about 50 , 000 men, and over 100 , 000 by the 570 s. Scholars do not agree
on the source of manpower for these early armies, with some arguing for
the incorporation of local troops into these formations and others for the
direct recruitment of the Chinese farming population. Whichever is true,
over the succeeding decades, the Twenty-four Armies came under the
direct control of the emperor and became directly recruited from the
Chinese population.
An exaggerated account of the 574 recruitment of Chinese commoners
into the army, in return for freedom from tax and labor requirements,
states:“after this half the Chinese became soldiers.”At least some part of
this army rotatedfifteen days of guard duty withfifteen days of combat
training. Some, however, seem to have remained at home part of the time
actually farming. In any case, this represented a massive expansion of
martial arts training among the Chinese populace. As the size of the
army grew, so too did the number of adult males trained in martial arts.
Just as important, the profession of arms was made into a respectable
practice among the Chinese. Northern Chinese society became deeply
infused with martial arts and military training; it was no longer the
exclusive province of steppe cavalrymen or local thugs.
The multi-ethnic armies of the Western Wei, which was replaced by the
Northern Zhou around 556 , were now mostly disciplined infantry armies.
Steppe cavalry was still important, but the backbone of the army was its
infantry. Just as significantly, the active recruitment of the Chinese popula-
tion into the now honorable profession of arms tied the population more
closely to the government and allowed that government to exploit the
inherent power of the Chinese population. Chinese infantry were now
composed of some of the best elements of society, rather than the worst,
and bypassed local strongmen to harness military power to central govern-
ment purposes. Martial arts now served government, rather than local, goals.
Conclusion
Over the course of the Six Dynasties period the kinds of weapons
used and martial arts practiced in China shifted markedly. Just as im-
portant, the men who practiced those martial arts, the conditions under
which they practiced them, and the place in society of those men also
changed considerably. The Han dynasty social order changed, as did
the cultural background of the rulers of north China, and the social
and political organization of south China. Over the course of the four
centuries from the fall of the Han dynasty to the rise of the Sui and Tang
Conclusion 91