period. In other words, a change in battlefield technology would result in a
later shift in martial arts practice. This change in martial arts practice
would, in turn, have important social effects.
New technology in the form of chariots, and possibly composite bows,
may have been responsible for the defeat of the Shang dynasty at Muye in
1046. Shaughnessy suggests, in contrast to previous scholars, that the
Zhou forces defeated the Shang army not because of superior virtue, or
revolutionary social development, but because they had a large chariot
force and the Shang did not. He is careful to note that“nowhere in the
historical record is there any mention that the Shang army facing them
used chariots to any extent.”^16 This carefully worded explanation, accom-
panied by mention of improved Zhou dagger-axes, better stabbing swords,
and perhaps composite bows, presents a fundamentally martial arts–based
argument for the Zhou overthrow of the Shang.
The Zhou military did not have a massive technological advantage in
the sense of possessing weapons beyond the understanding of the Shang.
What the Zhou did have was a different understanding offighting. It
would not have been enough to have simply manufactured large numbers
of chariots, new dagger-axes, and possibly swords and composite bows
and to have distributed them to the Zhou army. Changes in both the
numbers and types of weapons used in battle require a wholesale shift in
training. Even if Shaughnessy is only partially correct, we still have a major
political and cultural shift directly connected to a change in martial arts
practice. A large-scale deployment of chariots required more men trained
in their use than the upper aristocracy alone could supply. New weapons
similarly would have created the need for a systematic recruitment and
training of men to use them. Although we do not know who these men
were, whether they were retrained Zhou soldiers or newly recruited from
Zhou subjects or allies, the new centrality of chariot warfare would mark
the society, culture, and martial arts of the next few centuries.
Martial Dances
Up until this point I have concentrated on the modes of warfare, and martial
skills that can be reconstructed based upon archaeology. There is an addi-
tional area concerning martial arts that is intimately related to warfare,
spirituality, and social hierarchy: the martial dance. Martial dances are
hard to distinguish from drilling in martial arts since they are formalized
movements that replicate movements used in combat, invoke otherworldly
attention and assistance for combat, or attempt to induce a particular mental
Martial Dances 25