A Tentative Study On Military Supplies System In Jin Dynasty

Under the leadership of Wanyan Aguda, the Jurchens, who lived anomadic life, established the powerful Jin Dynasty within less than ten years.The military supplies system played a very important role in overthrowingLiao's dominion and setting up Jin Dynasty. And it became similarly anindispensable part in the later war against Song Dynasty. The author of thispaper discusses firstly the establishment and development process of JinDynasty's military supplies system in a comparative way, then analyses anddissusses separately the three chief aspects of military supplies which areprovender, horses and enginery. And finally the author thinks that militarysupplies system in Jin Dynasty had a significant effect on the following YuanDynasty, and its formation and development were closely linked with theeconomy of the whole society in that period.In the part one, the author discusses the establishment and developmenton the military supplies system in Jin Dynasty and claims that theestablishment was not accomplished in an action, and it should be consideredas a period which did not follow a clear course until Taizu's regime was setup. Above all, the author introduces the social and economical situationsbefore the founding of Jin Dynasty;then the author discribes and summariesthe conditions about the provender supplies before the founding of JinDynasty;subsequently, the author's attention is paid to the confirmation ofpersons written into household register and a standing army, and theeconomic development after Jin's foundation, which laid important basis forJin's military supplies. Beause the military supplies system experienceddiversified advance under Taizong's rule, and then achieved perfection in thereign of Xizong, the author of this paper asserts that the military suppliessystem in Jin Dynasty was created in period of Emperor Taizu and made arapid progress and expanded in period of Emperor Taizong and improved inperiod of Emperor Xizong and perfected until Emperor Zhangzong.In the part two, the author disscusses the military supplies in JinDynasty from provender and horses and enginery and so on. As the majorportion of military supplies, provender supplies could be achieved in fivemeans, war-supporting, self-providing, farmland-storing, redeploying andgrain-purchasing, and the last one always was important.Horses occupied a vital part in Jurchens' traditional life style, andmeanwhile, during the war a dominant arms of services was the cavalryman.As to the supplies of horses, the paper will offer an illustration from theperspectives of plundering, nation-supporting, spreading, marketing,tribute-paying, injure-prohibiting and feed-encouraging. Certainly, thesemeans coexisted rather than alternated one by one in a period.There is a saying that "effective tools are prerequisites to success."The manufacture and supply of enginery had an indispensable position in themilitary supplies system. In order to produce and stockpile enginery,warehouses were built in some places. Later the military ministry obtainedthe control in this field with the cooperation of finance ministry and industryministry, and the government also issued some decrees on enginery toguarantee the supplies.In the part three, the author discusses the effects and affects of militarysupplies system in Jin Dynasty. The author thinks that only war-supportingand self-providing had localization and could not guarantee completely themilitary supplies. And after the formation of the military supplies system, themilitary supplies could just fit the position. Whether or not in time, militarysupplies would impact the victory and defeat. Many examples of this paperhave annotated goodly the issue. Military supplies system in Jin Dynasty hada deep effect on Yuan Dynasty's. On the basis of imitating Jin's, themilitary supplies system in Yuan Dynasty was foundedIn summary, military supplies system in Jin Dynasty underwent aprocess from rooting to flowering, and from which we can see that militarysupplies were influenced by a number of factors, especially the economicfactor. Although war-supporting, a common means of military supplies for allthe nomadic people, would benefit those people at the very beginning of thewar;as the time going on, they would be inevitably thrown into adisadvantageous position. In view of the fact that more and more peoplesettled down in fixed places, this kind means of large-scale supplies was notsuitable any more, therefore, the military supplies began to come throughvarious forms, which were gradually improved and finally fixed. Theformation and development of the military supplies system ensured stronglythe logistics of Jin's army and made them free of worries at the battlefield.