Speaker: Zhong Shaoyi Speech Location: Yuquan Road Campus, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences Speech time: February 2022
Zhong Shaoyi is a researcher at the War Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Military Sciences and a doctoral supervisor. He is mainly engaged in the study of ancient Chinese military history, military technology and military thought, and his authors include "Anbang Sketch -- Analysis of China's National Security Strategy Ideology in Past Dynasties", "Sun Tzu's Wisdom of War", "Sun Tzu's Reading Book of Military Officers", "History of Ancient Chinese Military Engineering Technology", "Research on the History of Ancient Chinese Gunpowder Firearms", "Ancient Soldier Carving Worms - Zhong Shaoyi's Self-Selected Collection" and so on.
Stirrups, a simple device in riding harness, have attracted much attention in the history of medieval military and scientific and technological history. Judging from the current archaeological findings, the popularity of stirrups is undoubtedly first in China, the time is the 4th-6th century AD, and then gradually expanded from eastern Asia to western Asia, and then to Europe, and the popular use of stirrups in Europe after the 8th century AD.
The so-called heavy cavalry, that is, riders and horses are wearing armor, from fast and flexible light cavalry to heavily armored cavalry with strict protection, and their combat methods and combat characteristics have also undergone fundamental changes. In the history of world military, there have been two definite waves of cavalry rearmament, one in the 4th-6th centuries AD in the East Asian region centered on China, and once in Europe in the 10th and 15th centuries AD. From the perspective of time, the two waves of cavalry rearmament in history and the popularity of stirrups in these two regions occurred almost simultaneously, and what is the connection between the two is worth exploring. In this lecture, we will focus on the investigation and discussion of the situation that occurred in China in the 4th and 6th centuries AD.
A pair of double stirrups from the early 5th century unearthed in Liaoning Beipiao are made of wood core clad in copper gilded. Profile picture
The Tomb of Yongning in the Western Jin Dynasty of Changsha was excavated from the Chinese pottery kurama in the early 4th century AD. Profile picture
The 4th century AD glazed pottery armored horse figurines excavated from the tombs of the Sixteen Kingdoms period in Xianyang, Shaanxi. Profile picture
The popularity of stirrups in China
There are many different views on the invention time and inventor of stirrups, but it is an indisputable fact that stirrups were first popularized in China in the 4th and 6th centuries AD, and so far only rich and conclusive evidence of the early popularity of stirrups has been found in China.
In the 1950s, a tomb from the second year of Yongning (302 AD) of the Western Jin Dynasty was found in Changsha, Hunan Province, and a group of pottery figurines and terracotta saddle figurines were excavated from the tomb, some of which had a small triangular stirrup on the left side of the saddle, the stirrup belt was shorter, the position of the stirrup was higher than the foot of the knight, and the foot of the knight did not step on the stirrup. It is judged that this one-sided stirrup is designed to facilitate the pedaling of the rider when riding, and it is not used after riding. Later, a set of saddles was excavated in a Jin tomb around 316 AD in Anyang, Henan, with such single stirrups on it, made of copper with a wooden core.
Around 1970, in the early tomb of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, which was found in Xiangshan, Nanjing, dating from about 322 AD, a pottery saddle figurine was unearthed, and its saddle had stirrups on both sides, which were double stirrups for riding, that is, real stirrups. Since then, a number of double stirrup objects have been excavated from the tombs of the middle and late 4th centuries to the early 5th century in the mainland, and a pair of double stirrups excavated in Liaoning Beipiao are wooden cores wrapped in copper and gilded, and the production is quite delicate. It can be seen that stirrups gradually became popular in China at that time, which was during the Sixteen Kingdoms period of the Eastern Jin Dynasty. By the Time of the Southern and Northern Dynasties of the 5th and 6th centuries, stirrups were widely popular in China, and the image of stirrups also appeared widely in the cultural relics of this period.
In November 2021, the media reported the excavation of the tomb of Ding Feng, a famous Eastern Wu general in Gulou District, Nanjing. Ding Feng's tomb dates from the third year of Wu Jianheng (271 AD), a pottery figurine excavated from the tomb, and a triangular stirrup is sculpted on one side of the saddle, becoming the earliest single-sided stirrup in the era discovered in China so far, more than 30 years earlier than the Western Jin Dynasty pottery figurine with unilateral stirrup unearthed from the Yongning Second Year Tomb of the Western Jin Dynasty in Changsha. This further proves that before the popularization of stirrups (double stirrups) in China in the 4th century AD, there was a period of popular use of unilateral stirrups, which were only used to assist in the horse, and were not double stirrups for pedaling during cycling, which belonged to the predecessor of stirrups.
These early stirrup sources form a chain of evidence that accurately marks the beginning of stirrup use in China and the popularity of stirrups in China. In other parts of the world before the 5th century AD, similar chains of evidence are not yet seen.
The invention of stirrups
Based on the early stirrup data found in China, the idea of the invention of stirrups in China was naturally formed. This view suggests that China invented stirrups (double stirrups) in the early 4th century, and before that, single stirrups were used to help riders get on their horses, and double stirrups were invented by accumulating experience by using single stirrups. That is to say, the Invention of Stirrup in China went through a process from single stirrup to double stirrup. Some researchers have cited some materials to try to prove that the time of China's invention of stirrups may be earlier than the 4th century, but it is not true after in-depth investigation and analysis by the academic community.
Of course, the use of single stirrups in China is earlier than the 4th century, and the single stirrup data of the early 4th century is almost the last single stirrup, and with the invention and use of double stirrups, the stirrup, the single stirrup dies. So when China will start using single stirrups, this question is not yet certain. In 1987, the Wuwei Museum of Gansu Province published a briefing in the magazine "Cultural Relics" reporting on the excavation of a Wei and Jin tomb in the Wuwei area, mentioning a damaged stirrup in the tomb, but did not release its pictures and other details. In 2022, the "Briefing on the Excavation of the Eastern Han Family Tomb in the Chengren Cemetery in Xianyang, Shaanxi", reported that a lead stirrup was found in the cemetery M3017, dating from the late Eastern Han Dynasty. However, whether these findings are true or not needs further research and judgment.
There are other different views on the invention of stirrups:
First, Scythian invention said. In the 4th century BC tomb of Cheltomyrek in the lower Dnieper River in Ukraine, a large silver vase with a rich pattern was excavated, with a decorative belt several centimeters high on the upper part, engraved with a horse training diagram, and the horse's back seems to have a low flat saddle pad hanging downwards, hanging down like a rope stirrup. Western scholars believe that this is a soft stirrup made of leather rope, which should be on both sides of the horse body, which is double stirrup; they further argue that the stirrup should be invented by the steppe nomadic peoples in central Eurasia, originally made of leather rope into soft stirrups, and then spread to other parts of the world, and developed into metal hard stirrups. A Parthian painting in the collection of the Louvre in Paris depicting a knight riding a horse and shooting, with a soft stirrup hanging from the ventral side of the horse, seems to support this idea. The history of the Parthian (Sabbath) dynasty in ancient Iran began in the 3rd century BC and was replaced by Sassanid Persia in the 3rd century AD. The style of this painting is very close to the artistic style of Sassanid Persia, and should be a work of the late Parthian period from about the 2nd to 3rd centuries AD. The rider's foot in the painting is not stepped on the stirrup, indicating that this soft stirrup can be used or not used when riding.
Chinese scholars generally believe that these two materials can only be interpreted as single stirrups, but not as double stirrups, and their role is still to assist the rider to get on the horse, not the real stirrup used for riding, so it is generally called "horse foot buckle", regarded as the source of hard single stirrups. It should be said that the possibility that steppe peoples have used soft stirrups is very large, and the key question is whether it was popular in what age and to what extent, and whether the identification of small patterns without physical proof is reliable. Both Scythian and Sassanid Persia left behind a wealth of artwork, with a large number of depictions of knights and horses, but only a few materials were used to reflect stirrups, so it is difficult to establish the idea that soft stirrups (whether single stirrups or double stirrups) were popular in such a vast area of central Eurasia from 400 BC to 300 AD.
Second, the Stirrup of the Dian people and the Indian invention theory. In the 1950s, a group of ancient Dian tombs was found in ShizhaiShan, Jinning, Yunnan, corresponding to the middle and late Western Han Dynasty, that is, from about the 2nd century BC to the 1st century BC, where a large number of very distinctive bronzes were excavated, and one of the bronze shell vessels often had statues of horseback warriors on the cover, which was no more than ten centimeters high. Archaeologists in Yunnan have observed that some of the knight statues depict a special stirrup: a rope is tied on each side of the leading edge of the saddle, which droops to the horse's abdomen, and there is a circle at the end of the rope, and the large thumbs of the knight's feet are extended into the circle and pedal forward. Mr. Shen Congwen used bronze image data from Shizhaishan in Jinning when studying the history of Chinese costumes, and pointed this out in his "Research on Ancient Chinese Costumes". In 1997, Yunnan scholars officially published a paper called it "rope stirrup", which is considered to be a type of early stirrup.
In the 1950s and 1960s, Western scholars also found materials similar to the Dian people's rope loop stirrups in northern India, called "stirrups", which are found in the decorative inscription of a bronze vase and the stone statue of the famous Sanchi Pagoda, which is roughly from the 1st century BC to the 2nd century BC. Some scholars believe that this is the world's earliest stirrup, and it was its spread to the north that developed the later hard stirrups. Some scholars believe that this is a kind of stirrup with regional characteristics in the southern tropical region, suitable for barefoot use, and has nothing to do with the development of stirrups in the northern continent.
I personally have doubts about the views of "rope stirrups" and "stirrups". Because it does not meet the exercise physiology, people's thumbs are very easy to sprain, if the rider rides a horse, if you use the way of putting the toes in the rope loop, instead of borrowing strength, you will sprain the toes of the foot, and even the risk of falling. Moreover, several of the materials that have appeared so far are very small image carvings, with great uncertainty.
Iii. The Xiongnu invented the theory. In recent years, two heavily rusted stirrup-like iron artifacts have been excavated from the ruins of the Huns in eastern Mongolia, which are believed to be stirrups, and some scholars have proposed that the Huns invented stirrups. However, the relevant materials are too fragmented, and the determination of the genus and dating of the ancient sites in the steppe area has always been very difficult and controversial, and this view still needs more evidence to be discovered and in-depth research.
From the above introduction, it can be seen that with regard to the origin and early prevalence of stirrups, only Chinese 4th century AD material can form a reliable chain of evidence. Therefore, we can take the 4th century as the dividing line between the prehistoric stirrup age and the stirrup age of the cavalry, before the 4th century the cavalry generally did not have stirrups, and the cavalry gradually promoted the use of stirrups in the 4th century. This can be supported by extensive information on the history of the world's cavalry.
Cavalry of the pre-stirrup era
Historically, humans tamed horses and initially used them primarily to drive. After about 1000 BC, humans gradually increased the number of horses riding, and the cavalry gradually developed. Among the ancient civilizations of the world, Assyria was the first to develop cavalry. Assyrian knights of the 9th century BC generally rode bareback horses naked, and later sometimes laid an animal skin on horseback. By the 7th century BC, Assyrian cavalry on horseback was commonly laid with a special rectangular cushion on horseback. The ruins of the Assyrian palace in Nineveh, Iraq, left a number of reliefs of the Assyrian king riding a lion in the 7th century BC, which shows riding a horse without saddles and stirrups, and the horse is covered with rectangular cushions, and its lion hunting action reflects the basic fighting style or tactics of the early cavalry: one is to draw a bow and shoot an arrow, that is, to ride and shoot; the second is to stab with a short spear; third, this short spear can also be used as a throwing gun throw, so the spear holding posture is a backhand spear (thumb backwards), which can be stabbed or thrown to hit the enemy. Assyrian cavalry also often carried shields and swords, and the shields and spears were used in conjunction with each other, and after the spears were thrown, they used swords and shields.
After Assyria, both the Persian Empire and Alexander the Great's Macedonian armies further developed cavalry. Their cavalry rode on horseback, still without saddles and stirrups, laying low,flat cushions on their horses. The horseback cushions of the Persian cavalry were often as ornate as Persian carpets, probably felt. A large fresco inlaid with painted stones was left in the Roman city of Pompeii, which was destroyed by a volcanic eruption in the 1st century AD, depicting the decisive battle of Alexander the Great defeating Darius III of Persia in the 4th century BC. It is particularly important to note that in the fresco, Alexander the Great's spear-holding posture is to hold the back of the spear handle with his hand (thumb forward) and charge forward with the spear, which is the impact tactic of cavalry fighting on horseback. From this point of view, by this time the most basic fighting tactics of the cavalry had been formed.
In china, armed knights were already in the late Shang Dynasty (about the 11th century BC), and the remains of armed knights and their horses have been found in the Yin Ruins of Anyang, Henan. Thereafter, until the late Spring and Autumn Period (about 500 BC), there was no information on the development of Chinese cavalry. During the Warring States period, cavalry gradually developed, especially after King Wuling of Zhao implemented Hufu riding and shooting in 307 BC, the Warring States Seven Heroes paid more and more attention to cavalry, and cavalry developed into a rapid mobile army in the army alongside chariots, and Qin and Chu and other large countries formed a military structure of "holding millions of halberds, riding thousands of vehicles, and riding ten thousand horses". At that time, the Zhao cavalry, which was closest to the northern steppe nomads, was the most developed, and its size was estimated to exceed 10,000 horses. The development of cavalry in the late Warring States period of China was comparable to the development of Macedonian cavalry by Alexander the Great, and the relevant image data of the late Warring States period reflect that the Chinese cavalry at that time had no saddles and stirrups on their horses, and had a low-level cushion on horseback.
The numerous cavalry figurines found in the Terracotta Warriors and Horses Pit of the Mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin show the world the most authentic image of cavalry and warhorses in the 3rd century BC: the cavalry wears simple protective armor, and the back of the war horse is equipped with low-level cushions and stirrups. Later, in Xinjiang, Su Beishi unearthed a set of BC harnesses, which were also such low-level cushions, and the form was almost indistinguishable from the horseback pads of Qin warriors. The Chinese cavalry in the middle of the Western Han Dynasty still maintained such armor, and the cavalry armor was very simple, which was clearly reflected in the Western Han cavalry figurines found in Yangjiawan, Xianyang, Shaanxi, and some other materials.
The central Eurasian steppe is a connecting zone between east and west, and the images of knights and horses in a large number of works of art left by the Eurasian steppe nomads from the 5th to the 2nd century BC are also commonly equipped with a low-level cushion on the back of a horse, which is generally free of stirrups. In the tomb of Bazerek in Southern Siberia, Russia, from about the 3rd century BC to the 4th century BC, a physical horseback cushion was excavated, stitched together by two leather cushions, and the whole resembled a small square blanket, which was used by riding, and the middle was pressed thinly, and the front and back parts were still thicker. It can be seen that in that era, the level of cavalry harnesses in the East and West, including the Eurasian steppe, was about the same, and everyone used horseback pads, no stirrups, and the specific shape of the horse back pads, as well as the production methods and decorations, may be diverse, but they are very low and flat, and they should all be cushions.
During this period, when cavalry used stirrup pads, it was mostly inconvenient to use stirrups, because leather or felt cushions were difficult to provide solid support for stirrups (whether single stirrups or double stirrups). From this we can talk about the identification of the harness of the Ukrainian Cheltom reyk silver bottle pattern mentioned earlier. The age and excavation site of this silver bottle is close to the horseback cushion of Bazelek, almost a relic of the steppe peoples of central Eurasia in the same era, the so-called saddle in the silver bottle pattern is very low and flat, it may be more appropriate to say that it is a horseback cushion, then, a rope belt hanging on the horseback cushion, see it as a stirrup suitable, or as a rope belt to fix the horseback cushion? We do not need to draw conclusions on this question today, but we should have the basic judgment that the identification of small patterns without physical evidence and rich circumstantial evidence at the same time is unreliable.
The reliable figure of the saddle appeared in both the eastern and western cavalry harnesses around the AD. At this time, china was on the eve of the arrival of the Roman empire from the late Western Han Dynasty to the early Eastern Han Dynasty. The distinguishing difference between the saddle and the horseback pad is the upturned front and rear saddle bridges, which require a hard bracket, as if a seat is installed on the horse's back, which significantly improves the comfort of riding. The bronze engraved images of the late Western Han Dynasty in China and the stone carved statues of ancient Rome after B.C. have the image of the saddle. By around the 2nd century AD, saddles were common in pictorial sources from the Eastern Han dynasty and the Roman Empire in China. However, stirrups are still widespread.
At that time, the sprint weapons of the Chinese cavalry were generally juxtaposed with spears and halberds, and the western Han Dynasty's former halberds may have been more valued, and Xiang Yushan, the king of Chu Ba, who "pulled up the mountain and was angry in the world", rode in battle, specialized in black horses, and was often "armed with a halberd" in conflict. In the late Eastern Han Dynasty, the use of spears gradually declined, and the late Eastern Han Dynasty began to call the spear dedicated to cavalry as 矟 (槊), and after the Sixteen Kingdoms of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the spear was completely replaced by the spear. During the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, he vigorously developed cavalry to attack the Xiongnu, and the one-handed long steel knife that was suitable for cavalry to wield and slash on horseback - the ring head knife was rapidly promoted, and the combination of knife and shield became an important weapon for cavalry. Since then, riding archery, spear sprinting, and one-handed knife slashing have always been the basic and most important fighting methods of ancient Chinese cavalry.
The above briefly reviews the situation of the world cavalry in the pre-stirrup era, and it can be seen that the development level of the eastern and western cavalry harnesses was basically synchronized at that time. By the 4th century, an important watershed, stirrups were used in China, while the West did not. We can make a simple comparison. Changsha Western Jin Yongning Second Year Tomb unearthed Chinese pottery saddle horse in the early 4th century, compared with the Western saddle horse carved by the Roman Emperor Theodosius Ji Gong Pillar at the end of the 4th century, both of which have saddles on horseback, and the saddle bridge is higher, but the former has a single stirrup, after which China soon appeared double stirrups and popularized, while the latter was nearly a hundred years late but still did not have stirrups.
What prompted the Chinese cavalry to take the lead in the stirrup era in the 4th century AD? There is an opinion that cavalry shock tactics were a factor that led to the invention and popularization of stirrups, because cavalry sprints have a large anti-recoil, prompting riders to find ways to better combine people and horses. But alexander the great used shock tactics in the 4th century BC, so why didn't stirrups in the West spawn at the same time? There is also a view that the high saddle is the cause of the invention of stirrups, because the saddle saddle bridge is high, it is inconvenient for the rider to get on the horse, so a single stirrup is needed to help the horse, and then the double stirrup is created. But the saddle of Rome in the 4th century was not low, so why didn't it spawn stirrups? In discussing this issue, let's first look at the changes in the appearance of Chinese cavalry after the 4th century.
The rise of cavalry rearmament in China
In the 4th-6th centuries AD, China entered the Sixteen Kingdoms of the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and became the first region in the world to popularize the use of stirrups, when the appearance of Chinese cavalry underwent great changes. In the 4th-6th centuries of Chinese artwork (figurines, murals, portrait bricks), there are a large number of people and horses wearing armor of the heavily armored cavalry image, which was completely invisible before, and is completely different from the image of the cavalry reflected in the artworks and other cultural relics of the Qin and Han Dynasties and the Three Kingdoms, western Jin Dynasty. At that time, people called the armor of cavalry horses (including horse gizzards) "armored" and "armored", the warhorses wearing armor "armored horses", and the heavily armored cavalry who were wearing armor and horses "armored riding armor". According to literature, heavy cavalry was used heavily in the wars of the Central Plains during the Sixteen Kingdoms period, and the winning parties in some battles often captured thousands or even tens of thousands of "armored horses". At that time, heavy cavalry was rapidly promoted in China from north to south, and in the late 4th century, even in the more remote and isolated places like Zhaotong, Yunnan, there were heavy cavalry queues in tomb murals.
During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, heavy cavalry was an indispensable and important force in the northern and southern armies, and often played a decisive role in the war. At this time, iron armor was commonly used, and people and horses were heavily guarded by heavily armored cavalry wearing full iron armor. The large number of development and use of heavy cavalry shows that strengthening the protective power of cavalry has become the trend of the times. As a result, the characteristics of cavalry have changed from the original light and fast to thick and slow, and the tactics of cavalry have also undergone fundamental changes. Cavalry heavy equipment greatly increased the burden on horses, it is difficult to endure galloping, and the early cavalry's rapid riding and shooting, fast horse impact is different, the basic combat mode of heavy cavalry at this time is that dense arrangement forms a thick formation, "like a wall to advance", the speed of the formation is not fast or even a little slow, but it has a strong protective force and impact, and the offensive is like a sea of mountains. This tactic unifies the protective power and impact of the heavily armored cavalry, and obtains the super impact force with the super protective force, which constitutes the essence of the wave of cavalry rearmament.
The wave of cavalry rearmament and the popularization of stirrup inventions
A 4th-century glazed pottery armored horse figurine has been unearthed from the tomb of the Sixteen Kingdoms period in Xianyang, Shaanxi Province, and the stirrup pattern is specially molded on the two sides of the horse's belly. Perhaps the pottery craftsmen of that year also understood that stirrups were indispensable to heavy cavalry. Imagine that a bulky knight wearing a full set of armor would be very difficult to step onto a war horse that was also fully armored and equally bulky without the help of stirrups, and if the knight wanted to ride steadily on horseback and use weapons to fight effectively, it would not be easy to fall off the horse in a combat collision, and it would be more difficult without stirrups. So I think this is probably the main reason why stirrups appeared in China in the 4th century and quickly became popular.
The emergence and popularization of stirrups in China in the 4th and 6th centuries, and the synchronous rise of the wave of cavalry rearmament in China, the relationship between the two may be: on the one hand, the rearranging of cavalry gave birth to stirrups, promoted the progress and popularization of stirrups; on the other hand, the invention and use of stirrups promoted the rearming of cavalry, which is a necessary condition for the rise of the wave of cavalry rearmament; the two complement each other, thus forming a historical scenario in which the popularity of stirrups and the wave of cavalry rearmament are promoted synchronously.
From the sixteen kingdoms period of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the ancients often called the armor of cavalry warhorses "armored" and "armored". "Song Shi Yi Wei Zhi": "Armor riding equipment: armor, human armor also; armor, horse armor also." "The armor is the full armor, and the armor is the fully equipped horse armor." The image of the heavily armored cavalry or armored horse represented by the figurines, murals and portrait bricks of the Sixteen Kingdoms of the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern and Northern Dynasties periods, the horse armor is very complete, it should be armored, and it is composed of a face curtain (that is, a horse's gizzard), a chicken neck (protecting the horse's neck), a chest (protecting the horse's front chest), a body armor (protecting the horse's belly), and a rear (protecting the horse's buttocks), and sometimes a decorative piece called parasitism is erected on the back. In the Northern Song Dynasty's "General Outline of the Martial Classics", there is a set of vest images, except that there is no parasitism, and all other parts are complete. Such complete horse armor allowed the war horse to protect its whole body except for its ears, eyes, nose, limbs, and tail.
Since it is said that the fully equipped horse armor is a tool, the incomplete horse armor naturally cannot be called a tool. From the historical data, China has appeared before the Western Jin Dynasty to protect the armor of cavalry and warhorses, and the "horse armor" used in small quantities by the cavalry of the Three Kingdoms in the 3rd century (Cao Cao's "Military Policy Order" and Cao Zhi's "Armor Table of the First Emperor's Gifts"), which is probably an incomplete early horse armor. The pottery riding figurines and pottery saddle figurines excavated from the yongning second year tomb of the Western Jin Dynasty in Changsha have a square object hanging from the front chest of the horse, which is a partial vest "dang chest" that protects the horse's front chest, which has been seen in the records during the Eastern Han Dynasty ("Later Han Shu Bao Yong Biography"). According to Sassanid Persian materials (found in the Sassanid Persian grotto carvings of the 6th century in Takpostan, Iran), there was also a kind of half-horse armor in history, with only three parts: a curtain, a chicken neck, and a pawn chest, which could only protect the horse's head, horse's neck and horse's front chest. The cavalry horse armor before the Western Jin Dynasty in China is likely to be this type of incomplete partial horse armor or half horse armor. They reflect the early attempts and efforts of the people at that time to strengthen the protection of cavalry, but they could not be reassembled, and the Western Jin Dynasty used these incomplete early horse armor before, although there was no stirrup, nor did it cause serious inconvenience to the rider. The 6th-century half-horse armor of Sassanid Persia was used without stirrups.
It is also worth noting that the pottery saddle figurines of the Yongning Second Year Tomb of the Western Jin Dynasty in Changsha are only equipped with a chest and have a single stirrup; while the glazed pottery armored horse figurines of the Tomb of the Sixteen Kingdoms of Xianyang in Shaanxi Province are equipped with armor and have a pair of double stirrups. This may be regarded as the development of cavalry horse armor from local protection to armor in the 4th century, and stirrups from single stirrups to double stirrups, and the two are the epitome of the simultaneous advancement of China.
At present, many people believe that the source of ancient Chinese cavalry armor is in West Asia. This issue needs to be carefully studied. The ancient city of Dura Europos, a historical and cultural site in northern Syria, was historically contested by Rome and Parthian and Sassanid Persia for a long time, and was abandoned after Sassanid Persian Shapur I captured the city from the Romans in 256 AD. In 1930, the U.S. archaeological team found a graffiti mural in the excavation of the site, depicting a man and a cavalry in full armor of Madu, judged to be the image of the heavy cavalry of the 2nd century Parthian; two pieces of horse armor, one bronze armor piece and one piece of iron armor, were restored, judging to be relics of the 3rd century Parthian or Sassanid Persia. Personally, I believe that there is a need to re-identify the age and origin of the above-mentioned materials. Shapur I, an early monarch of Sassanid Persia, defeated the Roman army in 260 AD and captured the Roman Emperor Valerian. On The King's Hill, near the famous site of Persepolis in Iran, there are many cliff carvings created to commemorate this victory, including a huge equestrian statue of Shapur I and several pictures of cavalry engagement, all without horse armor and stirrups. Sassanid Persia, as the successor of Parthia, has left a large number of works of art in its more than 400 years of history, including a large number of images of riding warriors, generally without horse armor and stirrups, and rare cases such as the 6th-century half-horse armor of Takpostan. Therefore, it is necessary to re-identify the age and origin of the heavily armored cavalry frescoes and excavated horse armor found in the ruins of Dura Europosit in conjunction with the comprehensive historical data of Parthian and Sassanid Persia, and then draw conclusions on this basis.
The development of European and Chinese cavalry after the 7th century
In the 6th and 7th centuries, with the migration of steppe peoples in Eurasia, the use of stirrups gradually spread from east to west, first to Sassanid Persia and Arabia, and then to Byzantium, and gradually became popular in Europe after the 8th century. With the establishment of the feudal system in Europe, the feudal aristocratic knights became the main body of the cavalry, and the cavalry became the main force of the feudal lords' military armed forces, constantly strengthening the protection of armor, forming a wave of heavy armor in which both cavalry and war horses were wearing heavy armor. At this time, European military experts deeply realized the importance of stirrups, and only with the help of stirrups and with the help of servants could they step on the warhorse, and remain stable on the back of the same heavily armored warhorse, fighting effectively, and not easily falling off the horse in a combat collision. Stirrups also provided technical support for the wave of cavalry rearmament in the European Middle Ages.
In the 7th century, China entered the period of great unification of the Tang Dynasty, and the wave of cavalry rearmament since the 4th century gradually faded, and the heavy cavalry declined rapidly. Since then, the Chinese cavalry has been dominated by light and fast cavalry without armor, and heavy cavalry has only a small number of equipment and use in the army. The rise and decline of heavy cavalry in China is a big problem in China's military history, which needs to be studied in depth from more horizons, and today we mainly explore some of them from a technical point of view, hoping to help deepen the study of this problem in the future.
Guangming Daily (2022-04-02 10th edition)
Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily