In ancient times, there was a long aristocratic society. The characteristic of China's Spring and Autumn Period was the "feudal system": the king divided the large nobles, and the large nobles divided the small nobles, forming a pyramid of aristocratic ranks.
China's Western Zhou Spring and Autumn Period was from the tenth to the fifth century BC, and for such a long time, the aristocratic class was the administrator of society and had to do a lot of work.
Fighting wars is the basic skill of the nobility, because the origin of the nobility is that the ancestors made meritorious contributions by fighting wars, and were granted a hereditary property by the superior feudal lords, including feudal estates and serfs, which became nobles.
The heirs also have to fight in the service of the feudal family, which is the obligation of the vassals. If it is impossible to provide military services to the fiefs, the fiefs may take back the fiefs and give them to other people who can contribute to the war.
Therefore, for the nobility, fighting is the basic skill.
Since the nobles of the East and the West in ancient times were able to fight wars, what were the characteristics of the nobles in the Spring and Autumn Period? That is to drive a carriage and fight a car war.
Carriages in the spring and autumn were wagons with four horses. Moreover, the wheels are tall, the carriages are small, and there is no closed roof. It's all about being able to ride at high speeds.
This kind of carriage is a chariot used by the nobles to ride when there is no war, and it is a chariot when fighting. In the Spring and Autumn Period, the entry condition for the nobility was to be able to drive a carriage to fight.
In the spring and autumn chariots, the standard configuration is three people: the driver stands in the middle of the carriage, and the archer and the long goe stand on the left and right sides, fighting when the carriage is running at high speed. Shoot with a bow and arrow at a distance, and slash with a long gordon when you get closer. These three tactical divisions of labor, at that time, all had special job titles, namely The Imperial (Driver), Archer (Archer), and Right (Long Gordon).
The same is true of tank warfare during World War II, in a tank, there are drivers, gunners, loaders, and commanders, and four people must cooperate very closely, and a tank can start to fight.
The same is true of a chariot in the spring and autumn, which requires close cooperation from the vehicle group. Each crew member must also master his own professional skills, either driving a carriage, or shooting arrows on a galloping carriage, or using a long go.
Since Confucius became an aristocrat, he also had to master the compulsory course of driving a chariot to fight. Later, Confucius became a teacher to teach students and also to teach chariot combat skills.
The so-called "six arts" of Kongmen, the number of Lile shooting royal books, here "Royal" refers to the technology of driving chariots. "Shooting" is also related to fighting wars, fighting wars in the spring and autumn, mainly shooting arrows on mercedes-benz chariots.
Later generations talked about Confucius and Confucianism, and felt that they were all a group of cultural people, without the strength of chickens, and should have nothing to do with fighting. There is some truth to this impression.
Let's say Confucius himself, he grew up with a single peasant mother, when he was a child, he has always been very low-key, does not like to provoke, and when he grows up, he does not like violence and war.
However, in order to adapt to the requirements of aristocratic society, Confucius and his disciples still had to learn the skills of chariot combat.
For example, in the Zihan chapter of the Analects, Confucius once said to his disciples, "Should I be a 'royal' or should I be a 'shooter'?" "This emperor is the driver of the chariot; the archer is the archer of the chariot." Confucius's own answer was, "I'll still be the driver." ”
Judging from this passage, this is Confucius after middle age teaching students the skills of chariot combat, Confucius did not like to go to the battlefield to kill people, so he took the initiative to act as a driver.
The basic skill of the Spring and Autumn nobles to learn to fight wars is to be able to hold at least one position in the chariot trio. On this basis, it is a step further to have a carriage of your own.
Being able to drive his chariot and follow his superiors to fight wars, his status in aristocratic circles was improved a little, and the chances of winning promotions by fighting wars were greater.
In the Spring and Autumn Period, there was no professional army supported by the state finances.
At that time, it was a pyramid-shaped aristocratic society, and each level of nobles had to rely on the income of their own fiefdoms, buy their own military equipment, and the most important thing was the chariot.
If you don't have the money to buy a chariot, you have to take the chariot of a superior nobleman or your own relatives, which is a much lower status.
Conversely, if a soldier has a chariot of his own, he can allow other soldiers to ride in battle, regardless of whether they are relatives of the same clan or personal friends. These people who took them became his subordinate warriors, and their status was immediately reflected.
So in the Spring and Autumn Period, the most important measure of a nobleman's family property is to see how many carriages he has. Because this was not only wealth, but also armed forces, an indicator of his ability to serve the superior nobles.
In fact, in ancient human times, it was a very common situation for nobles to equip themselves with chariots, or knights to prepare their own war horses.
In the folk song "Mulan Ci" of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, Hua Mulan joined the army for her father and needed to buy war horses and equipment from the market.
The Han Dynasty called this kind of cavalry with their own warhorses "Liangjiazi", which was also a bit like the nobles and scholars in the Spring and Autumn Period, who had a much higher status than ordinary soldiers.
In the Spring and Autumn Period, when the nations fought wars, they also had to abide by the etiquette of aristocratic society. For example, when you see the chariot of the other king, you should greet and greet them politely.
If the battle is won, even when the enemy monarch is captured, it is necessary to salute and speak politely. Because the hierarchy of the nobles of the nations is the same, the monarch of the enemy country is also the monarch. Those who can do this are considered "gentlemen" and are only looked up to in the international aristocratic circles.
There is a "battle of the saddle" in the "Left Biography", which occurred 38 years before the birth of Confucius, and it was a chariot battle between the Jin and Qi states, which contained the details of this polite battle.
At that time, the nobles were on the battlefield, and occasionally there were "heads-ups", a bit like the duels of European knights. The two carriages were parked opposite each other, and you shot me an arrow, and I shot you with an arrow, and the two sides took turns until one of them was shot.
There is also a higher style and more confident, first let the opponent shoot three arrows, did not shoot, and then he raised his hand to return an arrow and shot the other party to death.
In the era of the nobility, the key to fighting a war is not to win or lose, but the rules, they are to fight a very expensive war, which requires a lot of chariots or heavy cavalry, only the nobles can afford to play.
Therefore, in the Spring and Autumn Period, when wars between countries were fought between countries, most of them were the elements of the monarch or the great nobles who were angry and arrogant, not that you had to die or live, and the war did not hurt the people too much. Flipping through "Spring and Autumn" and "Zuo Zhuan", the country at that time fought wars almost every year, but it had little impact on the lives of ordinary people. Wars after the Warring States period are not like this.