There is a Chinese saying: "Good iron does not strike nails, and good men should not be soldiers", which is used to describe the ancient people's concept of being ashamed of being a soldier. Many people think that this saying originated from the Song Dynasty, which emphasized literature over martial arts, and believed that the Zhao officials and officials, in order to prevent the usurpation of power by military generals and the policy of emphasizing literature and suppressing military force, made the people form the concept of being ashamed of being a soldier, and it has been passed down to this day.
In fact, as early as the Qin and Han dynasties before the Song Dynasty, the good people group began to have no good feelings for soldiers, and the concept of "good men not soldiers" and contempt for soldiers was formed.
Before the pre-Qin Warring States, the main body of the source of soldiers was a hereditary group of nobles, and the Spring and Autumn kingdoms, from the Zai chen to the children of the general scholar clan, were enthusiastically enlisted, because being a soldier was not a lowly thing, and the soldiers all took being a soldier as a position, for honor, for fun, and not being able to be a soldier was a great shame, and the so-called "soldier" was related to the soldier.
It can be said that the original soldiers were all aristocratic classes, and they received training in both civil and military aspects from a young age.
Even Confucius, who specialized in cultural and educational work, was well versed in martial arts and was a master of archery who could lift the door of the country; from the previous to the Heavenly Son, the princes, the zaichen, and so on, could all fight in battle.
The battles recorded in the "Left Biography" are, in the eyes of today's people, the tactics are naïve, and even quite stupid, but at that time, the soldiers' military morale was no problem, saying that they were wars, it was better to say that they were competitive games, and the killing and cruelty were far less than those of later generations, and they were more dominated by the chivalrous spirit of the traditional feudal aristocracy to maintain the balance of international power.
Because the main body of soldiers at that time was a soldier, under normal circumstances, the civilian industrial and commercial class was not a soldier, and the State of Qi only gave the peasants the responsibility of being soldiers after guan Yiwu changed the law, but it was not all the peasants who went to be soldiers, but chose the best of them.
That is to say, if a peasant wanted to become a soldier at that time, you had to be good enough personally, or have special talents, to be qualified to be a soldier. It can be said that in the Spring and Autumn Period and before, it was an era when I was proud to be a soldier.
This situation of being proud of being a soldier changed after entering the Warring States, and the reason for the change was that the intensity of the war intensified and the mortality rate increased greatly.
If it is said that the Spring and Autumn War pays attention to red tape and does not aim at killing or even destroying the country, then the Warring States War is that there is no such thing as black cats and white cats, and those who can eliminate each other are good cats, so all countries vigorously reward war killings, and the treatment of prisoners and pawns is often a large number of pit killings, in order to achieve the purpose of weakening the enemy's combat effectiveness.
In order to recruit soldiers, all countries are trying to encourage men to become soldiers, and even use cruel punishments to intimidate and persecute, it does not matter that you are a soldier, peasant, industrialist, and commercial, the Western Qin State is to implement the system of all soldiers, such a military scale, the war will only become more and more tragic.
With the large-scale reduction of the number of scholars, the education system of both civil and military groups was also broken, and from the Warring States period onwards, it was divided into two parts: wen and wu.
People like Su Qin and Zhang Yi are the representatives of the new literati, as long as they rely on the three inches of uncorrupted tongue + the theoretical knowledge learned by reading books, they go to the monarch to seek wealth, they do not have much military knowledge, and they do not have any personal skills for self-defense, that is, the originators of the literati who cannot be picked or raised by the shoulders of future generations.
Like Nie Zheng and Jing Ke, they are representatives of the new martial artists, although they have learned the martial arts of the old nobles and the chivalrous spirit of appearance, they do not have the cultural knowledge possessed by the old nobles, let alone the ideal of maintaining the international balance of power, they do not pursue too high, whoever bids high will do their best for whom, and who appreciates will fight for whom, it does not matter whether it is right or wrong.
How many of these civilian and military groups, which were split up by the warrior group, were willing to become soldiers and fight for honor and for the country?
Moreover, at that time, the desperate wars of the nations were not a war of honor, and if it was said that being a soldier in the Spring and Autumn Period was an honor, then in the late Warring States period, when beheading and pit killing were commonplace, the people naturally talked about the change of military color and resisted enlistment.
Due to the shortage of soldiers, of course, it is also the main reason that many children of good families are reluctant to become soldiers, so from the beginning of Qin Shi Huang, they have "sent out a lot of people who have tasted the dead, their sons-in-law, and the Jia people to take the Liang land." ”
The deceased are displaced people, and the sons-in-law and the Jia people are all socially recognized as poor, rogue and despicable people, in short, these groups are all vulgar figures, and they are not serious people compared with the children of good families.
From that time on, the aristocratic group did not obey military service, criminals, poor and lowly, scoundrels, bandits, and displaced people enlisted in the army became the norm, soldiers and bandits were not distinguished, and gradually became the people's inherent impression of soldiers, and the good family was naturally ashamed of being a soldier.
For example, the main anti-Qin forces at the end of Qin were mostly such rabble-rousers, Chen Sheng's team was the people who sent out to guard Yuyang, Peng Yue's team was a displaced person and an evil teenager, and Tuobu was the leader of the bandits, basically a rogue group.
In the Han Dynasty, although the conscription system was still implemented, the conscription system was already implemented, and by the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, a large number of prisoners were sent, and even foreigners were hired as soldiers. At the end of the Qin Dynasty and the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the use of prisoners as soldiers was still a temporary measure of last resort, but by the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, it had become a fixed policy.
During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, he launched 25 foreign wars, at least 6 of which were part or all of the use of prisoners, displaced people, evil teenagers or foreigners; only 3 times it was clearly stated that normal troops were used; the other 16 times of using soldiers are unknown.
And the generals he reused were mostly unknown people, such as advocates, bastards, robbers and the like, although this can show that the emperor loves talent and does not care about the origin of his courtiers, but it also shows the lack of talents from good families at that time, and the decline of the martial arts. The soldier's contempt for the good people, the good people's contempt for the soldiers, that is, from that era.
As far as the soldiers are concerned, we are the emperor's raised minions, serving the emperor's life, and doing the work of defending the family and the country. We still look down on you!"
In the eyes of the good people, few of the soldiers are serious people, not innocent good people, what group were they before they became soldiers? Rogues are just rogues, putting on a military skin and flaunting their might, even if we can't insult the soldiers of the country, we can verbally denigrate them and despise them psychologically.
Therefore, although the proverb "good iron does not strike nails, and good men are not soldiers" do not know exactly when it originated, the antagonism between the military and the people, and the contempt of the good people for the soldiers, began exactly from the Han Dynasty.
From the Han Dynasty onwards, the new literati and the new wu people, who split off from the warrior group during the Warring States period, also gradually formed two major groups, namely the scholar group and the warrior hooligan group.
At the time of the Taiping Dynasty, when the scholars controlled the world, the status of the warrior group was low, and it could only be used by the warriors; once the world was in chaos, the group of scholars who did not understand the affairs of the soldiers and did not want to become soldiers quickly lost their independent ability and became vassals of the warrior group.
However, even if there are rogues and warriors to establish political power, in the end, they still have to rely on the group of scholars to govern the world, so the status of the warriors is still inferior to the scholars, and the soldiers are still despicable and shameful in the eyes of the scholars who are unwilling to endure the scourge of arrogant soldiers.
In such a big environment, how can people from good people be willing to be soldiers with low treatment and bad conditions?
Therefore, in order to escape from becoming soldiers, self-harm and home flight abounded, so that the Tang Dynasty people could not help but sigh that "the people of the Tang Dynasty have been degraded for a long time, the soldiers of the government have been degraded, the people are despicable, the people are ashamed, and they are steaming their hands and siblings to avoid their service." "There is no difference between hard work and white ding, and the people are reluctant to join the army." Prefectures and counties dispatch troops to recruit, and those who are young and strong, have money in their families, and participate in the official government are hidden from things and things, and they can get rid of them; those who have no money to participate in the campaign, although they are old and weak, will come on their backs. ”
In the Song Dynasty, people who had experienced five generations of military disasters were more disgusted with the warrior class, and the Zhao Guanjia family was more repressive of the warriors because of their own national gain, and the status of the wuren group completely fell off a cliff, so there was a saying that the roll caller outside the Donghua Gate was a good boy.
In summary, although the Song Dynasty is famous for its emphasis on literature and light on martial arts, the concept of "good men not being soldiers" really did not originate from the Song Dynasty, but as early as the Qin and Han Dynasties before the Song Dynasty, there was this concept that good boys were ashamed of being soldiers.
That's it.
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