Affected by natural geographical barriers such as mountains, rivers, deserts, lakes and seas, various civilizations in the ancient world accumulated and formed their own distinctive military ideas through long-term self-growth. Among them, ancient Chinese military thought was the earliest mature and most developed. As early as the pre-Qin period, a large number of professional military books that specifically summarized war experience and discussed combat principles, such as "Military Prophecy","Military Situation","Sima Fa","Sun Tzu's Art of War","Sun Bin's Art of War", and "Wu Zi's Art of War", emerged, creating the highest achievement of military theory in the era of cold weapons. This is beyond the reach of other civilizations. There were no professional military books in the same sense in the ancient West, India, and Islamic world. From this perspective, it can also be said that there was military science in ancient China, but not in the West. Because according to today's understanding, since it is "military science", it must be a "science" that specifically discusses war and military affairs and produces regular summaries from it.

The text of "The Art of War" is highly concise

In a broad or more strict sense, although other civilizations do not have special "books of war" on soldiers, this does not mean that these civilizations do not have military ideas or even military science. As mentioned earlier, a large number of Western military maxims carrying military wisdom are scattered like pearls in their great historical works, which need to be picked up by careful readers. As the saying goes, "there are not only strategists who speak soldiers, but not only military books that talk about soldiers." This phenomenon was also the case in ancient China. For example, in addition to specialized military works such as Sun Tzu's Science of War, Chinese classics such as Shangshu, the Book of songs, Zhou Li, Mozi, Mencius, Xunzi, Laozi, Guanzi, Huai Nan Zi, Zuo Zhuan, Lu's Chunqiu, Historical Records, Hanzhong to Longzhong, Ping Wu Shu, Yan Bing Shi Shu, etc. Are full of rich thoughts of military science. Based on this, it is possible to compare Chinese and foreign military ideas (or "military science"). As the western military science is the largest outside China and has gathered a huge war force affecting the world since modern times, this paper focuses on the comparative analysis of the ancient military science thoughts between China and the West.

Chinese military science emphasizes philosophical thinking, Western military science emphasizes details

As mentioned above, ancient Chinese military books are very mature and developed. From the pre-Qin period to the late Qing Dynasty, the total number of military books reached thousands of volumes. According to statistics from Xu Baolin's "Chinese Military Books Zhi Jian Lu" and "Chinese Military Books General Overview", there are 3380 books and 23503 volumes (959 books are unknown and not included). According to Liu Shenning's "General Catalog of Chinese Military Books", there are as many as 4221 species. One of the outstanding features of these military classics is:It is strategically located, annoying, highly abstract, and concise in language. Take the most famous "The Art of War" as an example. The book is short of 13 chapters and has a total of less than 6,000 words. However, it systematically, vividly, profoundly and concisely summarizes and refines the laws or principles in war-related fields such as national political strategy, military strategy, combat planning, the way to be a general, and the method of using troops. The words are concise and comprehensive, the words are exquisite, and the words are worth thousands of dollars, supplemented by ancient Chinese. Wonderful diction, It's like an exquisite work of art. For thousands of years, military strategists of all generations have been fascinated.

In comparison, there were almost no military books in the same sense in ancient Western times. Currently, only the "Strategy" and "Brief Introduction to the Art of War" emerged in ancient Rome. However, although these two military books strive to summarize some combat principles, they are inferior to most ancient Chinese military books in terms of overall, comprehensiveness, systematicness, and abstraction, especially the use of a large number of combat examples to interpret combat principles-this model is not found in ancient Chinese military books. On the other hand, the West has developed a developed history of war, such as Herodotus's History, Thucydides's History of the Peloponnesian War, Caesar's The Battle of Gaul, Xenophon's "The Long March", etc. In fact, because "Strategy" and "Brief Introduction to the Art of War" contain a large amount of war history content, it seems reasonable to call them war history works.

At this point, one fact needs to be emphasized again:Military science is not only reflected in military books, but also contained in the history of war. The vast history of war must contain a large number of military science ideas to be explored. In ancient Chinese language, it can be called "literature carries Tao" or "history carries Tao"-Confucius once preached:"The only one who knows me is the Spring and Autumn Annals (the historical book" Spring and Autumn Annals ")." In fact, ancient China also had extremely developed war histories, such as "Spring and Autumn","Historical Records","Guoyu","Zuo Zhuan" and "Han Shu", which are largely war histories. However, there are also differences in the history of Chinese and Western wars. This difference is essentially the difference between the Chinese and Western military science traditions, that is, the history of Chinese wars focuses on philosophy, and the history of Western wars focuses on details. As Mr. Huang Pumin said:"Western military history books record quite detailed content at the tactical level. For example, when describing the famous Battle of Canne commanded by Hannibal, they described in detail how the two sides arranged their troops, how infantry and cavalry were deployed, who was the main attack and who was the containment, and what the specific process of the battle was. On the contrary, our historical records focus on the maneuver and wisdom in the brewing stage of the war, and the real description of the war process is often carried out in a few simple words,'breaking it' and 'defeating it'."

Chinese military science emphasizes understanding, Western military science emphasizes practice

Chinese military science is too abstract, which places extremely high requirements on the understanding ability of later learners. In ancient China, almost all those who led troops to fight knew Sun Tzu's Art of War by heart, as if "one book in hand can conquer the world." This phenomenon is concretely expressed in Chinese classical martial arts novels:All martial arts masters are struggling to find martial arts secrets such as the "Nine Yin Sutra"; it seems that once they obtain such martial arts secrets, they will be able to open up the Ren and Governor meridians and be invincible in battle. But the actual situation is that even if ordinary people memorize it backwards,"The Art of War" is still a heavenly book that he knows all the words; only people with extremely high understanding can understand the hidden "secrets" in it, and can fully grasp the mysterious and mysterious relationship between attack/defense, odd/positive, virtual/real, form/momentum, time/momentum, host/guest, and use it freely in battlefield practice. "Ji (machine)" and "Shi" are a pair of core concepts in "The Art of War". According to the Yi Learning explanation, both need to be identified when things are about to be sprouted. Only in this way can we seize the "fighter plane" and calmly deploy the momentum,"like turning a round stone on a mountain of thousands of feet" and "defeating a defeated enemy." Such "Ji (Ji)" and "Shi" are only open to people with extremely high understanding. For ordinary people, is it easier than done?

Chinese ancient military science focuses on understanding

Western military science has embarked on a different path.:Since they had not developed precocious military theories, they had to repeatedly ponder and study through the piles of historical paper and seek the light of wisdom through a large number of war history and examples. This model has lasted for a long time, but it has brought unexpected benefits. It is easier for people to understand the true meaning of military science through war history and examples (such as the famous "Cannie Model" and "Fabian Strategy") and consciously apply it to battlefield practice. The reason for this seems easy to understand:War history and examples are the foundation of military thought, and military thought is an abstract summary of war history and examples. It is impossible to summarize abstract military theory without studying war history and examples; however, in the process of abstracting war history and examples into military theory, many details are bound to be lost. Therefore, there is such a set of dialectical relations:It is easy to learn military theory from war history and examples, but it is difficult to extrapolate from abstract military theory to a profound analysis of war history and examples.

There were rich war practices in ancient China and the West

From the perspective of practical theory, war history and war examples are a kind of pre-practice of war for researchers. Abstract military theory is important, but abstract military theory alone is not enough. Real war contains many objective, subjective, definite and uncertain elements, and many of them may affect or even influence war. Only by investing in the rich and colorful "pre-practice of war" such as war history and examples can researchers feel the complexity and multi-faceted nature of war immersively, and gradually cultivate the eyesight and brain power to understand the glimmer of victory in a complex war environment. and heart. Like a tiger, if you want to become the king of the forest, you have to let it go to nature and let it grow and experience in the vast forest of forests, rather than being trapped in the cage of theory. As the French military thinker Dupique said:"Only this kind of grassroots information about actual combat can provide the basis for true scientific research on war. Therefore, a large amount of data must be collected first and then carefully analyzed before true military science can be established." American military thinker Lao Han also said,"Only in military history can the roots of all military science be found. In it we can find examples of successes and failures, and test the authenticity and value of any strategic law."

Of course, this cannot deny the great value of ancient Chinese abstract military science. The ancient Chinese military books themselves were summarized and refined through a large number of battlefield practices. The laws of war and combat principles elaborated in them have universal guiding significance for war and are invaluable treasures left by traditional Chinese military science to future generations. It's just that you must not sit down and discuss Tao with Sun Tzu's Art of War, as you will go astray. If we only study military theory without understanding or having a partial understanding of war history and examples, it will be difficult to have a thorough understanding of military theory itself, and it will be difficult to skillfully apply military theory to war guidance. The more and more profound we study war history and examples, the more we can understand the authenticity of the art of war. However, if the study and understanding of military thoughts or military theories are combined in the process of studying war history and examples, we can make faster progress as if we have received "immortal guidance". Therefore, ancient military science in China and the West each had its own advantages and should be open and mutual learning.

Chinese military science emphasizes morality, while Western military science tends to gain benefits

Chinese culture has always had a compassionate and vigorous view of morality, which is profoundly embodied in ancient Chinese military thought. When the Chinese ancestors created the characters, they emphasized that "stop GE for martial arts" (the word "Wu" can be deconstructed into the word "stop GE"). What Chinese martial arts admire most is "martial virtue" rather than "martial arts". What the Chinese advocate is "knowing that soldiers are not belligerent", "militarism is not militaristic", "stop war with war, although war can also be done". Ancient Sima Fa advocated "benevolence and righteousness as the foundation"; "Laozi" said that "soldiers are lethal weapons"; "Mozi" advocated "non-attack"; "Liu Tao" advocated "all victory without fighting, soldiers without invasion"; "Wu Tzu's Art of War" advocated "righteous soldiers" and "righteous war"; "Sun Tzu's Art of War" advocated "careful war". If we do not want to fight, the highest pursuit is to "surrender the soldiers without war", all of which are repeatedly expressing this core idea. In terms of the reasons, one is that the Chinese people are deeply rooted in the hearts of the benevolent people, and the other is the Confucian mainstream cultural thought of "harmony is the most precious", and the other is the golden mean thought that the Chinese people are also deeply rooted in the bone marrow. The Chinese know that "there is much support for justice, but little support for injustice". Martial arts will go to the opposite, and militarism will never come to a good end, that is, the so-called constant words of alarm.:"In the Warring States Period, there are five winners in disaster, four winners in disaster, three winners in disaster, two winners in disaster, and one winner in disaster. There are few who win the world by numbers, but many who die."

Ancient Chinese military science took Confucian "benevolence, righteousness, etiquette, wisdom and trust" as its core

In addition to the general view of war, the Confucian culture with the core of "benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom and trust" is deeply integrated into the field of building and administering the army in ancient China. Especially after the Qin and Han dynasties, when Confucian culture was established as the mainstream thought of Chinese culture, Chinese military science actually realized the integration of traditional military, Confucian, Taoist and Mohist military thoughts. Typically, among the seven ancient Chinese military books compiled in the Seven Books of Wu Jing in the Song Dynasty, there are a large number of words about governing the country with benevolence and morality and running the army with benevolence. Among them, there are not only moral requirements for the concept of running the army, such as Sun Tzu's Art of War, and Wu Tzu's Art of War emphasizes "internal cultivation of cultural morality and external military preparation"; there are also requirements for the quality of generals and soldiers. For example, Sun Tzu's Art of War proposes that generals should possess the five virtues of wisdom, faith, benevolence, courage and strictness, and later even emerged a military book "General Court" focusing on the quality of generals. Fundamentally speaking, this is determined by the dominant Confucianism in ancient China (especially the core ideas of the rule of virtue and benevolence), but is it not the objective reflection of Chinese culture in the thought of military science?

China emphasizes the pursuit of peace and discipline

In comparison, this kind of moral concept is not found in the Western world, and Western military science naturally lacks this kind of moral constraint. From the perspective of the West, war follows the law of the jungle that "the winner is the king, the loser is the bandit." Therefore, Western military strategists study most about how to win in war, while few people discuss what the purpose of war is, whether war should be launched, and when the war should be stopped. Even now, taking the famous "Thucydides Trap" as an example, the lessons learned by Western bourgeois military thinkers from ancient Greek and Roman history are still utilitarian rather than moral. Corresponding to the fatalism of the "Thucydides Trap", contemporary Chinese Communists with General Secretary Xi Jinping as the core have proposed that "a community with a shared future for mankind" and "the Pacific Ocean is big enough to accommodate China and the United States" is full of Chinese-style coexistence. The moral concept of coexistence is something that Westerners cannot propose.

Fundamentally speaking, this may be related to the philosophical, outlook on life, and religious views of China and the United States. The spiritual world of the Chinese people is oriented to the "world of life", and they have developed an inclusive cultural view, a harmonious but different view of communication, a diligent and frugal view of life, and a moral view of benevolence, benevolence, courtesy, wisdom and trustworthiness. At the same time, they have great respect for the laws of nature and understand that excessive is not enough, and things will be reversed when they reach extremes, and believe that we should follow the "golden mean"; The spiritual world of Westerners is subordinate to religion. They believe that there is a "God" outside the objective world that represents "absolute will" and "absolute spirit." This kind of idealism can easily move towards extreme self in politics, but in war it is manifested as infinite expansion without moral constraints and the bottom line of principles and the resulting final defeat. The First and Second World Wars were both disastrous consequences of this abuse of force, but today people can still see the shadow of this idea in the Ukraine crisis and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Chinese military science is not lively, Western military science is highly plastic

Chinese military learning is too precocious, as a result, it falls into "involution" early. After the Qin and Han dynasties, although a large number of military books emerged in China, most of them took inheritance, interpretation and compilation as the basic form of expression, and it was difficult to surpass the pre-Qin military books represented by Sun Tzu's Art of War in terms of mode of thinking and ideological height. Even the official Seven Books of the Wu Jing of the Song and Ming dynasties have many similarities. For example, "Wei Liaozi", "Huang Shi Gong San Lue", "Liu Tao", "Tang Taizong Li Wei Gong asked", there are a large number of Confucian military concepts such as "war morality" and "benevolence and righteousness governing the army". For example, in terms of the basic concept of governing the country, "Wu Zi's Art of War" says that "we must first teach the people and be close to the people", "Liu Tao" says that "where benevolence lies and the world returns", and "Huang Shigong three sketches" says that "the way to the country, relying on the virtues and the people." These expositions with a large number of illustrative words are basically the same in connotation, and it is difficult for readers to obtain ideological nutrients proportional to the amount of reading. and readers can get the same nutrients by reading Confucian classics such as Daojing, the Analects of Confucius, Mencius and so on.

It was not until the Ming and Qing Dynasties that some rare new aspects of Chinese military science emerged. Representative ones were "Ji Xiao Xin Shu" written by Qi Jiguang, a national hero of the Ming Dynasty, and the compilation of the Quotation-style military work "Quotations of Zeng Hu's Military Governance" written by General Cai E, an outstanding revolutionary and strategist in the early Republic of China. Among them, the prominent features of "Ji Xiao Xin Shu" are "reality", the "reality" of "seeking truth from facts", and the "reality" of "actual combat training"; the prominent features of "Quotations on Zeng Hu's Military Governance" are "sincerity","sincerity" of "sincerity", and "sincerity" of "gold sincerity comes, gold and stone opens". However, on the whole, the main contributions of Qi Jiguang, Cai E and others to military science are still within the framework of traditional Chinese military science, and have not produced structural changes to military science. As Mr. Huang Pumin said,"The military thought of the Ming and Qing Dynasties has certain innovative content, but fundamentally speaking, there is no major breakthrough. It is the end of ancient Chinese military science."

In comparison, Western military science is more malleable. When the Western world emerged from the long Middle Ages and ushered in the lively Renaissance movement, Western military science finally ushered in its prosperous era. The cultural gene that values war history, details, and practice has provided a strong endogenous motivation for the rapid development of military theory in modern times. This advantage of Western military science gradually emerged with the prosperity of modern science and technology in the West, and combined with developed science and technology, it finally gave birth to a huge war force that influenced the world pattern.

copyright notice:This article was published in the 2nd issue of Military Digest magazine in 2024. The author:Du Yanbo, If you need to reprint it, please be sure to indicate "Transferred from Military Digest".

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