|
Weapons - Forks
叉
(cha) - continued |
| The Ming Dynasty
(1368-1644) was struggling to survive in the late 16th century.
The Altan Khan had led Mongol |
| raiders to attack
northwestern China several times - they rampaged as far east as
Beijing in 1550. During the same |
| period the Pacific
coast of China was frequently attacked by pirates alleged to be
Japanese. Qi Ji Guang ( 戚繼光
|
| November 12, 1528 - January 17, 1588)
fought against the Mongols in the attack on Beijing and later
(1555) was |
| assigned to
protect the area around Zhejiang from pirates. He published two
versions of the Jixiao Xinshu, his |
| commentaries on
military tactics. The first version was printed in 1561 and had
18 chapters. Qi was forced to retire |
| some years later
and published a revised version with 14 chapters in 1584. Here
is one of the drawings of a squad-sized |
| (5 or 10
men) tactical unit that would be arrayed in a formation known as
a Mandarin Duck. |
