essential skills

of the charioteer

5

Driving a chariot in the Shang and Zhou dynasties was serious business. Generally led by a team of four horses and surrounded by troops, chariots were the mainstay of military strategy; so much so that charioteering is one of the ‘Six Arts’ listed in the Book of Zhou (周禮, 2nd century BCE). A later commentator laid out the list though, as we shall see, quite a bit of guesswork is needed to decipher the items.

5

essential skills

of the charioteer

Driving a chariot in the Shang and Zhou dynasties was serious business. Generally led by a team of four horses and surrounded by troops, chariots were the mainstay of military strategy; so much so that charioteering is one of the ‘Six Arts’ listed in the Book of Zhou (周禮, 2nd century BCE). A later commentator laid out the list though, as we shall see, quite a bit of guesswork is needed to decipher the items.

CULTURAL NOTE

Much of the information below comes from the aforementioned Zhou Li as well as the Book of Songs, a collection of odes on varying topics, some of which have a jingoistic theme.

In the sixth month all was bustle and excitement,
The war carriages had been made ready,
With the four steeds of each, strong and eager;
And the regular accoutrements had been placed in the carriages.

鳴和鸞

míng hé luán

The Cry of the He and the Luan

The he and the luan were names of jingle bells fitted to the chariot. The he was fitted to the pole at the front of the carriage, and the luan was hung from the shafts. When travelling along, the two different bells would have echoed each other like a call and response; part of the charioteer’s skillset was ensuring that the correct rhythm was maintained, as a guide to steady forward motion. One of the odes in the Book of Songs (Shi Jing, 詩經) seems to allude to the importance of this aspect:

The war carriages were well made,

Nicely balanced before and behind.

A commentary on the Book, the Hanshi nei zhuang explains the bells like so: “When chariot rises, the horses move. When the horses move, the luan sounds. When the luan sounds, the he responds. (升車則馬動，馬動則鸞鳴，鸞鳴則和應。)

逐水曲

zhú shuǐ qū

Following the Water Bend

Chariots did not only travel in straight lines, of course. Following the water bend, or bends, might mean no more being able to deal with a curving path. Some say that charioteers had to be able to guide their chariot through a twisting ditch to prove that they had the ability to deal with unexpected obstacles and difficult terrain.

過君表

guò jūn biǎo

Passing the Lord’s Banner

This is another unclear one. Internet speculation is divided, with some camps suggesting it refers to some kind of ceremonial act of paying respect to the lord’s banner, while others say the jūnbiǎo (君表) was the name given to a narrow gate topped with flags through which the charioteer would have to drive. I cannot find a reliable source for this definition (in fact my trusty dictionary of ancient Chinese does not even give the flag/banner definition among its many listings for 表, let alone the gate) but it seems a reasonable theory. Squeezing a chariot through one of these archways, perhaps made trickier still with extra stones added, would certainly be a worthy test of a charioteer’s skill.

舞交衢

wǔ jiāo qú

Dancing the Crossroad Criss-Cross

This inriguing item on the charioteering skills test is a little unclear. There seems to be some sort of intersection involved（衢), some form of crossing over (that’s the 交), and it is definitely referred to as a dance (舞). Beyond that, it is hard to know what those chariot drivers actually had to do. I have found confident but contradictory assertions that the test involved either speeding through an intersection at will, or dodging pedestrians in a kind of hair-raising obstacle course. Short of stumbling on to a contemporary account, I will just have to add my own speculation here that this skills test involved navigating some kind of crossroad protocol, perhaps involving another chariot. I’m imagining the vehicular equivalent of a do-si-do from the occasional barn dances that peppered my youth in rural England.

逐禽左

zhú qín zuǒ

Pursuing to the Left of the Quarry

Finally, we have another fundamental charioteering skill, based on the fact that chariots were built for a three-man team: the chariot owner who stood in the middle, chariot driver to his right, and the servant who handed weapons to the chariot owner. Since the driver was on the right hand side, he had to make sure that the warrior was on the same side as the quarry i.e. keeping the chariot to the left of it. How this skill was tested remains unclear to me. I have read outlandish theories that a test involved driving game birds to the left using the chariot but cannot find any evidence for this.

Sources and Further Reading

The Ancient History of China to the End of the Chóu Dynasty, Friedrich Hirth, Columbia University Press 1908

RECHERCHES SUR LES MŒURS DES ANCIENS CHINOIS, D’APRÈS LE CHI-KING Journal Asiatique, 1843, série 4, tome 2, pages 307-355 et 430-447. Available online here (The work of George Biot on Zhou dynasty life including warfare)

Cambridge Illustrated History of China, Patricia Buckley Ebrey, Cambridge University Press 1996

古代漢語常用字字典1998年版，商務印書館, 2004, 北京 (Trusty dictionary of classical Chinese terms)

Science and Civilisation in China, Joseph Needham, Cambridge University Press, 1965

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