In this title, a leading scholar of Chinese military history
offers the definitive account of the strategies and technology that
shaped the earliest Chinese dynasties. The history of China is a
history of warfare. Twenty-five dynastic changes and numerous
millenarian revolts decimated the populace, shattered the
infrastructure, and brought chaos to the state. Clashes with
aggressive external people were frequent and brutal; lengthy
periods of fragmentation witnessed intense, often unremitting
internecine fighting; two decades rarely passed without large scale
conflict. Wars have caused dynasties to collapse, fractured the
thin facade of national unity, and sometimes brought decades of
alien occupation and domination. But according to Chinese
mythology, before the onset of war, strife, and violence, there was
a legendary golden age of agrarian peace and prosperity throughout
China. There was little evidence to refute this bucolic belief
until now, as recent discoveries have suddenly infused life into
the previously shadowy remnants of ancient Chinese civilisation.
Ralph D. Sawyer, translator of "The Art of War" and one of
America''s preeminent experts on Chinese military history, here
offers the first comprehensive examination in any language of the
initiation, early evolution, and eventual maturation of conflict in
China, as well as its role in the rise of the first great
dynasties. As recently recovered documents and archaeological
findings reveal, the Legendary Era, Hsia Dynasty, and Shang Dynasty
were times when warfare, not virtue, wrought peace. Warfare was a
primary source of innovation, social evolution, material progress,
and creativity in ancient China, and it was the force that formed
the first cohesive Chinese empire. By not just exploiting martial
skills but also thoroughly integrating warrior values into their
societies, the Shang, if not the Hsia, can be said to have set
China on a trajectory of state building and aggressive activity
that continues to this day. From the earliest evolutions of the
arrowhead to the development of walled defenses, from the adoption
of equestrian and chariot warfare to transformative advances in
metallurgy, Sawyer provides an in-depth look at the early
technologies and strategies that won wars and shaped culture in
ancient China. Combining exhaustive research and unmatched
expertise, "Ancient Chinese Warfare" is the book that military
historians, military tacticians, and Chinese history buffs will
turn to as the definitive account of the belligerent beginnings of
a unified Chinese state.
關於作者：
Ralph D. Sawyer, one of America''s leading scholars in Chinese
warfare, has worked extensively with major intelligence and defense
agencies. A Fellow of the Centre for Military and Strategic
Studies, he is the translator of numerous books from the Chinese
military corpus including The Art of War, The Seven Military
Classics of Ancient China, Sun Pin: Military Methods, One Hundred
Unorthodox Strategies, The Tao of War, The Essence of War, and Ling
Ch''i Ching. He lives in Orleans, Massachusetts.
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