| China had invented chariot in the pre-Qin period. It is not only an important weapon that decides the success in the battlefield but also the number of chariot of one country has become the symbol of the strength. A country owned thousand or ten thousand chariots gradually became the pronoun of powerful countries. But with the expansion of the scale of the war and the rise of the cavalry, chariots gradually withdrew from the main battlefield. With the import of a great quantity of western firearms in the Ming Dynasty, a large number of the chariots appeared in the battlefield again. But the chariots recorded in the Ming Dynasty and the ones in the pre-Qin period are not the same military equipment. Although there are many records about the chariots in the Ming Dynasty, it should not be thought as the existence of the chariot war.This thesis is divided into six chapters. Chapter one is about the chariots and the chariot war before the Ming Dynasty. By investigating the chariots before the Ming Dynasty, the researcher makes a comparison between the chariots in the Ming Dynasty and the chariots in the previous period. According to the historical data, it has been proved that the chariots in the Ming Dynasty are totally different from the chariots in the previous period. The so-called chariots in the Ming Dynasty are only the carrier of guns, cannons and other firearms, so the nature of the war is among firearms. It is not appropriate to call this kind of war used chariots as the chariot war. Therefore, the Ming Dynasty had chariots but no chariot war. Chapter two is the literature review about the chariots and the chariot war in the Ming Dynasty in order to make up the deficiency of previous study on the chariots. Chapter three is about the construction and production of the chariots in the Ming Dynasty and it mainly focuses on the appearance and the quantity of the chariots in the Ming Dynasty. Chapter four is the investigation about the actual combat of chariots in the Ming Dynasty, inspecting the application of Ming Dynasty chariots on the battlefield. Through studying the pre-war preparation and the military records, it has been proved that the chariots in the Ming Dynasty not just exist in the theoretical level but in the real combat. Chapter five is the views on the chariots and the chariots war in the Ming Dynasty. The researcher investigated a lot of documents of officials and generals in the Ming Dynasty to explore the people of Ming Dynasty’s attitude to the chariots. Chapter six argues the statement that the chariots in the Ming Dynasty have not ever participated in the real war.In conclusion, the Ming Dynasty had chariots and they once appeared in the war, but the chariots in the Ming Dynasty are completely different from the ones in previous times, actually the nature of the war is firearm war. The chariots in the Ming Dynasty promoted the development of military technology of the Ming Dynasty. |
