What was the focus of "conquest" and "cutting" in ancient wars? Which means better?

In ancient society, war was a normal state, and the process from war to conquest of civil strife was always cyclical, and all historical developments seemed to be based on war.

Therefore, if we want to talk about ancient history, we have to talk about war. But there are many things in war, including not only many wonderful battles, but also elements of war.

But I don't know if you have noticed that ancient wars paid special attention to justification, especially when recording each war, they emphasized the difference between conquest and logging.

For example, in many records, we can see the crusade to the east, the crusade to the west and the crusade to the south, but strangely, when it comes to logging, we often like to use the crusade to the north. So, what's the difference between expropriation and logging? In fact, through this question, we can see another major feature of ancient wars.

If you want to know the difference between levy and logging, you need to know what they represent. First look at the meaning of the sign.

First, what is a sign?

According to Mencius, "those who levy, go up and cut it." It means a war between superiors and subordinates. So the meaning of this word can basically be understood as a war between rulers and rebellious subordinates.

So, is the nature of this war just or unjust?

In fact, this kind of war can not be understood simply by justice or not, but by the culture of China. According to the tradition of China culture, there is a saying that heaven and earth are teachers, so the monarch is second only to heaven and earth, and his status is far higher than reality.

Moreover, according to the characteristics of the monarchical centralization system, the monarch is the supreme existence, and has sacred authority no matter whether his behavior is right or wrong. Therefore, the monarch's crusade against subordinates, regardless of whether its behavior is excessive or not, has natural justice, and subordinates have no reason to resist.

Especially when the feudal system was combined with Confucianism, there was even a saying that the monarch had to die if he wanted to. So whenever you use conquest, it means that war has unparalleled authority, and the object of crusade is naturally weaker in slogan.

Therefore, all kings often use this word when fighting, which is the representative of authority and implies the crushing and victory of this war.

Second, what is cutting?

Compared with signs, logging lacks natural justice and authority. Literally, it represents absolute killing and beating, so objectively speaking, the word is more bloody and lacks some foothold in its name.

However, we must admit that in ancient wars, although there must be an evil side and a just side, in order to ensure the cohesion of the war, both sides must emphasize their own justice. Therefore, in ancient wars, slogans were particularly emphasized, such as the strategy of subordinates facing superiors. They can put forward the slogan of standing on the side of the monarch, and the bad guys can also find reasons to feel at ease.

As for a just war, it lacks the natural authority of superiors over subordinates, and actually needs strong slogans to unite the combat effectiveness of the army. For example, "If the Huns become immortals, why are they at home?" Another example is "those who make me strong, though far away, will be punished." These powerful slogans give the name of justice, but they are more aggressive.

Therefore, the two words have different meanings, and the naturalness of the war they represent is also different. Objectively speaking, the significance of collection is better than that of reduction.

Then, why only the Northern Expedition, but not the Western Expedition and the Eastern Expedition? In fact, there is also a lot of concern behind this.

Third, the truth of the Northern Expedition

The reason why the words Northern Expedition were used on a large scale in history is not actually a habit of the ancients, but because most of the war threats actually came from the north. So why do you say that? It can be understood from two aspects.

First of all, the first aspect comes from internal struggle. Throughout the ancient history of China, the north is generally the political and military center, so the war that determines the fate of the world often begins in the north, while the south is often a recuperation or not very important party.

Therefore, once a war breaks out in history, people who move from the north to the south often represent absolute strength and authority, which is close to the war between superiors and subordinates. Therefore, the war became a war of conquest.

However, in the face of the strong pressure of reunification in the north, the south will naturally not fall, so it will also rise up and resist. Even in some key nodes, the south has occupied an overwhelming advantage, because the south has no long-term recuperation strategy, so its strength has been fully restored and developed. However, the war in the north has been going on for a long time, and even because of the subversion of the regime, there have been hollowed-out areas. So the south had the opportunity to attack, so there was the Northern Expedition.

Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition is famous in history. Of course, according to historical records, Zhuge Liang did not make six northern expeditions, only five. Objectively speaking, Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition basically conforms to this law. He launched the war of defeating the strong with the weak in order to avoid the pressure of reunification and solve the inevitable crisis.

Moreover, in order to ensure the authenticity of his own war, he also put forward the slogan of "reviving the Central Plains and restoring the Han Dynasty", hoping to gather combat effectiveness through the slogan and resolve the pressure from the north. But it is a pity that, after all, the weak defeated the strong, which is somewhat similar to the following level against the superior (the Cao Wei regime was abdicated by the Han Dynasty), so it finally failed.

In addition to internal struggles, there are actually external struggles. According to historical records, the vast majority of enemies in history came from the north. From the earliest Huns to Wuluanhua, but until the later Liao, Jin and Mongolia, and even until the last Manchu, these enemies were born on the grasslands in the north.

Moreover, since then, the war has attacked from north to south, followed by the decline of the northern region, and even the southward of the dynasty.

Therefore, in the face of such a crisis, the Central Plains regime in the north must fight back from the south, so the direction of the war has become the north. Moreover, because the war between the two sides is not a war between superiors and subordinates, but a war between countries, we can only use the Northern Expedition instead of levying.

But in order to ensure the justice of the war, basically every time we fight, we will shout slogans, either expelling the Tatars and restoring China, or setting the Central Plains in the north and restoring the country.

For example, the famous Yuefei Northern Expedition in history is actually a typical case. Because the Northern Song Dynasty lost its northern territory, the Song Dynasty had to fight back. The main purpose of its war was to recover the northern territory, so the war became the Northern Expedition.

Moreover, it is worth mentioning that Yue Fei has fully mobilized the national sentiment and rejuvenating the country, so the soldiers have strong combat effectiveness and high morale. In the end, it created a miracle of going straight to Huanglong and almost recovered the northern region. Unfortunately, the gap between countries is too big, and the Northern Expedition is always difficult to deal with. Except Zhu Yuanzhang, others rarely succeed, and Yue Fei can only sigh helplessly.

summary

The above is about the difference between conquering in ancient wars, from which we can see the other side of war, that is, the importance of war slogans. As long as the slogan is well shouted, then the war will have an advantage in the natural position, and it will be able to gather combat effectiveness and crush the other side in momentum.

Of course, if superiors wage war against subordinates, they often have natural advantages. If the strength difference is too big, many times it is already numerous and bloodless.

Therefore, if you want to know about ancient wars, you must know about the culture of China. Unlike the cruel slaughter in the western world, China's war is more moral. Although the bad guys also pay attention to ethics, their actions have confirmed that Confucianism is deeply rooted.

Of course, we should also understand from another aspect that war is a rude behavior after all. Whether it is justice or not, it will eventually be a river of blood. It is extremely painful to win and lose, and the most painful thing is the people. Therefore, war is not a good means. There are too many things to pay attention to in order to make a war successful.