were not great: each regiment had an official complement of some 700 men with between 60 and 120 junior officers.

Armies were often commanded by two generals (left and right, or front and rear) to limit collusion against the central government. Armies were organised into regiments (ying) commanded by colonels (xiaowei), with battalions (bu) under majors (sima), while there was provision for appointment of senior Majors with a separate command (biebu sima), companies (qu) under captains (hou), and platoons (tun) under chiefs (tunzhang), though these lower units and appointments are seldom referred to in the texts. There is some confusion about the translation so alternatively ying were divisions commanded by generals, hou-kuan were companies (of 5 hou), hou were platoons and sui were sections (officer plus 4-10 men). Files or sui were commonly five deep.

At the end of the First Century AD, only the troops along the northern frontier were considered reliable as conscripts drawn from the interior often proved to be lacking in training and motivation. Military training had been cut back as a result of concern that trained troops were a threat as likely supporters of rebellions. Many of the northern forces were recruited from barbarian peoples (northern nomads and Tibetan tribes). Hence the later Han armies relied on barbarians much like the Later Roman military relied on Germans and other non-citizens.

Weapons and armour were similar to those of the Qin armies. Selected men were formed into crossbow units (chueh chang) and were considered specialists because they used a powerful crossbow (pull-weight up to 350 pounds). Some cavalry carried crossbow and halberd. The crossbow was the most common infantry weapon. Infantry were the most numerous troop types except in armies that relied only on cavalry such as the one led by Pan (or Ban) Chao in the Tarim Basin (Central Asia) during the late 1st Century AD.

The collapse of the Han dynasty was followed by nearly four centuries of rule by warlords. The age of civil wars and disunity began with the era of the Three Kingdoms (Wei, Shu, and Wu, which had overlapping reigns during the period 220-80). In later times, fiction and drama greatly romanticized the reputed chivalry of this period. Unity was restored briefly in the early years of the Jin dynasty (265-420), but the Jin could not long contain the invasions of the nomadic peoples. In 317, the Jin court was forced to flee from Luoyang and re-established itself at Nanking/Nanjing to the south. The transfer of the capital coincided with China's political fragmentation into a succession of dynasties that was to last from 304 to 589 AD. During this period the process of sinicization accelerated among the non-Chinese arrivals in the north and among the aboriginal tribesmen in the south.

Three Kingdom and Western Chin

This is one of the best known historical periods in Chinese history thanks to the lengthy novel “Romance of the Three Kingdoms”, which has been published numerous times since it was first written in the 14th Century. The three kingdoms were the successor states to the Han Empire; Wei in northern China, Wu in the southeast and Shu Han in the southwest. Wei was the most successful as it controlled the majority of the population from which it raised large armies (several hundred thousands of troops). It conquered Shu Han in 263 and then as the Ts’in or Chin (or Jin) Dynasty conquered Wu in 280. In turn, the Chin Dynasty collapsed because of internal strife. Northern barbarians took advantage of the conflicts to invade and occupy much of northern China, leaving the Chin to hold a rump empire in the south.

During the latter years of the Han Dynasty, nobles and/or generals recruited their followers from retainers and mercenaries: so the first king of Wei raised troops in 189 AD by distributing his family property. At the core of any such levy, however, there was always a small group of family members or trusted friends, and this band of Companions (qinjin) gave security to the leader and coherence to his forces.

Most of the armies continued to model themselves on those of the Han. Most cavalry carried lances or halberds with some being bow-armed (and some may have been dual armed with lance and bow). Infantry were predominantly spear and crossbow-armed, although the normal practice was still to use them in separate units. Mutual support was emphasized so that crossbowmen kept missile-armed opponents away from the spearmen and the spearmen kept cavalry and close combat infantry from the crossbowmen. Some skirmishers and auxiliary troops were recruited from foreign states. Special units known as “dare-to-die” or shock troops were used with close combat weapons (sword and shield), although they were usually spear-armed. Sometimes they may have stripped off their armour to permit faster movement. Cavalry became more important, particularly shock or charging types, although numbers were modest compared to the numbers of infantry fielded. Nomad horsemen were often hired to provide these units.

Armour and weapons of iron and steel were scarce during this period. Measures were taken to recycle metal for military uses. Horse armour was introduced but was very limited due to the shortage of iron. Strategy and tactics were certainly refined because of the almost constant conflicts between the rival states. The “Romance of the Three Kingdoms” describes the combats between champions (often generals), elaborate stratagems and battle formations (such as the Eight Trigrams). Northern and Southern Dynasties

Internal wars and nomad invasions created another period of short-term successor states. In the north, nomads and Chinese combined to form armies of nomadic cavalry, and Chinese infantry and support troops. This is also the time when horse armour became more common as did the stirrup.

This historical period is called "Five Nomads Ravaging China" or Wu Hu Luan Zhong Hua (Hun, Jiehu, Xianbei, Qiang, and Di). First the Xianbei, and then the Toba became the most powerful of the nomads and eventually dominated as the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-535 AD). The south was controlled by various Chinese dynasties, which succeeded the Chin. The land on both sides of the Yangtze River was contested between the two halves of China with much of the ethnic Chinese population migrating south.

In the north, nomad contingents were at first untrained as they were recruited from the dominant tribal groups. The adoption of Chinese culture led to greater professionalism among these groups. More emphasis was placed on the composite bow as the battle-winning weapon for cavalry and infantry. In the south, armies tended to lack cavalry because of the difficulty hiring northerners, but were overall better trained. Southern armies also placed more reliance only Chinese troops.

The Huns, Xianbei, Tiele, and the Chinese all served in the army of the Northern Wei Dynasty. Major northern posts and towns of the Toba Dynasty were in the hands of the Huns. Numerous generals of the Toba army were Hunnic, too. The nature of this time period would be the mingling of various groups of the nomads and it is difficult to differentiate between the ethnicity.

Language Barrier

One of the problems encountered in research is the variation in translation of the original text; first from ancient to modern languages, and then into English. Most of the sources are derived from Chinese written histories, which combined oral history, mythology and often a liberal interpretation provided either by Chinese officials or at the whim of the royal or imperial court. Chinese writers could use a variation of the foreign word, often garbled, or Chinese words.

There are two accepted ways of translating Chinese to English; the Wade-Giles developed in 19th Century and the more modern Pinyin (from the 1950’s). Unfortunately for students the values chosen for some Latin alphabet letters in the Pinyin system do not correspond to usual English letter sounds: the Pinyin pronunciation of "Q" for instance is "Ch". You simply have to learn the conventions.

PINYIN WADE-GILES PRONOUNCE AS

b p b as in "be", aspirated
c ts', ts' ts as in "its"
ch ch' as in "church"
d t d as in "do"
g k g as in "go"
ian ien
j ch j as in "jeep"
k k' k as in "kind", aspirated
ong ung
p p' p as in "par", aspirated
q ch' ch as in "cheek"
r j approx like the "j" in French "je"
s s, ss, sz s as in "sister"
sh sh sh as in "shore"
si szu
t t' t as in top
x hs sh as in "she" - thinly sounded
yi I
you yu
z ts z as in "zero"
zh ch j as in "jump"
zi tzu