We have a large number of literature, films and television to describe ancient life, of which ancient warfare is also the most popular genre, many people are very curious, how the ancient army fought the war. Famous works such as the Three Kingdoms and the Water Margin have some descriptions of ancient wars, as well as various military books that have been handed down. In fact, the ancients did not fight as complicated as we think now, and even many rules, we still can't understand, but there are some rules that have been handed down for thousands of years and are still applicable to this day, such as the two countries do not cut each other.
It has also appeared many times in many literatures, and it is easy to understand that when two countries are at war, they cannot kill the emissaries sent by the other side. It is reasonable to say that if two sides are at war, they are mortal enemies, but the two sides of the war also need to communicate, whether it is a plan or sincerity and want to talk to each other, they need to let the messenger send a message.
At that time, communication was not so developed, there was no telephone to contact remotely, if the pigeon passed on the book, it was easy to be misunderstood, and if you did not get it right, you would be charged with collaborating with the enemy. In contrast, sending emissaries directly is the simplest and most effective way to go directly into the enemy camp, and these emissaries must have taken great risks, but because most people in history were willing to abide by this agreement, emissaries were rarely killed by the enemy.
So is the "don't chop it up" convention true?
This must be true, in most of the history of the war two sides need to communicate, do not kill the messenger is the norm, kill the messenger will be criticized by the people. When exactly did this convention come about? I think the earliest should be in the Western Zhou Dynasty, but the real beginning to be accepted by people was in the Spring and Autumn Period.
One of the most famous things is that candle wu retired from the Qin division, at that time the Qin army had already destroyed Zheng Guo, candle zhiwu was just a businessman, he pretended to be the envoy of the state in the past to negotiate with Qin Jun, it is reasonable to say that both Qin and Jin are determined to win for the Jin state, there is no need to talk nonsense with this messenger, directly kill it, the result is that Qin Jun instead gave Candle Zhiwu time to explain his intentions, and finally chose to let him go back.
There were also some people who did not abide by the agreement, such as song guo once killed an envoy of the state of Chu, which made the king of Chu Zhuang very angry, and he directly led his troops to surround Song and almost destroyed Song. From the Spring and Autumn Period to the later Warring States, this rule became the rule, like Zhang Yi, Su Qin, these zongheng families, often as emissaries to and from many countries, they are not in danger.
Why is this rule kept? Will future generations also abide by this rule?
In fact, I think that this has some relationship with the essence of war, people from ancient times to the present, are to fight for interests, but the war is related to the survival of the country, but also related to the life and death of the people, Sun Wu in the book of soldiers first pointed out the meaning of war, then many countries to face war, you must be cautious. In the early Spring and Autumn Period, in fact, most countries did not arbitrarily destroy the strength of other countries, and the way of fighting at that time was also very peculiar.
Usually, the two sides make an appointment in advance for a time and place, and then the two sides fight according to the agreement and finish the fight within the specified time. Therefore, Song Xianggong insisted on benevolence and righteousness, and did not attack the Chu army in advance, also because of the impact of this environment on him, this way of fighting seemed really ridiculous, but at that time, these countries in the world were all princely states under the Zhou Dynasty, and in the process of fighting, they would naturally be bound by Zhou Li. Moreover, in the process of war, many countries need to stop the war due to various factors, so they must communicate with the other side, otherwise you want to truce, but the other side does not have this meaning, then you may be attacked by the other side, so that you cannot achieve your goal.
Some countries surrender, seek peace, and persuade each other to surrender, all of which require communication with each other, and they must send people to talk to the enemy. These messengers are not ordinary people, they are often able to represent the military generals, or even the kings of the country, because you must give them such a status symbol, there is a way to make the enemy believe you, the messenger must have the right to speak, and he must be able to count, otherwise you casually pass a person, it is equivalent to fooling the other party, then no one will give you this opportunity for dialogue. In the concept of many countries, the messenger often represents their own monarch, with the continuous strengthening of social centralization, the monarchy is becoming more and more sacred, the monarchs of the past are very concerned about their own majesty, then they must pay attention to the safety of their own messengers.
This makes us often see some strange scenes, such as the two countries fighting each other, completely feuding, eager to kill each other directly, as a result, the two countries also let each other's emissaries communicate with each other, and often the envoys of both sides talk very happily with each other, as if they were good friends. In fact, war is not only a fight on the battlefield, it involves many aspects, and once the war starts, there must be many people to sacrifice, in the final analysis, few people are willing to go to the battlefield, so there is a criterion in ancient warfare: "Siege is the bottom, attack the heart is the top." "A soldier who yields without a fight," all proves that the outcome of a war is affected by many factors.
Then for the people who command the troops, of course, the other side directly surrender is the best, they can achieve their goals without fighting, especially in battles where the losses are very large, if the other side can directly surrender, they will save the city of merit and reduce a lot of casualties. Any commander prefers to fight this kind of battle, and they must also find a way to achieve this goal, so the envoys have room to play, and some people who can speak can really solve problems by dialogue, even if they can't really solve the problem, they can also rely on their own mouths to drag each other down, or take the opportunity to inquire into each other's military intelligence.
There is also a situation that is even more interesting, the two sides fight very lively on the battlefield, the result is that the commanders on both sides privately send messengers back and forth like good friends, there is a constant exchange of letters, in order to win the war, it is necessary to fight with the enemy wits and courage, a good messenger, often can play a decisive role in the war.
If you can not fight, try not to fight, this is the real war people should think about the problem, and once the two sides really fight, it is sometimes difficult to hold, after the end of the ancient war, often accompanied by cruel massacres. Sometimes if you negotiate with the other party, you may be able to avoid this situation, and sometimes, some people want to secretly betray intelligence, or surrender in advance, and they must also communicate with the other party in advance, otherwise they may mistakenly hurt themselves when fighting. These places require envoys to constantly mediate, help both sides to achieve their respective goals, and sometimes dialogue with each other, you can also gain a lot of benefits for yourself, so both sides will never exclude the messenger, naturally they will rarely attack the messenger.
However, sometimes, the envoys are indeed very dangerous, such as Su Wu's envoy, because of the accidents of the people in his team, directly affecting himself. There is also a kind of like Ban Chao, after the mission found that the other party has long been involved with others, not only is it difficult to achieve the goal, but also may be killed by the other party, these things are often from some foreigners, because the Central Plains region is deeply affected by traditional culture, often the Han Dynasty is relatively obedient to credibility, will also abide by this war code, but foreign tribes, they are not bound by these factors, naturally it is possible to violate this norm.
Of course, the prevalence of Confucianism in the land of China has also allowed this principle to be followed. People revere loyalty and righteousness, and they also promote Confucian ideas, and naturally adopt protective measures for these rules similar to Confucian ideas. Not cutting it is undoubtedly very much in line with the Confucian concept, not only can save a lot of trouble, but also may leave a good reputation for themselves, even now, this kind of rule is also inherited.
bibliography:
Warring States Policy
"Spring and Autumn"