730 Military: Asia and the Pacific There were long periods of peace and a style of combat that remained constant over the centuries ASIA AND THE PACIFIC BY KIRK H BEETZ The first Chinese dynasty that historians and archaeologists can confirm was the Shang (c 1550–1045 b.c.e.) The Shang were a warlike people, constantly trying to expand their territories through conquest and frequently defending their territories against barbarian raiders The head of the Shang military was the king, and below him were nobles who were expected to be officers Governors of Shang provinces led military campaigns on their own Most of the soldiers in a Shang army were peasants, usually poorly equipped and poorly trained They did most of the dying In the Zhou Dynasty (1045–256 b.c.e.) peasants still made up most of a Chinese army, but the elite status of the aristocratic warriors was emphasized These warriors fought while on horseback A battle could be very stylized, with nobles showing off their skills in front of assembled armies In matters of conquest, however, battles could be very serious affairs, with tens of thousands of troops perishing The Zhou favored fighting one huge, decisive battle rather than several small ones, and a war was often decided in one engagement The Qin Dynasty (221–207 b.c.e.) changed the way officers were selected, choosing to promote military leaders on the basis of their performance in battle rather than on the basis of noble birth It was replaced by the Han Dynasty (206 b.c.e.–220 c.e.), which brought order and discipline to its military policies by establishing a clear chain of command that limited the ability of individual commanders to establish their own armies and wage their own wars in pursuit of political power For the rest of the ancient era Chinese governments imposed a draft Every district of China had an official responsible for finding people to serve in the military The age requirements varied from time to time, but in general any man between the ages of 23 and 56 was expected to serve two years in the army or the small navy Weapons and armor were usually provided once the new soldiers had marched to where they were expected to serve They lived in small forts made of brick or stone The Great Wall was one long fortress with numerous towers Each tower had a way to signal that it was under attack, usually by raising flags Soldiers were expected to help maintain the wall They lived in barracks behind the wall where armories and food stores were placed near them, also behind the wall When an emergency arose, soldiers rushed to defend the wall At other times they were drilled in how to fight in formation and in how to use their armaments In this way the government ensured that it always had well-disciplined soldiers available for defense and conquest In ancient India wars were fought frequently, and the military was an important institution in its kingdoms Noth- ing is as yet known about how the Harappan culture (2600– 1500 b.c.e.) of the Indus River valley conducted its military affairs In the 1500s b.c.e it was overcome by Aryan tribes invading from the north These tribes had a heroic culture, which means that they celebrated warriors and military heroism over all else Their elite warriors used chariots By the 400s b.c.e most kingdoms followed a pattern required by tradition and religious law Any monarch who wished to remain a monarch needed to retain a standing army, because kings were expected to increase their status through war on other kings They were members of the Kshatriya caste This caste encompassed warriors and rulers It was the king’s calling to aspire to become a maharajadhiraja, a king of kings He achieved this by forcing other kings to become his vassals If he became a king of kings, his son would sacrifice a horse in an ancient Vedic ritual, making his father’s status official The king could then aspire to be a cakravartin, a king of the world, by expanding his kingdom’s frontiers to encompass almost all of the territories of India that he knew to exist Every capital city was heavily fortified, because attacks on capitals were often the most direct way for a king to force another monarch to become his vassal Defensive works could be impressive A tall earthen wall, sometimes several miles in circumference, would encircle the city The wall would be patrolled day and night by soldiers, and its gateways would have squads of soldiers stationed at them Some cities had ditches and wooden barricades outside their walls Within the city was a fortress that served as the king’s residence He would make his last stand in that fortress if he had to so An Indian army originally was divided into four parts One was the infantry The infantry included guild militias Each guild of tradesmen, members of the Sudra caste, was expected to maintain a militia that could be called to arms to fight bandits, preserve public order, or fight in a war Another part of the army was the cavalry This consisted of horsemen mostly from the Kshatriya caste, but it could include members from other castes A third part of the army consisted of elephants and their handlers The elephants were covered in armor and ridden by a driver and two or three soldiers, who were armed with arrows or spears The fourth part of the army consisted of chariots with their drivers and soldiers A chariot driver sat on the shaft, while as many as three soldiers rode inside the chariot Maneuvering a chariot on India’s frequently muddy battlefields was difficult, and the chariots could not keep up with men on horseback After the 600s b.c.e chariots were supplanted by the cavalry According to the Chinese, the people of Japan, called the Wa, were very warlike Archaeologists have found a settlement on the island of Honshu with two ditches dug around it, as if for defense A Chinese ambassador to the court of Queen Himiko, during the 200s c.e., noted that Himiko’s palace was surrounded by a wooden palisade, with fearsome guards at its gates, which suggests that she had at least a small standing army The Wa were mostly illiterate and apparently left no military records