Civil-Military Relations in Chinese History: From Ancient China to the Communist Takeover

Author:
Kai Filipiak

Publication Year:
2014

Publisher: 
Routledge

Abstract:
Modern studies of civil--military relations recognize that the military is separate from civil society, with its own norms and values, principles of organization, and regulations. Key issues of concern include the means by which – and the extent to which – the civil power controls the military; and also the ways in which military values and approaches permeate and affect wider society. This book examines these issues in relation to China, covering the full range of Chinese history from the Zhou, Qin, and Han dynasties up to the Communist takeover in 1949. It traces how civil--military relations were different in different periods, explores how military specialization and professionalization developed, and reveals how military weakness often occurred when the civil authority with weak policies exerted power over the military. Overall, the book shows how attitudes to the military’s role in present day Communist China were forged in earlier periods.

Table of Contents:

Introduction: civil-military relations in Chinese history 

1 The rise and fall of the system of rites and music and the evolution of the Zhou army 

2 Military codes of virtue: aspects of wen and wu in China's Warring States Period 

3 The master of works (sikong) in the armies of the Qin and Han dynasties 

4 Re- thinking the civil-military divide in the southern dynasties 

5 Changes in the title systems for generals in ancient China 

6 Origins and selection criteria of soldiers in different stages of the Tang dynasty (618-907)

7 The drum and wind palace music of the Tang and Song dynasty 

8 The rise of the martial: rebalancing wen and wu in Song dynasty culture 

9 Postcards from the edge: competing strategies for the defense of Liaodong in the late Ming

10 The adaptation of Chinese military techniques to Chosŏn Korea, their validation, and the social dynamics thereof 

11 Craftsmen and specialist troops in early modern Chinese armies 

12 Military atrocities in warlord China

13 The military ascendant: the ascendancy of the Chinese military during the Resistance War 1937-1945 (and afterwards)

Chronology

Glossary

Bibliography

Index