Do you think there were historical equivalent of European mercenaries that were indigenous in China? I am referring to the era before Europeans forced the Qing dynasty to open China to foreign trade.

This is what I could observe -

(1) Eastern Zhou - Spring Autumn and Warring States Era

Various men with talents/learnings in military/statesmanship sought services with feudal rulers irrespective of their native states. These men could be termed as mercenaries, and sometimes, even had a small group of followers who served as trusted subordinates, advisors or agents. However, they did not operate military or paramilitary companies which could be hired to wage war or defend territories. Rather, they served as commanders directing the local forces of the feudal lords in battle, building armies and training soldiers etc.

Sun Zi, Bai Qi and Sun Bin were examples of such figures, though except for Bai Qi, the other two could hardly be accused of being mercenary-minded, that is, providing service purely for monetary/personal gains.

Kong Zi (Confucious) travelled around China with a large group of disciples, seeking employment from various lords outside his native state of Lu. He was recognised as having great talents, and his disciples were bold, valiant and brilliant. In fact, their very capabilities could have threatened to undermine the influence of local nobilities, who strenously objected to the feudal rulers from employing Kong Zi, on the pretext that Kong Zi advocated submission to the Son of Heaven, ie.e, King of Zhou.


(2) Han Dynasty, Three Kingdoms

During the uprising against the Qin dynasty, numerous armed groups were formed, all claiming to be fighting against Qin's tyranny. Termed as Qi Yi Jun (起义军), a number of these were less organised, and had no visionary leadership, nor follow any long-term strategy. Their only distinction from other bandits who were rampant at the same time was they did not plunder from the populace, and instead, attacked Qin's garrisons and supply themselves from the official granaries. Eventually, they sought to, or were sought out to, follow the more established leaders such as Xiang Yü or Liu Bang.

Most of these companies did not make decisions based on prompt payment for their services. Instead, their commanders chose to follow leaders who promised them fiefs and titles of nobilities after the supposed final victory. That did not mean they were more reliable or loyal, and switching of sides did happen. However, it did mean that when they quit, they did not march over to join their new employers - what happened was they usually hand over the territories they were assigned to guard to their new employer.

Of course, unlike European mercenaries, all the Chinese mercenaries listed so far, and those to follow, did not have formal, and seldom, any informal, contracts with their employers.

At the decline of Eastern Han dynasty, the valiant warrior Lü Bu was said to have been bribed over from Ding Feng to join Dong Zhuo by a fine horse, and then promises of high position.

Apart from individuals, complete small armies were also "available for hire" sometimes.

Tao Qian of XüZhou and Liu Zhang of YiZhou "hired" Liu Bei to defend their turfs.
Zhang Lu "hired" Ma Chao to conquer YiZhou.


(3) Age of Fragmentation - Jin dynasty, North and South Dynasties

Identifying equivalents of mercenaries was easier in this era. Numerous ethnic minority nomadic tribes proved to be able cavalry, and often hired by various warlords. In time, the commanders of these mercenary companies displaced their employers and founded their own small states.

The Former Qin dynasty was initially established by one such company.

Again, the main difference between these Chinese mercenaries and European mercenaries was the minimal observing of orthodoxy - one was at least, nominally, serving a true sovereign.


(4) Tang dynasties

The Tang dynasty founders employed ethnic minorities in their armies, as well as bribe some rival warlords into submission. In time, their border guards were manned by Uyghur mercenaries etc. ethnic minorities rather than their own citizens from the Jun Tian system.


(5) Song dynasty

The Imperial Court granted amnesty to outlaw leader Song Jiang and his gang from Mount Liang, and then employed him and his forces against the rebel Fang La in the south. Seems mercenary enough to me.

According to SHZ (Sui Hu Zuan), Song Jiang also led the forces against the Khitans in the north, and was nearing the goal of recovering the 16 zhous of Yun and Yan when he was recalled by the Imperial Court who feared him establishing a separatist state.


(6) Ming and Qing dynasties

During the founding of Ming, a somewhat similar situation to the fall of Qin and rise of Han.

During the consolidation of Qing, various remnant forces of Ming operated independently, nominally serving one scion or another of the Ming dynasty, and also turned by the Qing.

Notable exception was Zheng ChengGong who found himself with practically no legitimate master, but continued to resist the Qing, devising long-term strategies and even after establishing his base in Taiwan and forced out of the mainland, harboured no ambitions of founding his own separatist state. Very unmercenary.


(7) Mostly fictional pugilistic world

In the pugilistic world of China, while the right of the central government to be the only legitimate possessor of an army was not disputed, small scale armed forces existed. They serve as guards for remote farming communities, or sects, or escort courier services etc, or even syndicates engaging in illegal activities from salt trading/smuggling to piracy to vice (prostitution and gambling) to robbery.

Bands of armed men were available for hire for such services, or inter-gang rivalries. The way these armed gangs come-and-go depending on employment situation is more similar to European mercenary companies. The fact that they operate on a smaller scale and hired by criminals or businessmen allowed them to escape being branded as rebels by the government, they were considered more as nuisance, or necessary evil sometimes.

Preliminary Conclusion
I think there would be plenty of other examples I did not mention here.

I would like you to share your thoughts on this subject, and what is it about China that makes the mercenary tradition so different from Europeans and other cultures.

Very interesting. Two types of forces in the Age of Fragmentation that you might like to take note of:

1) The Qihuojun 乞活军 (Survival Armies), which were mostly provincial armies who had lost their governor (and often their province) during the fall of the Western Jin, and wandered around as bandits, refugees or mercenaries. Some set up their own mini-states, which were later conquered by the Eastern Jin and Later Zhao.

2) The Buqu 部曲, which were originally regular army units in the late Han but developed into private armies for aristocrats and warlords in the Three Kingdoms and Western Jin. Many refugees during the fall of the Western Jin were also absorbed into these Buqu. When not at war, they would farm the estates of their lord as serfs.

One big reason why mercenary culture never took hold in China during this period must be that there was never a shortage of displaced refugees willing to serve as soldiers just for survival. This is unlike medieval Italy where the aristocrats and merchants didn't want to do their own fighting, and had to hire condottierri to do it for them.

During Ming, I've heard of 'Japanese' wokuo pirates who worked with powerful Chinese merchants. Not sure if you could call them mercenaries, but they worked for profit.

excellent topic, i never heard or even thought of any of this before

thank you for the info

There's several types here.

One was pure pirates - armed bands of ronins whose former masters were defeated by their rivals in Japan, suddenly finding themselves in need of new ways to make a living. They raided coastal shippings and settlements on the mainland, eventually growing large enough to conspire with Chinese locals for large-scale raids.

Another was armed guards of private maritime Chinese merchants who defied the Imperial laws of the Ming dynasty. The father of Zheng ChengGong was one such case. I cannot tell how different they actually were from pirates who operated with zero capital (无本生意), but to a certain extent, they did engaged in purchase of goods, shipping of the goods and selling of the goods. The goods traded were not necessarily harmful, but were all considered officially as contrabands, and hence, the traders as criminals by the Imperial Court.

Whether one is a mercenary, or a simple sellsword, or a bandit, or a trader, or an adventurer, depends on the circumstances. Often, one started out being a trader who found Imperial laws unreasonably restrictive, then branded as an outlaw (smuggler or pirate) by the authorities, and if one kept one step ahead of the authorities long enough, receive an amnesty to become a privateer or a commission as a naval officer, and then had the previous background whitewashed as an adventurer, and possibly even go on to become a national hero. The Chinese can be very ... flexible, some of the times.

that sounds like a very exiting lifestyle/plot for a game/movie/tv show.

It outlines the background of a real historical Chinese person. Shouldn't be too hard to guess who.

Zheng Chenggong (Or was it his father?) of course.

What ethnic groups merceneries were used by different chinese dynasties and how did they affect the military of the chinese armies?

Tang used nomads and mountain peoples as auxiliaries, and from late 7thC often employed foreigners as generals (like those two losers Gao Xianzhi and An Lushan)
in its weaknes, the later Tang relied on Shatuo Turks, Uighurs and maybe even Arabs (see another thread on this forum)

During Song/Ming times, defeated southern tribes were recruited en bloc as regular army units and posted away from their homelands

don't think Qing used mercenaries, though they had ethnic banners (Mongol, Chinese) and Chinese Green Flag troops

They actually employed one American mercenary, Frederick Townsend Ward, to form and lead a Chinese army during the Taiping Rebellion.

I am merging this thread with an earlier one on mercenaries.

sorry, forgot about the Taiping rebellion. Interesting footnote - after Ward's death the changshengjun ('Ever Victorious Army') was commanded by Charles Gordon, one of the romantic heroes of Victorian England. Hence the sobriquest 'Chinese Gordon', alongside 'Gordon of Khartoum', which he got for being killed in the Sudan.

how about during warring states, three kingdoms, age of fragmentation?
From the little I know about Europe, the age of mercenaries came around only when everyone was at war with everyone else. I would imagine in those periods of turmoil in Chinese history that mercenaries would be most common

Could you call the warlords of China when the Nationalists n' Communists fought mercenaries of sorts?

bump from many many years past, since this was linked to a thread asking questions, and I thought of a new one.

Mercenaries, the hiring of them could be seen as a sign of weakness, or just not being classy. Now I've read that Chinese often called trade receiving tributes and obtaining gifts as a way to look superior (a very vain empire, heheh)

is this leap in thought sound? Instead of recording it as "we hired these shady group of armed fellows because our military is kinda lacking", it goes down as "valiant volunteers loyal to the Emperor come to defend the empire at this dire time, of course such display of loyalty will be rewarded by the righteous and just empire" ?

Reading Romance of the Three Kingdoms makes me wonder...

Yup, official histories almost never referred to the sellswords as mercenaries, since history was written by the victors.
Rather, they'd record it down as "volunteers rallying to the cause of ..." or "turned to banditry" or "rebelled".

The notion of orthodoxy and legitimacy was deeply entrenched in official histories.

There is nothing wrong with being a mercenary. It is the way of life for strategic consultants/implementers and tactical expeditors.

Nothing wrong per se, just that official histories cast them in a more positive light than "nothing wrong" when they happened to be on the side of the victors.

Why didn't any one mention Mozi 墨子 and his disciples as well as the Mercenary company he had created during the Warring States period? They were the Mercenaries in almost every sense of the words except that they also fought for their own political ideals and philosophies!!!

Please see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozi

Actually, that made them *NOT* mercenaries, more like the Jedi Knights from Star Wars instead.

True. However, they do function like a mercenary group, though. Just that everyone (the political leaders who would hire them) knew their agendas -- that is, to defend the weak from the strong!!! Therefore, whoever wanted to hire them had better come up with very good reasons besides money why Mozi's group should come and help!!!

I really like Mozi and his disciples!!! Do you know that one of my tongxiangs (persons from the same region as my family, Wenzhou) was the leading Mozi scholar in the late Qing and early Republic era!? My father mentioned about him when I was in that competition with my Cantonese roommate about whose hometown had the best and most famous Chinese when I was a freshman in UC Irvine!!! Well, the Mozi scholar lost to Dr. Sun Yat-sen!