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Tactical Formations
Oct. 17th, 2009 08:56 amJono and I are having an off-and-on argument about the practicality of various Chinese 阵法. It all started with me watching the trailer for the November release of 赤壁, where I saw the following:
And I was like: OMG!! These are the 阵 that I read about in my youth!!
And then Jono comes over and was like "That's stupid, you just have a concentrated force go in right here." And I'm like "nuh uh, you don't go around dissing a 阵 like that!"
My main argument is that back then, China had a fuckton of people (much of it serf/slave labor), low weapons technology (uh... spears), and a very complex world philosophy that is both actions and locations (易经-I Ching and the trigrams). So it would make sense to train your massive army into complex formations to better engage each others' low tech army. 《孙膑兵法》describes 方,圆,锥行,雁行,钩行,玄襄,疏阵,数阵,及火阵,水阵 8 basic formations. Most of them are pretty straight-forward -- the wedge for offense, the circle for defense, the square for when you can't decide. Back then they also battled with carts. But when you read the text on that page, it actually talks about a 阵法 based on the 8 trigrams. This is what 诸葛亮 adapted, which is I think what we see in the clip. (The diagram links to a long description)
.
It's all in good fun, but it has made me realize that my childhood literature is very different from mainstream. For example, my childhood reading of 西游记, 三国 and 岳飞 made me totally unimpressed with the Lord of the Rings. Big fights as the underdog? Political intrigue? The pathos of the fate of history? Yeah, got that covered. A small band of people wandering into dangerous places and experiencing various trials and tribulations? Yeah, got that covered. (Although 唐僧 is about as whiny as Frodo). And yet there are few people around my age who shares this common geekery, whereas LotR is something that everyone can tap into. Maybe the 赤壁 movie will help.
And I was like: OMG!! These are the 阵 that I read about in my youth!!
And then Jono comes over and was like "That's stupid, you just have a concentrated force go in right here." And I'm like "nuh uh, you don't go around dissing a 阵 like that!"
My main argument is that back then, China had a fuckton of people (much of it serf/slave labor), low weapons technology (uh... spears), and a very complex world philosophy that is both actions and locations (易经-I Ching and the trigrams). So it would make sense to train your massive army into complex formations to better engage each others' low tech army. 《孙膑兵法》describes 方,圆,锥行,雁行,钩行,玄襄,疏阵,数阵,及火阵,水阵 8 basic formations. Most of them are pretty straight-forward -- the wedge for offense, the circle for defense, the square for when you can't decide. Back then they also battled with carts. But when you read the text on that page, it actually talks about a 阵法 based on the 8 trigrams. This is what 诸葛亮 adapted, which is I think what we see in the clip. (The diagram links to a long description)
.It's all in good fun, but it has made me realize that my childhood literature is very different from mainstream. For example, my childhood reading of 西游记, 三国 and 岳飞 made me totally unimpressed with the Lord of the Rings. Big fights as the underdog? Political intrigue? The pathos of the fate of history? Yeah, got that covered. A small band of people wandering into dangerous places and experiencing various trials and tribulations? Yeah, got that covered. (Although 唐僧 is about as whiny as Frodo). And yet there are few people around my age who shares this common geekery, whereas LotR is something that everyone can tap into. Maybe the 赤壁 movie will help.
