| Thinkers of the Spring and Autumn Period had to deal with the war carefully because of the special war environment at that time. Intellectuals' sense of mission to save the world and sense of responsibility to save people motivated them to learn from the war and give direction to the war. The free academic environment give their opportunity to criticism and learn from each other, and leading to the improvement of military thoughts.Confucius advocated the war should be "benevolence", the start of all wars must be in accordance with the requirements of "benevolence". His belief mainly embodied in military strategy, Confucius inclined to seek victory by wisdom rather than violence. The appliance of Mencius' Humanistic Thought to military is humanitarian military thought. He opposed the unjust war, supported the crusade against the unjust war of justice. He believed that the ruler should love people as well as soldiers, and keep company with them during the war. Xuncius believed that the function of war is to stop violence and cut off evildoers, he advocated that a trained army is needed in case of the eruption of war. Besides, he also advocated to accumulate wealth in the peacetime to cope with shortage rush in the wartime. Lao tse did not put forward suppose the war clearly, while he thought a just war will help to reverse the current situation if there is no rules in the world. Huang-Lao school advocated crusade against unjust war, and supported the war follow the criterion of justice. At the meanwhile, he also pointed out a series of strategy to guide the war, such as “combine violence with civil” and “retreat in order to advance”. Mozi againsted bullying aggression war, he supported the "punish the unjust" war. The positive defense strategy is the essence of his military thought. Shang Yang, Han Fei is the representative figures of Legalism, they all supposed war. Shang Yang regarded war as a way to gain power and status. He advocated to attach importance to agriculture and military, which put practice in the state of Qin, and has achieved outstanding results. Hanfeizi applied the law of internal affairs to military in a flexibly way. He advocated to manage army according to the law, and opposed to empty talk. Representative figures, like Zhang Yi, Su Qin carried out "combining vertically and uniting transversely ", hoping to convince all rulers to involve in the alliance.The Confucian military thinking represented by Confucius, Mencius and Xun, the Taoism military thinking represented by Lao tse and Huang-Lao school. The military thinking represented by Mozi all share common battle cautious view, which regarded “benevolence” as the criterion of starting of the war, and apply "benevolence, righteousness, principle, propriety" and other moral values to the strategic and tactical. These similarities make their military thinking has the "virtue type" feature. Shang Yang, Han Fei, represented by legalism and Zhang Yi, Su Qin as the representative of the strategists who had a common concept of preparing, regarded as the pursuit of the interests of the principles of war, attention seeking strength and technique used in the war. These similarities made their military thinking had a "utilitarian" feature.Although the military's military thinking has always been of great importance, but people ignored its military and non-military thinkers thought relevance. In the Spring and Autumn Period, needs and trends in the development of academic integration make Early Qin's military thought might have a blend. War utilitarian concept of virtue and type of military thinking and military ethics utilitarian ideology Military Thought, to varying degrees by military thinkers accepted. Military Thought and pragmatic strategic thinking is also been non-military thinkers absorbed. They are not mutually exclusive attack, but they contained each other and constitute the traditional Chinese ethics features ancient military ideology together, it has an important influence on development of military thoughts. |
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