Journal of Chinese Military History 5 (�0�6) 97-�34 brill.com/jcmh A “Total War”? Rethinking Military Ideology in the Book of Lord Shang Yuri Pines Beijing Normal University, School of History and Hebrew University of Jerusalem
[email protected] Abstract The Book of Lord Shang, commonly identified as a major work of the so-called Legalist school, is also an important, albeit much neglected treatise in the history of Chinese military thought. Beyond specific recommendations concerning both defensive and offensive warfare, the book presents a coherent view that the state should restructure its socioeconomic and cultural policies in order to turn every man into a valiant soldier. The book epitomizes the ideology of “total war” in which the differences between civil- ian and military affairs are blurred. The society is profoundly militarized and the army, in turn, is profoundly bureaucratized. This article explores military thought in the Book of Lord Shang and focuses on its views of mobilization, indoctrination of soldiers, military discipline, rules of military engagement, and military command. I further deal with the question of why the book’s military ideology has been all but neglected after the end of the Han dynasty. Keywords Book of Lord Shang – mass armies – military thought – Warring States * This research was supported by the Israel Science Foundation (grant No. 240/15) and by the Michael William Lipson Chair in Chinese Studies. It was first presented at a conference on Chinese military thought, University of Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona (June 2013). I am deeply indebted to the conference’s organizers and participants, especially Paul van Els, Albert Galvany, and Robin D.