During the period of 2 1 century BC (22nd century BC), China established the Xia Dynasty of slavery, from which war became the highest form of class struggle. At this time, although people's understanding of war is at a low level, there has been a military thought centered on the concept of destiny to guide war. Slave owners wage predatory wars against foreigners or suppress their slaves' resistance by force, all with the call of conquering "disobedient", "hanging the people" and "respecting the sky and protecting the people", and using divination to drive their soldiers to fight under the guise of providence and severe punishment. The operation mode is group array frontal killing. After the Shang Dynasty, the battle was gradually dominated by chariots. Military command needs unified action and strict management. This thought guided the military struggle in Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties. Through the war practice in this period, people have initially realized that the masses can defeat widows, and the strong can defeat the weak, which embodies the simple materialistic concept. During the Western Zhou Dynasty, military works such as military records and military affairs appeared. Although it has long been lost, there are still some quotations in later books such as Zuo Zhuan and Sun Tzu's Art of War.
During the period of rapid development, from the beginning of the 8th century BC to the end of the 3rd century BC, that is, during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, China gradually entered the feudal society from the slave society. The development of productive forces and the change of social system have caused the change of soldiers' composition and the improvement of weapons, and the military system and combat mode have also changed. In order to meet the needs of these new situations, full-time generals appeared to command the army, and many strategists and military books representing the emerging landlord class appeared. The famous art of war of Sun Tzu marks the maturity of the military thought of the feudal ruling class. It is the earliest systematic and comprehensive work on military theory in the world, revealing a series of laws guiding war, laying the foundation of China's military thought, guiding the later war practice and military theory research, and enjoying a high reputation in the world. "The Art of War" puts forward that military struggle must use tactics skillfully, that is, "the upper line is effective" and "fighting for the world", and holds that "conquering the enemy without fighting" is the most ideal war outcome expected by a brilliant strategist. It broke the fatalistic view of slave society and pointed out with simple dialectics and materialism that the victory of war does not depend on ghosts and gods. As long as you can "know yourself and know yourself", you can "win every battle." The operational ideas of "winning by combination and winning by surprise" and "attacking by surprise" are put forward. Sun Tzu's Art of War also pointed out that the victory or defeat of a war is determined by factors such as politics, economy, climate, geography and personnel, so the feudal ruling class should cultivate politics and conform to the people's hearts. These thoughts are also valued by other contemporary art books and military works of Sun Tzu's Art of War. During the Warring States period, people's understanding of war went further. For example, Woods, a military strategist handed down from generation to generation, discusses the essence of war, discusses the root causes of war, divides wars into several types, defines them, and puts forward strategies to deal with various wars. Sun Bin's Art of War, written by Sun Bin, a military strategist, advocates abandoning the idea of "the duty of benevolence and righteousness, the use of rites and music" and demands that social chaos be solved by war. His combat thought especially emphasizes "your potential" and wins by surprise. These ideas are the inheritance and development of the military thought of Sun Tzu's Art of War.
From the end of 3rd century BC to the 3rd century AD13rd century, China experienced the rule and change of several great dynasties, such as Qin, Han, Jin, Sui, Tang, Song and Yuan. In this long historical period, the pre-Qin military thought still plays an important guiding role in military struggle. At the same time, due to the development of social economy, politics, culture and war, military thought has been further enriched and improved. As far as the types of wars are concerned, there are wars to establish the unified territory of feudal dynasties, many large-scale peasant uprisings and national uprisings, and wars fought by nobles of all ethnic groups in China for central sovereignty. As far as the development of the army is concerned, arms and weapons and equipment have undergone great changes. There are not only independent cavalry, but also more naval forces participating in the war. This requires that the operational command must strengthen the coordinated operation of foot, riding and water army, so that the application of strategy and tactics and the art of command have been highly developed. During this period, many famous strategists and generals were trained through war practice, and many military books summarizing the experience of military struggle appeared. Qin Shihuang's military measures, such as building the Great Wall on a large scale, repairing (straight) roads and heavily guarding the border, had a great influence on the strategic thinking of building border defense in later generations. In the famous Chu-Han War, Sean made a decision for Liu Bang, won the hearts of the people, divided the other side, won the alliance, isolated Xiang Yu and won the war. In the counterattack against the Xiongnu nobles in the north, the Western Han Dynasty creatively developed the strategy and tactics of using cavalry on a large scale by independent cavalry regiments headed by famous soldiers Wei Qing and Huo Qubing, taking the initiative to attack, maneuvering quickly, attacking from a long distance, attacking head-on, and outflanking. In view of frequent wars, Liu Tao, a military work, puts forward the idea of cherishing human resources and recuperating, and discusses the coordinated operation of operational command organizations and infantry and cavalry. The "three views" further elaborated the simple military dialectics thought of "soft ability can control rigidity, weak ability can control strength", and pointed out that the supreme ruler must recruit talents and attach importance to the role of the people and foot soldiers. From the Han Dynasty to the Sui Dynasty, there were many large-scale wars from the Yellow River valley to the south of the Yangtze River, and most of them were fought by large groups with multiple arms, such as infantry, cavalry and water army. Among them, Battle of Red Cliffs, the Battle of Jin and Wu in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, the Battle of Feishui in the Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Battle of Sui and Chen are the most famous. In these wars, political struggle and military struggle are combined, strategy and decision-making are combined, and the art of operational command has reached a fairly high level. Li Q&A, based on the experience of the war in the early Tang Dynasty, discusses the art of war of predecessors and dialectically discusses the principles of truthfulness, strangeness, attack and defense and their internal relations put forward in Sun Tzu's Art of War. Li Zhi's "Too White Silence" holds that the victory of war depends on the quality of national politics, the strength of power and the use of strategy. By the time Liao, Song, Xixia and post-Song coexisted with national regimes such as Jin and Mongolia, they were in opposition for a long time and wars were frequent. During this period, with the development of production and the need of war, firearms and complex equipment appeared, which had an important impact on combat. The Song Dynasty was dominated by the Han nationality. Due to political corruption, the military power was absolutely controlled by the emperor, and the military's combat capability was low, and it was defeated repeatedly. In order to teach civil servants and military commanders to be familiar with military affairs, the rulers ordered others to compile the General Outline of Military Classics, sum up the ancient and modern art of war and dynasty strategies, and promulgated Sun Tzu's Art of War and questions and answers with Sima Fa, Liu Tao, Zi, San lue and Li as Seven Books of Military Classics, which were officially designated as martial arts textbooks. At this time, Xu Dong's Tiger Bell Classic and He Qufei's Doctor He Beilun criticized the emperor's absolute control over the command of the army and its harm. Yue Fei, a famous star in the Southern Song Dynasty, said: "The beauty of management lies in one heart." He led the "Yue Jiajun" to break through the emperor's "imperial edict" and adopted flexible tactics of stepping and riding to defeat the powerful cavalry of 8 Jin Army. The book "Guarding the City" rigidly records the methods that the army began to use firearms and improve urban fortifications for defensive operations, advocates "attacking while defending", and makes some innovations in the methods of urban defensive operations. Liao, Xixia, Jin and other regimes established by nomadic people in northern China were all good at cavalry, especially the Mongols who rose later. They established a system of integrating soldiers and livestock, gave full play to the advantages of cavalry, used a high degree of flexibility to defeat the enemy, were good at learning and using the advanced technology of the enemy, and constantly improved the equipment of the troops. When Mongolian aristocrats and Houyuan defeated the Southern Song Dynasty, they took long-distance strategic circuitous and multi-way marching on foot, horseback and water army to carry out the strategic attack of large group troops. The above practical experience and the contents of Sun Tzu's Art of War further developed and enriched ancient military thought.
In the contradiction between innovation and conservatism, the feudal society in China gradually declined from the end of 14 to11940s, and from the Ming Dynasty to the late Qing Dynasty. There are not only continuous large-scale peasant uprising wars, national uprising wars and counter-insurgency wars of rulers, but also foreign countries began to invade China. During this period, due to the improvement of firearms and the introduction of some advanced foreign weapons, independent technical arms such as navy, artillery and engineers appeared, the combat targets changed, and the army building and operational command also changed accordingly. At this time, on the one hand, there is a very conservative idea of simply guarding the city and protecting the village; On the other hand, military thoughts with strong innovative contents summarized from practice also appear in many art books. Qi Jiguang, an outstanding anti-Japanese general in Ming Dynasty, wrote Ji Xiao's New Works and Practical Training, which are representative works of this innovative idea. According to the complex coastal terrain conditions and the characteristics of Japanese firearms and equipment, he made major reforms to the array method. He formulated the "Yuanyang Array" with the unit of 12 as the basis of the battle formation. He's book "Battlefield Discipline" also has innovative contents in the discussion of military training and tactics. Sun Chengzong's Co-editor of Kou-A reflects the organizational and tactical changes after a large number of firearms were equipped with troops. Mao's Military Preparation attempts to put forward the basis of military reform from the aspects of military theory, army building, weapons manufacturing and use, astronomy and geography, and coastal defense of rivers and rivers, so as to revitalize the military preparation of the Ming Dynasty. Before the establishment of the Qing Dynasty, the Battle of Salhu took place between Houjin (the predecessor of the Qing Dynasty) and the Ming army. Nuerhachi, the emperor of Qing Dynasty, took the policy of "I will go all the way if I come" (Xia Yun's Surviving Record), concentrated superior forces, gave full play to their advantages in coordinated operations, and carried out a divide-and-conquer attack on the Ming army, which embodied the new military command thought. After Qianlong, the rulers were limited to the idea that riding and shooting were the foundation of Manchuria's founding, adopted a closed-door policy, and gradually became conservative and backward militarily. But in view of this state, many people have put forward some innovative ideas. For example, Huilu Jiumin's "Hundred Golden Secrets" advocates rallying people's hearts and implementing military-civilian joint defense; Gu Zuyu's Summary of Reading History and Geography puts forward the idea of establishing multi-level fortification in Beijing. Nian Gengyao's book "The Chance of Peace" emphasizes that strict military training in peacetime is the only way to win in wartime, which has certain positive significance.