Today's young people can be said to be less and less interested in classical Chinese opera, once upon a time, opera was one of the most important pastimes for Chinese people. With the birth of various strange entertainment methods in modern society, opera has gradually spread only among the older generation. Young people can be said to be completely incomprehensible and will not go to opera.
Although I can't understand it, I believe that everyone must have a little impression of the martial artists in Peking Opera. As the most exaggerated character in Peking Opera, there is a bunch of flags behind each martial artist, what is this flag? And what does it do? Why do military generals always have to carry it on their backs?
In the murals unearthed in the Southern and Northern Dynasties, there is a detailed depiction of the flag. Moreover, Qi Jiguang, a famous anti-Japanese general of the Ming Dynasty, also said in detail in the "Record of Military Training" that "the flag general, each person carries a flag, and the flag gun is one." In addition, in the "Pingfan Victory Map" and "Police Entry Map" that reflect the real situation of the Ming Dynasty army, you can also see the landscape of small flags planted on the helmet, which shows that relying on the flag did exist in ancient times.
So, what is the role of the flag? On this point, because the ancients did not write too much ink to describe, today historians can only guess. The more popular theory is that the flag is planted on the back of the clothes and stacked in layers, which can prevent the back from being shot by arrows. Therefore, there are also some people called the flag, and the experts who hold this view are also frankly saying that "if you don't lean back on the flag, you will die."
However, in response to this conjecture, many people have also raised questions. The battlefield is already chaotic, the archers are all firing randomly, and hanging so many flags on their backs is not obviously telling the enemy where they are? Moreover, the warrior generals generally ride horses, and these flags are bound to increase the resistance of the wind during the riding process, so that the riding speed is slower, and it is easier to be hit by archers, so how can they prevent the enemy's dark arrows?
Therefore, there is also a theory that this kind of flag is specially designed to facilitate friendly forces to distinguish military generals. After all, the fighting is a mess, and if you don't distinguish between clothes, it is easy to hurt your own military generals by mistake. At the same time, it is also to facilitate the military generals to give orders, and orders are quite difficult to convey in the event of war, and these back flags can be removed at any time as flags, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone.
In addition, the military generals planted with back guard flags look majestic, and there is also a slight effect on improving the morale of the army, just imagine if a row of military generals came from opposite the opposing enemy army, and each of them was full of back guard flags, what an imposing scene.
In fact, not only in China, but also in many countries in Asia, there are things similar to the flag. In the Sengoku period of Japan, there was an elite samurai called the mother-clothed people, who when they rode horses, the mother-clothed clothes on their bodies would be held high under the action of the wind, and they looked very powerful. In the stone sculptures of ancient Thai soldiers, you can also see statues of soldiers with protective flags on their backs.
Of course, the actual use of the specific back flag is still debatable, after all, there is no historical data to support the above conjecture. However, as a traditional instrument handed down from ancient wars, it has been well inherited in Peking Opera, which is also quite gratifying.
Maybe one day, experts can crack the real use of the flag. I also hope that on that day, some of the traditional cultures in our country that are gradually dissipating can be paid more attention by young people.