How to Train your Charioteer
I had never given too much thought to chariots in Ancient China until I came across a list in the Book of Zhou (周禮, 2nd century BCE) of the five essential skills of the charioteer. As I started to explore this intriguing resume, I realised that my mental image of the chariot had been totally wrong. I had been imagining a very nimble thing for a solitary rider, or perhaps a pair: essentially, I suppose, a Spartan chariot or something out of Ben Hur. In reality, these things were much more like tanks - large, armoured, packed with gear, and frequently accompanied by large numbers of protecting troops.
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.
