武经总要

《武经总要》是一部中国北宋官修的军事著作。宋初将领多出自行伍，拔卒为将，以殿前比试武艺，作为人事升迁的途径，称为转员制度，开国六十年后将领多不知兵法，景祐元年（1034年）富弼上《论武举武学奏》，建议设立武学，由天章阁待制曾公亮和尚书工部侍郎、参知政事丁度等奉命于1040年至1044年编辑而成，完成于1044年（北宋庆历4年）。主题广泛，从各种类的海军船舰到投石机都有。武经总要是历史上最早含有硝石、硫磺、木炭等成分火药配方的记录。在1126年金国占领开封时，失去了武经总要的原本。1231年，南宋借由一些副本重制了新版本的武经总要。

内容

全书分为前后两集，共四十三卷，计2869页。前集二十二卷 将军事制度、军事组织、选将用兵、阵法、山川地理等军事理论和规则；后集二十一卷 前半部分介绍古今战例，后半部分介绍阴阳占卜。

评价

该书是中国第一部规模宏大的官修综合性军事著作，对于研究宋代以前的军事思想非常重要。其中大篇幅介绍了武器的制造，对科学技术史的研究也很重要。

版本

明弘治、正德年间据南宋绍定本重刻本。

明弘治十七年（1504年）李赞刻本。

明金陵书林唐福春刻本。

《四库全书》本。

《兵书集成》影印明唐福春刻本。

The Wujing Zongyao (Chinese: 武經總要), sometimes rendered in English as the Complete Essentials for the Military Classics, is a Chinese military compendium written from around 1040 to 1044.

The book was compiled during the Northern Song dynasty by Zeng Gongliang (曾公亮), Ding Du (丁度) and Yang Weide (楊惟德), whose writing influenced many later Chinese military writers. The compendium was published under the auspices of Emperor Renzong of Song, who also authored the book's preface. The book covers a wide range of subjects, including everything from naval warships to different types of catapults. It contains the earliest known written chemical formulas for gunpowder, made from saltpeter, sulphur and charcoal along with many added ingredients. In addition to formulas for gunpowder, the compendium also contains details on various other gunpowder weapons such as fire arrows, incendiary bombs and projectiles, and grenades and smoke bombs. It also describes an early form of the compass (using thermoremanence), and has the oldest illustration of a Chinese flamethrower with a double-action dual-piston cylinder-pump capable of shooting a continuous blast of flame.

History

The Wujing Zongyao was compiled under the sponsorship of Emperor Renzong of Song (r. 1022–1063 AD), who was concerned that many officials were unfamiliar with the military classics, and partially as a response to the Song dynasty's war with the Tanguts of Western Xia.

A team of scholars worked from 1040 to 1044 to compile the Wujing Zongyao with the intent to collect all known military knowledge and to disseminate it to a wider government audience. Its chief editor, Zeng Gongliang, was assisted by the astronomer Yang Weide and the scholar Ding Du. After five years, the book was published with a preface authored by Emperor Renzong himself. Lorge remarks that Zeng Gongliang, the chief editor, was a government official rather than a military general, implying that the Wujing Zongyao was likely written for other government officials.

Parts of the Wujing Zongyao were copied from older sources; historian Ralph D. Sawyer calls it "essentially a cut-and-paste job", containing many passages from earlier classical military writings whose original authors are left unidentified, a common practice at the time. During the Song dynasty, the Wujing Zongyao was appended to two other books: the Xingjun xuzhi and the Baizhan qifa, both written by anonymous authors.

The Wujing Zongyao was one of 347 military treatises listed in the biographical chapters of the History of Song (1345 AD), one of the Twenty-Four Histories. Of these 347 different military treatises from the Song period, only the Wujing Zongyao, the Huqianjing (Tiger Seal Manual) of Xu Dong in 1004 AD, and fragments of similar works found in the later Yongle Dadian, have survived. The original text of the Wujing Zongyao was kept in the Imperial Library while a number of hand-written copies were distributed elsewhere, including a copy given to Wang Shao by Emperor Shenzong of Song in 1069 AD.