Studies On Cavalry System In The Southern Dynasty

Cavalry is one of the most important branches of the troops. In particular, cavalry often plays a crucial role to determine the success or failure of the battlefield in a specific historical period, thus, it takes a prominent position in the development of ancient China.Commonly speaking, the Northern and Southern Dynasties is the most important and distinctive period in ancient China. At that time, as the North and the South set up their own regimes, wars occurred here and there and the people were plunged into an abyss of misery; therefore, the Northern and Southern Dynasties is one of the most representative periods to make wide use of cavalry. In order to meet the demand of war, either the North Regime built by nomadic people or South Regime mainly governed by officials coming from notable family and some scholars, it is necessary to build a large-scale cavalry troop so as to increase its comprehensive power under such social background.In comparison with powerful cavalry troop owned by North Regime, South Regime built a small-scale and relatively weak cavalry troop. Although the troop is often ignored by common people, it still exerted great influence on the history development. The thesis mainly focuses on some issues about cavalry system in the Southern Dynasty, including the development of cavalry system, the official position related to cavalry, distribution and organization of cavalry troops, primary source of cavalrymen and tactics of cavalry in real battle. Based on the above research of cavalry system, the thesis aims to prove that cavalry system in the Southern Dynasty plays a great part in its economics, politics, military and so on.