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deflatormouse
Guest
A few months back I read 'Empire of the Summer Moon' by S.C. Gwynne. I really liked it-though the author has a certain callousness toward violence and a kind of creepy appreciation for military finesse and handguns-it's incredibly detailed, engaging and thoroughly researched. There are a number of striking parallels to the Shang and Zhou cultures, particularly in the graphic depictions of the Comanche Indians' treatment of war captives.
One point Gwynne repeated several times addressed the military disadvantage of what he refers to as "superstition": "The Comanches lived in a world alive with magic and taboo; spirits lived everywhere, in rocks, trees, and animals. The main idea of their religion was to find a way to harness these powers. Such powers thus became "puha," or "medicine"." Comanches and other native tribes, it seems, would flee in terror whenever they sensed that their spirit magic had deserted or failed them, no matter how overwhelmingly they outnumbered their opponents or outmaneuvered them in battle.
The first to take advantage of this weakness, and the military strategist Gwynne seems to admire most, is John 'Coffee' Hays, leader of a guerrilla band that would later be known as Texas Rangers: "(Hays) learned quickly what would soon become his main advantage: Comanches were extremely predictable. They were deeply custom-bound and equally deeply mired in their notions of medicine and magic. In white man's terms, they were easily spooked. What Hayes did appeared to be unbelievably brave to men who did not have his ability to calculate odds."
It soon becomes apparent to the Rangers that one surefire way to spook the Comanches was to kill their leader or war chief. Several examples are given of Comanche reactions:
"While Houston was pondering his deteriorating situation, something remarkable happened: One of the Comanche war chiefs, who had charged very close to the Texans, using his shield with great skill, was hit by a bullet and fell off his horse. He was soon seized by two comrades and carried away. There was a moment when the frenzy of Comanche attack seemed to abate. From their ranks came an eerie, wolflike howling sound. Something had gone wrong with the medicine; perhaps, as was sometimes the case the Indians believed that the warriors "puha" would make him invulnerable to bullets.
Caldwell, fully grasping the moment, yelled to Houston, "Now, General! Charge 'em! They are whipped!""
"A bloody fight followed, during which Bear's Ear was killed. As we have seen, the death of the chief, and thus the failure of his medicine, usually turned the tide of battle in favor of white men. Dispirited and leaderless, the Indians often picked up the chief's body and fled."
"Then, as though to illustrate the five-shooter's main weakness, Hayes's men ran out of ammunition. They were now at the mercy of the thirty-five remaining Indians. Or at least they would be when the Indians figured out their ammunition had run out. Hays then cooly called out to see if anyone had any bullets left. One man, Robert Gillespie, rode forward and said he did. "Dismount and shoot the chief," ordered Hayes. This Gillespie did: at a range of "thirty steps" he dropped the chief from his saddle. The remaining Indians "in wild affright at the loss of their leader...scattered in every direction in the brushwood.""
Although I recognize it's entirely speculative to suggest the Zhou or their enemies may have shared this specific "superstitious" fear toward the killing of a war general or chief, they certainly used divination in battle strategy, seeking reassurance (if not some sense of invincibility) through divine intervention. They regarded warfare as religious as well as militaristic, and military conquest resulted in the displacement of deities as well as kings: Di Xin as Moctezuma II. They would have been, I think, "easily spooked" in this way. The line text of 30.6 contains a very similar battle strategy and in these accounts I see intriguing, if potentially misleading, implications to the reading of this line that I have considered in my own divinations.
One point Gwynne repeated several times addressed the military disadvantage of what he refers to as "superstition": "The Comanches lived in a world alive with magic and taboo; spirits lived everywhere, in rocks, trees, and animals. The main idea of their religion was to find a way to harness these powers. Such powers thus became "puha," or "medicine"." Comanches and other native tribes, it seems, would flee in terror whenever they sensed that their spirit magic had deserted or failed them, no matter how overwhelmingly they outnumbered their opponents or outmaneuvered them in battle.
The first to take advantage of this weakness, and the military strategist Gwynne seems to admire most, is John 'Coffee' Hays, leader of a guerrilla band that would later be known as Texas Rangers: "(Hays) learned quickly what would soon become his main advantage: Comanches were extremely predictable. They were deeply custom-bound and equally deeply mired in their notions of medicine and magic. In white man's terms, they were easily spooked. What Hayes did appeared to be unbelievably brave to men who did not have his ability to calculate odds."
It soon becomes apparent to the Rangers that one surefire way to spook the Comanches was to kill their leader or war chief. Several examples are given of Comanche reactions:
"While Houston was pondering his deteriorating situation, something remarkable happened: One of the Comanche war chiefs, who had charged very close to the Texans, using his shield with great skill, was hit by a bullet and fell off his horse. He was soon seized by two comrades and carried away. There was a moment when the frenzy of Comanche attack seemed to abate. From their ranks came an eerie, wolflike howling sound. Something had gone wrong with the medicine; perhaps, as was sometimes the case the Indians believed that the warriors "puha" would make him invulnerable to bullets.
Caldwell, fully grasping the moment, yelled to Houston, "Now, General! Charge 'em! They are whipped!""
"A bloody fight followed, during which Bear's Ear was killed. As we have seen, the death of the chief, and thus the failure of his medicine, usually turned the tide of battle in favor of white men. Dispirited and leaderless, the Indians often picked up the chief's body and fled."
"Then, as though to illustrate the five-shooter's main weakness, Hayes's men ran out of ammunition. They were now at the mercy of the thirty-five remaining Indians. Or at least they would be when the Indians figured out their ammunition had run out. Hays then cooly called out to see if anyone had any bullets left. One man, Robert Gillespie, rode forward and said he did. "Dismount and shoot the chief," ordered Hayes. This Gillespie did: at a range of "thirty steps" he dropped the chief from his saddle. The remaining Indians "in wild affright at the loss of their leader...scattered in every direction in the brushwood.""
Although I recognize it's entirely speculative to suggest the Zhou or their enemies may have shared this specific "superstitious" fear toward the killing of a war general or chief, they certainly used divination in battle strategy, seeking reassurance (if not some sense of invincibility) through divine intervention. They regarded warfare as religious as well as militaristic, and military conquest resulted in the displacement of deities as well as kings: Di Xin as Moctezuma II. They would have been, I think, "easily spooked" in this way. The line text of 30.6 contains a very similar battle strategy and in these accounts I see intriguing, if potentially misleading, implications to the reading of this line that I have considered in my own divinations.
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