Battle of Banquan

Map showing a possible location of the battle and distribution of tribal unions at the time.
Date~2500 BC
Location
Banquan, China (disputed)
Result

Youxiong victory

  • Merging of Youxiong and Shennong to form the Yanhuang tribe
Belligerents
Shennong (tribe) Youxiong (tribe)
Commanders and leaders
Flame Emperor Yuwang Yellow Emperor

The Battle of Banquan (simplified Chinese: 阪泉之战; traditional Chinese: 阪泉之戰; pinyin: Bǎn Quán Zhī Zhàn) is a battle in ancient Chinese history as recorded by Sima Qian's Records of the Grand Historian. It was fought by Huangdi, the Yellow Emperor, and Yandi, the Flame Emperor.

Background

The "Battle of Banquan" may actually only refer to the third of a series of three battles. The Yellow Emperor shortly afterwards fought Chiyou at the Battle of Zhuolu. Both battles were fought not long apart, and on nearby plains, and both involved the Yellow Emperor. Some scholars have concluded that they may have been the same battle.[1] The Battle of Banquan is credited for the formation of the Yanhuang tribe, the precursor of the Huaxia civilization, which is the basis of the Chinese civilization.

Not much is known about this battle since it, along with other events of the era, is clouded by mythology.[2] Thus, the historical accuracy of accounts of this battle is disputed. Chinese historiographical tradition places it in the 26th century BC.

The Shennong tribes originally were a branch of the late Neolithic agricultural people from the Guanzhong Plain in the west, who expanded across the Loess Plateau before eventually venturing east beyond the Taihang Mountains. Generations later, the tribe was in conflict with other expanding tribes at the time, such as the Jiuli tribes led by Chiyou, and the Youxiong tribes led by the Yellow Emperor. Yuwang, the last Flame Emperor first went to war with Chiyou but was defeated, and in retreating came to territorial conflict against the Yellow Emperor, who raised armies against Shennong.

The armies of Yellow Emperor, under the totems of the black bear (熊), brown bear (羆),[3] pixiu (貔貅),[lower-alpha 1] and tigers (貙虎),[lower-alpha 2] met the armies of Shennong in Banquan in the first large-scale battle in Chinese history. After three major engagements, the Flame Emperor lost the battle and surrendered the leadership to the Yellow Emperor. The Youxiong and the Shennong tribes then made an alliance, forming the Yanhuang tribes, incorporating the small tribes around them.

The ever-expanding Yanhuang tribe soon drew the envy of Chiyou, who attacked Shennong's territories again. The Yanghuang tribe then reacted by facing Chiyou in the Battle of Zhuolu, and emerged victorious. The Yanhuang tribe then could expand eastwards without hindrance and soon formed what came to be known as the Huaxia civilization, the precursor of the Han Chinese civilization. To this day, Chinese people still call themselves "the Descendants of Yan and Huang".

Location of the battle

The actual location of Banquan, where this battle was fought, is in dispute. There are three likely locations:

  1. Southeast of Zhuolu, Hebei
  2. Banquan village of Yanqing District, Beijing
  3. Xiezhou county, Yuncheng, Shanxi

Of these three, the third one is seen to be the most probable since the other two would imply that the two forces would both have to travel north to meet each other, which would be impractical.

Another possibility is that all three are correct, as both Confucius and Sima Qian appear to agree what took place was a series of three battles between Huangdi and Yandi (followed by the Battle of Zhuolu between Chiyou and an alliance of Huangdi, some princes and some lords on a nearby plain).[10]

Notes

  1. ↑ Axel Schuessler (2007) states that in old texts 貔 pí referred to large panther-like cats; reconstructing 貔's Old Chinese pronunciation as *bi, Schuessler compares it to Tibetan: དབྱི།, Wylie: dbyi "lynx" and proposes a probable Sino-Tibetan etymology.[4] According to Xu Ke (徐珂) the 貔 pi is male while the 貅 xiu is female.[5]
  2. ↑ According to Erya and Shuowen Jiezi, the 貙 chū looks like a raccoon dog (貍);[6][7] yet Guo Pu's commentaries on Erya indicate that in his time the chū denoted a dog-sized tiger-like beast with markings like a raccoon dog.[8] Li Shizhen cites Records of the Commanderies and States (郡國志)'s description of the chu as "small tigers with five fingers".[9]

References

  1. ↑ Zhang, Hanmo (2017-02-08). "From Myth to History: Historicizing a Sage for the Sake of Persuasion in the Yellow Emperor Narratives". Journal of Chinese Humanities. 3 (1): 91–116. doi:10.1163/23521341-12340045. ISSN 2352-1333. In synthesizing all the information, some scholars conclude that Banquan is located in the same area as Zhuolu and that the Battle of Banquan was none other than the Battle of Zhuolu.
  2. ↑ Zhang, Hanmo (2017-02-08). "From Myth to History: Historicizing a Sage for the Sake of Persuasion in the Yellow Emperor Narratives". Journal of Chinese Humanities. 3 (1): 91–116. doi:10.1163/23521341-12340045. ISSN 2352-1333. In short, what all these sources preserve is nothing but a narrative framework about emperors and battles in which the line between the memory of real events, if they were real, and an imagined past is almost impossible to draw.
  3. ↑ Zhang, Shuheng (2019), “Three Ancient Words for Bear”, in Mair, Victor, editor, Sino-Platonic Papers, issue 294
  4. ↑ Schuessler, Axel (2007). An Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese. University of Hawaii Press. p. 412
  5. ↑ Xu Ke (1917), Categorized anthology of petty matters from the Qing period (清稗類鈔 - Qingbai Leichao), "Chapter 98 - Animals (動物類)", section "Pixiu (貔貅)". quote: 「貔貅。形似虎。或曰似熊。毛色灰白。遼東人謂之白羆。雄者曰貔。雌者曰貅。故古人多連舉之。」 rough translation: "The pixiu look like tigers; some say they look like bears; their furs are coloured ashen white. People in Liaodong call them white brown bears. The male is called pi while the female is called xiu. That was why ancient people often mentioned them together."
  6. ↑ Erya "Elucidations on the Beasts" quote "貙，獌似貍。 [...] 貙，似貍。"
  7. ↑ Xu Shen SWJZ "radical 豸" quote: "貙：貙獌，似貍者。从豸區聲。"
  8. ↑ Erya - Commentated "Chapter 10 - 貙" quote: "郭雲：“今貙虎也。大如狗，文如貍。”"
  9. ↑ Li Shizhen, Ben Cao Gang Mu, Volume IX: Fowls, Domestic and Wild Animals, Human Substances p. 1061 Quote: "郡國志云：藤州夷人往往化貙。貙，小虎也，有五指。" translation: "The Jun guo zhi states: 'The tribal people in Teng zhou ever so often transform into chu [貙]. Chu [貙] are small tigers [虎] with five fingers'."
  10. ↑ Wu, 57, referring to Dadai Liji, chapter 75, yongbing; and to the Shiji.

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