Research On Ancient Chinese Riding

As a special cavalry unit of mid-ancient China, Tuji has relatively highly value in historical research. It is an important material of the research of the evolution of Chinese cavalries’equipment and tactics, the transmute of the cavalry unit’s sources, the gradual progress of the military system, the promotion and demotion of Tuji’s position, the win or lose in each regime’s war and civil war, the dynasties’ wax and wane from the Western Han Dynasty to the Northern and Southern Dynasties. Base on the Chinese classical historical document, using a lot of entity data, with a unique view on the Western military science and folklore, this paper makes a more comprehensive research of Tuji.First, base on the previous studies, this paper elaborates the transition of nationality and the region’s expansion of the sources of Tuji, and each dynasties’ transformations of Tuji’s military system in accordance with the transition and expansion, in chronological sequence. In the period of the Western Han Dynasty, the Tuji(Tunji)’s sources formerly originated from the east of Hanguguan’s prefectures’ cavalry, and gradually overweight to the Northeast’s Hans of Yan and people of Wuhuan. With putting up a fearless fight to help the Western Han Dynasty against the Hun, the Tuji of the Western Han Dynasties’ frontier force and Tuji of vassal state got an establishment of the Royal army which called Tunji Xiaowei and a renown which named Youzhou Tuji-the best crack troops of the world. Because of the brilliant military success during the War of Founding the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Eastern Han Dynasty further enlarged Youzhou Tuji’s establishment of the Royal army by military system’s reformation. But the Royal army’s Tuji’s going south to Central Plains caused the by-effects, not only its combat effectiveness’s retrogression, but also the economization of the source of original Tuji, which finally actuated the source of Tuji transfer to Xianbei. After the chaos caused by war of the last years of the Eastern Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms, the southern migrating and mutual annihilation of the Hans and Wuhuan Tuji caused their thorough decay. Although the Western Jin Dynasty who unified China again momentarily subdued Xianbei Tuji and rebuilt it’s Royal army’s establishment, but the chaos caused by war after the Western Jin Dynasties’ perish made the Sixteen Kingdoms’ Xianbei Tuji betray the Jin Dynasty and abandon the establishment of Tuji with independence after their entering and hosting the Central Plains. In the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the Southern Dynasties depended on the Huaiyin Tuji, which composed by the Han-refugees who came from the Northern China and non-Han soldiers who paid allegiance to the Southern Dynasties, and dispatched them garrisoning the frontiers of the Huaihe River and opposing the Northern Dynasties. Furthermore, the Northern Wei Dynasty who unified Xianbei Tuji finally composed its Tuji with Gaoche who paid allegiance to the Northern Wei Dynasty replacing the Xianbei. The source of Tuji comprehensively transferring to non-Han at both the Northern and the Southern finally made Tuji become the synonym of non-Han mercenary cavalry, and unhook connections with the regular Tuji’s establishment which had declined to a bare outline.Second, this paper expound the evolution of Tuji’s weaponry and mode of operations, which caused by the development of each periods’war industry and each dynasties’ war situation and political line. To against the Hun, based on the advanced offensive and defensive equipments of the Qin Dynasties’ riding-infantry, the Western Han Dynasty assimilated the Northern nomadic tribe’s tactics of shot-and-run, and composed Tuji who had both of the two tactics at the same time. At the prime of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the fitting up of high-bridge-saddle and the dynasties’ dependence of Tuji made it gradually prove to be a type of heavy spearing-cavalry who was equipped with long spear and armour for a war-horse, and was skilled in frontal group assault. At the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the Juzhuangjiaqi who inherited this tactics which was high-efficiency in conduct operations but inexpensive finally encountered a bottleneck in tactics development. Based on another branch of Tuji who called Xianbei Juzhuanghuban Tuji’s development which went its own way, the Gaoche Tuji of the Eastern Wei Dynasty and the Northern Qi Dynasty finally turned to equip with short pike, bow and saber, because of the technological development of pragmatic double stirrups which was equipped in the Northern Wei Dynasty, and the actual combat’s pressure by the re-armoured of the West Wei Dynasty and Northern Zhou Dynasties’Fubin. This mode of equipment and tactics had tipped-top the cavalries’ evolution at the cold-weaponry age and was adopted by the every Chinese dynasties’ cavalry troops at the later periods.Last, this paper discusses each period’s Tuji’s military exploits in war, and the influence which caused by the exploits to the regime or dynasty who was served or against by Tuji. As the best equipped cavalry troop at that period, the Western Han Dynasties’ Tuji played a big role in not only the prophase strategic defensive and the anaphase strategic counteroffensive of the war to against the Hun, but also the trial of political strength which the Western Han Dynasty entered into rivalry with the Hun for the third party such as Wuhuan. After the War of Founding the Eastern Han Dynasty, Youzhou Tuji’s brilliant military success made it’s position further promote. But the definition between Tuji’s position to the keeping retrogression of it’s combat effectiveness after entering the peaceful period, finally shaken the foundation of the Eastern Han Dynasties’ national defense. At the Northern and Southern Dynasties, each Tuji troop although served the dynasty which was paid allegiance to and got brilliant military success in wars. But as the Xianbei, Gaoche people becoming the principal source of Tuji and the military confrontation between the Northern Dynasties and Southern Dynasties, Tuji’s political separatist tendency gradually increased. This situation made the dynasties who was loyal to by Tuji mostly came to a deadlock:if the dynasty connives the presumptuous and unlawful Tuji, it finally produced an extinction caused by civil strife; if the dynasty represses the Tuji’s rebel by cruel massacring, without Tuji’s combat effectiveness, the dynasty also fallen into the extinction caused by foreign aggression.This paper not only quotes at a lot of classical historical documents, but also widely refers to many entity data, such as the unearthed graves including the Qin Mausoleum, the Western Han mausoleum at Yangjiawan, the Eastern Han mausoleum at Xuzhou’s Shilipo, the Lourui’s mausoleum of the Northern Qi Dynasty at Taiyuan, the Xiaoling of the Northern Zhou Dynasty at Xianyang, the murals of the 285th grotto of the Mo Kao Grotto at Dunhuang, the oil paintings of the Western famous artists like Giambattista Tiepolo, the objects of Charles Button’s family, who is a France expert of ancient weaponry. And the paper’s cohesion with the Golden Bough which is the opus of the British famous scholar of folklore and culture, offers a new view of the research. Through the measure of corroborating the Chinese classical historical documents with the unearthed cultural relics and crisscrossing the Chinese history with the Western folklore, this paper not only broadens the sphere of Tuji’s research, but also emerges an investigation in depth of some details of Tuji which was the deficiency of any previous document accounts or correlative research.