The film is set in the Warring States Period of 370 BC China. The Zhao state invades the city-state of Liang. Ge Li, a Mohist, comes to Liang to help defend the city, without permission from the Mohist leaders. The king of Liang had planned for peace talks with the invaders but Ge Li fired a modified arrow that doubled its range, promising the invaders a battle. Rallying the city, he warns the people of Liang of the dangers of surrendering to the invading Zhao army and promised the king that the invaders would give up on Liang if they failed to take the city within a month, because their main target is the kingdom of Yan. The king of Liang is worried about Ge Li inciting war amongst his people, but eventually decides to allow Ge to temporarily aid in defending Liang.

 

Ge Li creates a bulwark and various ...

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Jackie Chan's 100th film is an epic war film that details the fall of the Qing Dynasty--and the violent rebellion that brought it down. With China split into warring factions and the starving citizens beginning to revolt, the ruling Qings are building a powerful army to quash any rebellion. But revolutionary leader Huang Xing (Chan) decides he must act before the Qing army becomes too powerful... and leads an increasingly desperate series of violent uprisings against the powerful Qings. Cast: Jackie Chan, Joan Chen, Lee Bing Bing, Jaycee Chan, Winston Chao

The basic dilemma of Mongol rule in China—the Mongols’ inability to achieve a durable identification with Chinese civilian institutions and to modify the military and colonialist character of their rule—became more apparent under Kublai’s successors and reached a maximum under Togon-temür, the last Yuan ruler. Togon-temür was not unfriendly toward Chinese civilization, but this could not alter the contempt of many leading Mongols for Chinese civilian institutions. For centuries China had known clique factionalism at court, but this was mostly fought with political means; Mongol factionalism usually resorted to military power. Militarization gradually spread from the Mongol ruling class into Chinese society, and not a few dissatisfied Chinese leaders established regional power based on local soldiery. The central administration headed by a weak emperor proved incapable of preserving its supremacy.

 

Thus, the military character of Mongol rule paved the way for the success of Chinese rebels, some ...

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The Nan Song, through continuous development, eventually became wealthier than the Bei Song had been. Though its capital was near the sea—the only such instance among the Chinese empires— and international trade increased, the country was not sea-oriented. Gaozong maintained a defensive posture against periodic Juchen incursions from the north and meanwhile proceeded to restore imperial authority in the hinterland as far west as the strategic Sichuan and in parts of Shaanxi to its immediate north.

 

No less important was the need for adequate military forces. Neither conscription nor recruitment would suffice. Because his position was militarily weak but financially strong, Gaozong adopted the zhao’an policy, which offered peace to the various roving bands. The government granted them legitimate status as regular troops, and it overlooked their minor abuses in local matters. Thus, the size of imperial forces swelled, and the problem of internal security was largely settled ...

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Early 20th Century Chinese Soldiers.

For the Chinese empire throughout its history, defence of its northern land borders was most important. The Ming rulers turned away from the sea after the first third of the fifteenth century precisely for that reason when they found their Mongol enemies once again at their gates. The Manchus, themselves overland conquerors of the Chinese heartland, were even more sensitive to what could happen if the northern frontiers were weak. They read Chinese history carefully and concluded that there were no enemies who could have conquered China from the sea. Even after Lord Macartney’s visit in 1793, with the ambassador’s open display of pride and confidence, Qing coastal officials still did not report accurately to Emperor Qianlong the intelligence already available about British naval prowess. Not until the British ships fought their way up the Pearl River to Canton (Guangzhou) in 1841 did ...

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In the 1860s "to fight" for the Chinese meant desperate defence against enemies from all directions while, for the British, it was more a question of not fighting the Chinese again, but helping the Chinese keep internal law and order so that they could fight other enemies for themselves. The Qing court engaged a number of British advisers to equip and train their Bannerman battalions in modern weaponry, but these largely addressed the modernisation of land forces. Mandarin soldiers like Zeng Guofan had become aware that the lack of naval power was a serious deficiency in the imperial defences. He and his most innovative subordinates soon made plans to build a modern navy and sought British help to repair that weakness.

 

The views of Zuo Zongtang (1812-1885), one of the great generals of the period of Qing "restoration" after the Taiping rebellion, reflect well the ambivalence about what had to ...

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Total Humiliation.

Whereas China had persevered in hiding behind the grandeur of its past, Japan had embraced the West, modernizing itself politically, militarily, and culturally. China’s humiliation at the hands of its newly imperialist neighbor is evident in this scene, where the differences in dress and body posture of the officials negotiating the treaty after the war reflect China’s disastrous 1895 defeat by the Japanese.

Lord Macartney’s mission to China 1793

Opium War 1839–1842

The Opium War (1839--1842) demonstrated the superiority of British firepower and military tactics (including the use of a shallow-draft steamboat that effectively harassed Chinese coastal defenses). British warships destroyed Chinese coastal and river forts and seized the offshore island of Chusan, not far from the mouth of the Yangtze River. When a British fleet sailed virtually unopposed up the Yangtze to Nanjing and cut off the supply of ‘‘tribute grain’’ from southern ...

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Painted pottery figurines of lightly armoured Western Han infantrymen burial objects from a 2nd-century BC tomb near Xian. These are representative of the mass infantry armies of Han China.

Liu Bang pursued Xiong Yu eastwards across the North China Plain to Gaixia, where the Chu army was trapped by the convergence of three other Han forces

Date: 203 BC Location: near modern Guzhen, Anhui province, China

He called his enterprise that of a Hegemon King, intending to manage the world by means of mighty campaigns. After five years, he finally lost his state and died himself fat Tung-ch'eng [Dongcheng],yet even then he did not come to his senses and blame himself. What error! (ABOUT X IANG Yu) SIMA Q IAN, THEGRANOSCRIBE'SRECOROS, C. 100BC

 

The battle of Gaixia was the final engagement of the protracted struggle between the rival generals Liu Bang and Xiang Yu for dominance over ...

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For 2,200 years China was an extraordinarily durable imperial state, yet by 1557, when Portugal took possession of Macao, it became an object of European interest. Ruled since 1644 by the Qing dynasty descended from Manchu conquerors, nineteenth- century China was beset by internal convulsions and external challenges until 1912 when a nationalist revolution led by Sun Yatsen produced a republic. The first domestic upheaval, the folk-Buddhist White Lotus rebellion of 1796 to 1804, revealed both popular discontent with the Qing government and the flagging competence of its military. The Nian (1851–1868) and the Taiping (1850–1864) rebellions further weakened China and left its large territory and extensive coastline increasingly vulnerable to the predations of Britain, Japan, and Russia in particular. Indeed, the Qing’s bureaucratic rigidity and China’s educational and economic backwardness led to its humiliation as early as the Opium War of 1839–1842 with ...

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In the late Yuan and early Ming Dynasties, Japanese warriors, merchants, and pirates, together with dishonest Chinese businessmen, raided the coastlines of China from time to time. Being victims of their aggression, the people who lived in the coastal areas called them wokou (the term “wokou” is a combination of “wo” referring to Japanese, and “kou” meaning “bandit, enemy, or invader”). The raids became increasingly frequent and severe in the mid-Ming Period. Yu Dayou and Qi Jiguang were two important figures in the battles against Japanese piracy.

 

Yu Dayou was born in Jinjiang in Fujian province. At the recommendation of Wang Shu, xunshi Zhejiang duyushi (an official title), he was appointed the commander to fight wokou, as he was familiar with the defense of coastlines. Later, he also served as the general for Renning and Taizhu prefectures. With the support of Wang Shu, he recruited and buildt battle ships, drafting ...

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