The paper I wrote and which has been published in the 2004- n°3 issue of the BULLETIN delt with Chinese made toy soldiers. And these soldiers raised a huge question on when they have been manufactured. As usual, this kind of historical research brings more questions than it answers them. But it also brings unexpected results and I want to share this small contribution to the knowledge about China with our colleagues. This paper deals with the army of the QING dynasty, and will cover two main periods : the army before and after its modernization.

Some historical reminders

The QING dynasty has been the last reigning Chinese dynasty and covered the period between 1644 and 1911. It is also the first Mandchu, thus non-Chinese, dynasty, following the MING dynasty.
The last Chinese MING emperor, ZHUANG LIE DI, is a cultivated emperor, but has no energy. Hence, not really governed, the people begin to riot. Farmers, soldiers led by rebel generals storm the country. The best Chinese army, led by WU SAN GUEI, faces the Mandchus in the north. This allows one of the rebel generals, LI TZE CHENG, to invade Peking. The emperor, to prevent falling into his hands, hangs himself.
Upon learning this new, WU SAN GUEI signs a truce with the Mandchus to go back to Peking. The Mandchu even offer him a strong corps to help him punish the rebels. Frightened, LI TZE CHENG offers a truce to WU SAN GUEI, who refuses it, wins a battle against him and enters in Peking.
He then thanks the Mandchus for their help, but instead of going back, strong of more than one hundred thousand soldiers, they take the gates of Peking and put the nephew of their late Khan ABAQAI, a youngster, on the throne with the name ZHOUEN TZE. The MING dynasty disappears and is replaced by the QING.

Contrarily to the Han, original Chinese, the Mandchus are born warriors : « every tartar is, by fact and right, enrolled from the crib. As soon as he is old enough to carry weapons, he has to know how to use them and walk at the first call. Master of China by the right of war, they know that they will keep it only by equilibrating their small number by their fighting ability ». And this can be found in the organization of the new army, which is Mandchu, especially the officers corps.

The War Mandarins

Mandarins are civil and military dignitaries. They either belong to the Arts or War mandarins. The mandarinate order is divided into nine ranks, each one being subdivided into two classes. However, Arts Mandarins collect more honors than War ones at the same level and this situation continues under the Mandchus. Even during their reign, the inspection of troops depends from the Arts Mandarins belonging to the Fourth Sovereign Court, or Great War Court.

The War Mandarinate has three distinct orders :

The order of hereditary War Mandarins, all of tartar (same as mandchu) origin.

The order of Mandarins resulting from examinations.

The order of Mandarins whose rank has been obtained through war value.

Whatever their value, these last Mandarins have no access to the first three ranks, depending only on heredity and exams.

In China, one becomes, as well in Arts as in War, bachelor, graduate and doctor. During examinations, qualities to be proved during provincial or national exams are the body strength, the skill during tests and the understanding of military arts and rules.
Administratively speaking, War Mandarins depend of special courts made of their main commanding officers. The most important, the JONG QIN FU, is based in Peking. All the others depend from it. His Chief is always a Lord of the Empire but, due to the equilibrium sacred rule, his vice-chief is an Art Mandarin, with the title and job of Superintendant of War. Two inspectors, named by the Emperor, complete the staff. And any decision must be confirmed by the Fourth Sovereign Court.
The military ranks of the War Mandarin are close to their equivalents in other western countries :

Major General - TOU DONG and JIANG JUN
Brigadier - FOU TOU DONG and DONG BING
Colonel - FOU JIANG
Lieutenant-Colonel - ZHANG JIANG
Major - YEOU KIE
Adjutant - TOU SSE
Captain - CHEOU PIE
Lieutenant - TSIEN DONG
Second Lieutenant - PA DONG
During the war, the first War Mandarin or president of the first Military Court becomes General in Chief.

The Fourth Sovereign Court

The Fourth Sovereign Court or Great War Court - PING POU - deals with all military matters, fortresses, gun factories and storages, ammunitions, military commissariat and manages officers promotions. It is divided into four offices.
The Office of Military Mouvements, or WOU SIUEN QING LI SSE, manages the promotions of Mandarins, according to their services and their examination results. The number of officers is evaluated to around twenty thousands. He also organizes the general mouvement of troops, defines their garrisons, the camps to be established along the borders or along the canals and rivers.

The chinese model garrisons differ from their european equivalents in that the same regiment will station in the same place for ten or twenty years. Furthermore, the soldiers live totally separately from the civilians. The barracks make a town in which each trooper has his own house (3 to 4 m²), with a small garden and a yard. The soldier lives with his wife and children. Each housing is closed with walls around 2m high to protect the private life of each family. Officers have a better housing the size of which is according to their rank. These military cities have their own schools, generally with good standards, merely for troops from Tartar origins.
The Office of Military Positions, or QI FANG QING LI SSE is in charge of maps of the Chinese territory, managing and up-grading them regularly. These maps show the military regions, the garrisons, the camps. This office manages also the military staff, officers and soldiers, keeping their records of service.
These records will help determine officers or soldiers who will promote to the Imperial Guard, shared by the first three Mandchu « Banners ». This choice is made in the other Banners, already selected in the other corps. These records help also  determine the allowance granted to the widows of dead soldiers and the support granted to their children.

During war time, each campaign is equivalent to two years of service, whatever its duration, and each trooper gets a double pay, half of which is paid to his family, who will benefit from it until his comeback.
The soldiers were paid half in silver (6 Chinese ounces or 225g for a cavalryman, 4 ounces or 150g for an infantryman) and half in rice. The horse of a cavalryman is supplied by the state and is alloted 2 measures of beans per day.
The Office of Carriages and Horses, or TCHE KIA QING LI SSE manages evereything dealing with cavalry, war carriages, horses and the remounting. It is also in charge of the postal service, which belongs to the military cavalry.

Riding troops are divided into two different groups. The TCHOU FANG MA, about 120,000 soldiers strong, is distributed in camps established in the provinces, inner and outer, and along the borders. The LOU YING MA, around 110,000 soldiers strong, is stationned in the big garrison centers.
The remounting service is organized along yearly purchase of horses in the provinces or in the western markets of the Chinese Turkestan (presently XIN JIANG province), the horses of which are famous. It is completed with contributions supplied by native local chieftains. At last but not least, horses come for a large part from the imperial stud farms, situated mostly in Mandchuria.

This office is also, as already mentionned, in charge of the imperial postal service, nearly exclusively used by the State. It has been organized 23 to 24 centuries ago, before our era. Stations are distributed along the roads to get fresh horses and to check the passing hour. If an ordinary messenger rides around 120 to 150 km per day, the Imperial Cabinet messengers may cover some 250 to 400 km in 24 hours.
The Office of Military Stocks and Supply, or WU KOU QING LI SSE is an equivalent to our Military Administration. It supplies the food, the uniforms, the weapons and the ammunitions. It is in charge of yearly check-up and reviews. It organizes the examinations for promotions.
To have an access to the War Mandarin class, someone has to step three degrees, war bachelor, war graduate and war doctor. The different tests have been described by a writer of the time :

Horse riding longbow marksmanship. The rider gallops three times along a 200m field and must shoot three targets, high black cylinders with three red balls, the central one being the only one to be aimed at. A drum roll publishes every good shot.

Longbow marksmanship on foot. Every candidate must shoot six arrows at 100m.
Strength test. First, one must bend a longbow requiring a 40 to 50 kg strength. Then, lift huge stones and heavy hammers.
Theoretical matters. One has to master the military arts and theories, such as the SUN TZE BING FA, or the Art of War, which has been written at the end of the 6th Century B.C. by SUN TZE, general and strategist, and the Thirty-Six Stratagems, a work with unclear origins.
The SUN TZE BING FA has to be read because it contains many good advices which could always inspire our managers. Divided in thirteen chapters, it deals namely with the fundamental principles of military arts, how to begin a campaign, anticipate a fight, manage and command the troops, how to use the environment (the nine kinds of grounds), how to use fire during a fight, and at last, the psychological warfare.

It defines what is expected from a good general or officer : « respect of the Rule, fairness, love for those who obey our orders and also for mankind, the science of resources, gallantry, these are the qualities to be expected from a general ». He continues with discipline, how to organize troops,  the rules of subordination and how to have them respected. He deals also with war prisonners : « treat them well, feed them as your own soldiers, never let them idle, profit from them with the proper care ».

Another book, the « Thirty-Six Stratagems » is also to be read. It could have been written  200 years before our era, but has then been lost. It may derive from another book, the DAI GONG YIN MU SAN SHI LIU YONG, or the Thirty-Six Applications of the Strategies of DAI GONG, cited in the Annals of the TANG Dynasty (618-907). After being prohibited by MAO TSE DONG, it has been published again by the Popular Army in the Seventies, to be taught again.
These two books are presently reference books in the teaching of strategies in Chinese industrial, commercial, political and military universities and being able to discuss about them is a very good way for an occidental to impress his Chinese partners.

The Qing Army

The general organization

The Chinese Army from the Qing dynasty is divided in two big entities, the Manchu « Banners » or BA QI, and the Green Standard Troops, or LU YONG. The different corps of Y YONG, volunteers supplied by the different districts and equivalent to the Home guard, have to be added.
The Manchu Banners are eight and can be recognized by the colours of their standard, which is found also on their uniform :
The first has a yellow standard.
The second, a yellow standard lined with red.
The third, a white standard.

These first three Banners, named the « Higher Banners », exclusively Manchu with some Mongols, constitute the Imperial Guard. This Guard includes 1,250 « Life Guards » in the palace, around 15,000 sentries on the walls and some 10,000 elite soldiers, trained along the European standards since 1861, to man the gates and the escorts.
The fourth has a white standard lined with red.
The fifth has a red standard.
the sixth a red standard lined with white.
the seventh a blue standard.
The eighth a blue standard lined with red.

These five last Banners, the « Lower Banners » include Manchu and Han KIUN, descending from Chinese who rallied the conquerors during the first Manchu Emperor, SHUN ZHI.

All these banners are divided in companies, 150 to 300 men strong  depending on the period during the dynasty.
The Green Standard Troops are mainly Chinese, commanding officers - all Manchu - excepted,. They could be considered as a kind of police force, as among their duties are the fight against smuggling and burglary, ammunition and supply escort.
It is always difficult to evaluate the total number of troops, being a State secret, and it varies between 800,000 and 1,800,000 men depending on the writers (around 800,000 horsemen and 1,000,000 footmen).

The uniforms

The soldiers belonging to the eight banners bear a steel helmet in the shape of a round cone topped by a crest looking like a lance, with a red tassel. The head, ears and neck are covered with a hood made of textile with steel nails and plates. The jacket and over-trousers are made of the same fabric with nails and plates. The jacket goes to the waist and the over-trousers to the calves. A steel disk ornates the chest. Hood, Jacket and over-trousers bear the colors of the standard. Horsemen wear boots made of thick black textile with felt soles, the footmen kind of slippers of the same materials.

The uniform of officers is of the same shape, but made from better quality textiles, and generally blue or purple with embroideries. Their helmet, made of polished steel inlaid with gold designs, has a crest higher than those of the soldiers.

As for the Green Standard troops, the documents are scarce and just a few drawings give some clues about their uniforms. The helmet seems to have been replaced by some kinds of turban, some conical bamboo hat or some Manchu fur hat. They wear a short jacket the hem of which is lined with a large stripe of a different color. A round piece of textile of the same color than the stripe and bearing some Chinese characters ornates the chest. Their loose trousers stop at mid-calf and they wear different kinds of puttees. They wear the traditional Chinese black slippers with felt soles. It can be assumed, according to other sources of the same period, that the general colors are dark blue or black, with red or yellow stripes.

Weapons

Offensive and defensive weapons are, beside the helmet, a lance, a longbow and a large blade saber for the horsemen, and different kinds of piques (with one or several blades), a sword, a longbow or a rifle (or better a musket, as it has to be used with a match). The cartridges are carried in wooden boxes hanged on a shoulder belt.
As for the collective weapons, artillery and others, they are numerous but not very efficient, even if their names are frightening.
To begin with the DA CHEN ZHONG, or « Great Spirit », a gun made of a 1.5m long iron tube bound with nine rings and carried by a three wheels carriage.
Then, the « Swarm of bees » which, as its name implies, sends a charge of around 100 bullets to 500 feet. This weapon was carried at the hip by a soldier and can be considered as a 300 years ancestor of the light machine gun.

Let's mention the TI LEI, kind of mine made of an iron hollow ball filled with powder. Several such balls buried underground were connected with sulfurated matches hidden into bamboo poles. As for the TIAN HO KIEOU, similar to the hand grenades, they were as dangerous for those who used them as for the enemy. The HO IAO, made of a strong paper covered with a mixture of resin, oil and yellow wax, and filled with powder mixed with resin and grapeshot, were thrown on the enemy after being ignited. And the FEI HO TSIAN, or « fire javelot », they were a kind of rocket the principle of which has been used by the British and French troops during the Chinese campaign of 1861.

Some of these weapons have been left out during the nineteenth century, to be replaced by molten steel guns - BAO - loaded by the nozzle. We can mention the HUN HI BAO, the FA GOAN BAO or the DA QIAN KIUN BAO.

Musical instruments

Four musical instruments were in use in the Chinese army : the LO, trumpets, drums and conch.

The LO is a kind of huge gong, a 1m diameter bronze flat cup, hanged on a pole carried by two musicians. It is hit with a wooden hammer and the resulting sound is quite high-pitched. It is used to stop the march and the charge, as it can be heard from a long distance (such a gong have been used in the native band of Annamite Tirailleurs of the French Army, at least in 1913).
The drums, made of wood or bronze, are used to march and charge.
Trumpets, of two kinds with a one octave difference, are made of hammered copper. Their weight is around 4 kg.
As for the conch, large horn with the shape, and often made of, a shell, they are used to signal the retreat. Every military quarter has such a conch, to be used as a loud-speaker.

In the late nineteenth century, a French editor (OLIVIER - PINOT in Epinal) published a very romantic and charming view of such a Chinese military band. However, this picture gives a proof of the perfect general ignorance of China by European countries during that period.

An historical fact

It has been assumed that the Chinese Army was not so courageous. It is true that, when compared to the occidental armies, it was far from being as modern and well trained. However, they proved to be heroic, as in the fight of the BA LI QIAO Bridge against the British and French troops during the 1860 campaign. Some 25,000 horsemen and numerous Chinese militias broke in front of a handful of Europeans, supported by artillery that bows, halberds, sabers, muskets and old guns could not compensate. But, after a horrible rout, some officers and the best soldiers regrouped under the bridge and resisted, held firm and preferred to die than to surrender.

As a conclusion

The Chinese Army of the QING dynasty did not change much during the period and is not really different from the QIN Army of the first dynasty, some two thousand years ago, which was really very impressive. Its strategies are based on the same books and knowledge. It is said that History never repeats itself, but it stutters : every change of dynasty has been the result of facts which induced the fall of the former one - weak emperors, corrupt administrations, inducing a downgrading of the spirit and qualities of the troops. The qualities of the QING's army go slowly and slowly down, riots begin, even in the Imperial Guard. If its number is always very impressive, it is a very weak and badly equipped army that the occidental troops have to fight.

At the fall of the nineteenth century, the contacts with these occidental troops pushed China to reorganize it army and request advices from European countries and from Japan. This will be discussed in another chapter. Better trained, better organized and equipped, this new army will soon degrade itself, divided into factions fighting each other. It will then be a new fall and a new period.  A new army is born in 1949, but it is always inspired by the same knowledge, supported by books written some 2,000 years ago.