China has been at war since the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, but there seems to be few specialized military academies.
The cultivation of officers and generals in schools is either family education, such as Sun Zi Xiangyu; or learning art from teachers, such as Sun Zhi Pangjuan; more is to personally experience the battlefield and read military books by himself. Although there were military classes in the Pre-Qin Taixue And the Former Qin Dynasty held an officer training class called "Teaching Martial Arts", none of them formed a formal national military education system. It was not until the Song Dynasty that this situation changed.
Let's talk about how the Song Dynasty opened the National Regular Military Academy.
Above_ The Warring States Ghost Valley has run a "military science", but there is still a big difference between this kind of master-apprentice education and military schools
The first time the school failed
Since the founding of the Song Dynasty, it has faced the pressure of a strong enemy on the border, and the Song army has an average combat strength, and it has suffered many losses when fighting. By the time of Emperor Renzong of Song, Li Yuanhao, a party member in the northwest, had made another fuss, and the Great Song Emperor Shi had gone out to suppress the rebellion in a majestic manner, and as a result, he had returned in a big defeat, and the whole country was shaken. The ministers Fan Zhongyan and Fu Bi thought bitterly, believing that the biggest factor in the defeat was due to the fact that officials "did not practice military affairs", so they wrote to the emperor proposing to establish special schools to improve the military quality of officials. So in the third year of the Great Song Dynasty, in 1043 AD, on May 21, the Great Song National Defense University, the Great Song Martial Arts, was officially established!
Fan Zhongyan, who proposed to run a martial arts school, was once known as "100,000 armored soldiers in his chest"
The school site was selected in the temple of the famous military figure Jiang Ziya, and the original intention of the school was to enhance the professional ability of military cadres, so the main enrollment targets were Song officials who were engaged in military work or who were interested in dedicating themselves to the cause of national defense. But as soon as the school opened, there were few students to learn, what was going on?
Originally, the target of enrollment was officials, the Song Dynasty was originally heavy on literature and light on military force, local officials did not want to do military work, and the officers of the army felt that there was no need to go to school to specialize in fighting war. In addition, martial arts have also been constantly attacked by the criticism of literati doctors: I think that in the beginning, Zhuge Liang, Du Pre, and Pei Du did not go to any military school, nor did they specialize in military studies. What is the use of opening a military school? In this way, the first military academy of the Song Dynasty closed its doors after 95 days of dismal operation.
Eventually scaled
But things didn't end that way. After a lapse of 30 years, Wang Anshi began the huge Xining Reform Movement, and in order to seek a rich country and a strong army, he reopened martial arts and put it on the agenda. In the fifth year of Xi Ning (1072), on June 27, Emperor Shenzong of Song issued an edict to reopen a military academy. This time, the Great Song Martial Arts finally gained a foothold and drove until the fall of the Song Dynasty. During the reign of Emperor Chongning of the Song Dynasty, local martial arts were opened throughout the country, and since then a military education system at the central and local levels of the Song Dynasty has been formed.
Above_ Wang Anshi changed the law, and reopening martial arts is also a content
The central martial arts school is still located in the Jiang Taigong Temple in the capital, Jiang Taigong was crowned King Wucheng during the Song Dynasty, and the martial saint in the Song Dynasty was still Lao Jiang instead of Guan Erge, with 200 students and 100 in the Southern Song Dynasty. At present, there are 17 local martial arts in the Northern Song Dynasty and 22 in the Southern Song Dynasty, most of which are located in the rear of the wealthy Jiangnan to provide a stable learning environment, and there are several places on the front line for the cultivation of military talents on the spot, and the number of students is "fifty in large counties, forty in middle counties, and thirty-eight in small counties." As the next level college of central martial arts, local martial arts send students to the central martial arts.
Above_ Jiang Ziya was made king of Wucheng during the Tang Dynasty, and Wusheng was him during the Tang and Song Dynasties
Admissions Brochure
The reopening of the martial arts program changed the enrollment plan in order to avoid the situation in the last stillbirth. Martial arts admissions are no longer primarily for serving officials. "Envoys without merit", "those who did not participate in the door shade", "Kususazawa people", etc., who hold official recommendation letters, can participate in the admissions examination, which is first tested for horseback riding archery and then for cultural classes. If there is a recommendation from an official above the "road transfer history", it is exempted from the entrance examination. In the Southern Song Dynasty, even the recommendation letter was not needed, and the number of guaranteed students was limited to less than 10 people. Martial arts is mainly oriented to social enrollment, and many of the people who apply for the examination are the second generation of officials who are broken and the students who have fallen into the first place, giving them more ways to turn over the salted fish, and martial arts are finally not afraid of not being able to recruit people.
Teaching subjects
It was hard to get into the military school, what did you learn in the school? Learn "the art of war, martial arts, the success or failure of the use of soldiers in previous generations, and the festival of loyalty and righteousness in past lives." In modern parlance, there are three main categories: military theory, military skills, and ideological and political education.
The teaching materials used for the study of military theory are the famous martial arts of the past, "Sun Tzu's Art of War", "Wuzi Art of War", "LiuTao", "Sanluo", "Wei Miaozi", "Li Weigong Asks Right", and "Sima Fa", which were seven important works of military science, and the Song Dynasty government compiled them into a set and called the "Seven Books of the Martial Classics" as a martial arts curriculum. Later, a "General Outline of the Martial Classics" was compiled and included in the compulsory textbooks.
The "General Outline of the Martial Classics" can be said to be an encyclopedia of ancient military science and technology, a total of forty volumes, the first 20 volumes of the military system, various marching and combat regulations and formations, and introduce various combat weapons, and draw detailed instructions. The last 20 volumes are case studies, which judge the success or failure of the important battles before the Song Dynasty, and have extremely high academic value.
Above_The chariot diagram in the "General Outline of the Martial Classics"
Military skills are mainly learned to shoot archery on horseback, and cadets must be able to pull open a large bow with one stone and three buckets when standing, and a large bow with eight buckets on horseback. A stone in the Northern Song Dynasty has 81.5kg, a stone in the Southern Song Dynasty has 75kg, and a stone has ten buckets, which is not easy to think about.
In the ideological and political class, the main study is the Confucian classics such as "Analects", "Mencius", and "Spring and Autumn", and Confucianism is the state ideology of the Song Dynasty. The imperial court instilled in martial arts students the Confucian concept of loyalty and martyrdom, making them loyal to the emperor and loyal to the country.
Entrance examinations
After the class, there will be an exam, and there are three grades in martial arts, which are called outer house, inner house, and upper house. The final exam is called the public examination, which is held every spring and autumn, and the written test (theoretical knowledge) and sports (riding and shooting kung fu) are taken. Excellent grades can be upgraded, unqualified results will be squatted to repeat the grade or even demotion, if the exam is not passed for three consecutive years, it will be dissuaded. The entrance examination is difficult, because each level has a quota limit, the Northern Song Dynasty has 30 people in the upper house and 70 people in the inner house, so every time the upgrade examination will be eliminated. The graduation exam is called the "make-up" test, and those who have completed the three-year semester can take it, and if they pass the exam, they will congratulate you on graduation.
Above_Song Dynasty cavalry
Graduation destination
Where do students go after graduation? In the Northern Song Dynasty, rest assured, the graduation package employment, if you are a low-level military attaché "three classes of envoys" before enrollment, you will be promoted to "three-way inspection, detention, and village master", if it is a flat-headed people, then "granted to the military to be escorted by the strategy, ready to be dispatched".
Above_Hua Rong in the Water Margin, that is, "inspection" and "village owner"
In the Southern Song Dynasty, it was not included in the distribution. Graduates who want to become officials must also take the Wuke Examination. However, the graduates of martial arts only need to take the last temple examination, and they do not have to start from the local examination and the provincial examination like others.
The above is the situation of the central martial arts, and the local martial arts graduates are promoted to the second year of the central martial arts "Inner House" for further study.
There are problems with the effectiveness and existence of the school
To sum up, the military academy education of the Song Dynasty can be said to have the rudiments of a modern military school, but what results did the Song Dynasty military school achieve? In the later national wars of the Song Dynasty against the Jin Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty, the overall combat effectiveness of the Song Army did not seem to have a qualitative improvement compared with that before the martial arts, and the famous generals of the Song Army did not see the figure of martial arts graduates. Because song dynasty martial arts had the following problems:
First, the scale of martial arts schools is too small, the Northern Song Dynasty Central Martial Arts school has only 200 students, the Southern Song Dynasty is only 100 people, plus local martial arts, a total of less than 1,000 people, thousands of people diluted in hundreds of thousands of Song army, it is difficult to improve the overall quality of the army.
Second, the content of martial arts teaching emphasizes theory and practice. There are too few courses on the practice of military command in the martial arts curriculum. Although there are practical exercises in martial arts, they are elective courses, and the graduation examination for further education is not taken, resulting in many graduates only talking on paper.
Third, the number of positions awarded to martial arts graduates is low. The highest number of graduates is only awarded to officials such as "three-way inspection, detention, and village master", but they are all from about eight pins, the rank is extremely low, and they are mainly responsible for maintaining local public order and stability, and they are not part of the field troops. The martial arts graduates of the Southern Song Dynasty had to pass the imperial examination to enter the career, and even if they were admitted to Wu Zhuangyuan, they were only awarded to Bingyi Lang (Bingyi Lang ranked 46th among the 52 official ranks of the Song Dynasty), which was far from the rapid promotion of Wen Zhuangyuan who immediately became a general judge (vice mayor) and entered Beijing three years later.
The theorist Cheng Yi was also in charge of martial arts
The root cause of these problems is actually the Song Dynasty's atmosphere of emphasizing literature over military force, and the social status of military personnel is low. In addition to some people of insight, most of the social elite, literati doctors are even more ashamed of engaging in military affairs and talking about soldiers and swords. Even Cheng Yi, who had been the head of the martial arts school, felt that the martial arts such as "Wei Miaozi" were crude, and he wanted to delete it from the curriculum and replace it with the "Filial Piety Classic" and "Zuo Chuan". In such an atmosphere, it was naturally very difficult for the military academies of the Song Dynasty to improve the overall level of national defense.
Text: Lion bar
bibliography:
1 Comparative Study of Martial Arts of the Two Song Dynasties [J] Journal of Hubei Normal University, 2016.8 Chinese Academy of Military Sciences, Li Xinwei
2 "Distribution and Preliminary Investigation of Martial Arts in the Song Dynasty" [J] Social Sciences, Southwest University, 2012.2, Xiaochun Li
The text was created by the History University Hall team, and the picture originated from the Internet and the copyright belongs to the original author