The 7 most significant battles in Chinese history

The Battle of Muye took place in 1046 BC when King Wen of Zhou was working to free people from the Shang dynaty’s rule.

After his death of the last king, his son Wu carried on this mission. The final clash occurred on a field near today’s Xinxiang in Henan province.

King Wu brought about 45,000 to 50,000 soldiers. By comparison, the Shang army was much larger, with roughly 170,000 troops. 

However, many soldiers in the Shang army were slaves who were forced into service. As a result, they had limited loyalty and suffered from poor morale. 

When fighting began, the Zhou army used chariots to move around the larger Shang force. 

Historical texts record that at one point, a number of Shang soldiers switched sides because they opposed King Zhou’s cruel policies. 

The battle ended with a clear victory for the Zhou army. 

Following the crushing defeat, King Zhou reportedly set fire to his own palace before he died.

The Shang Dynasty came to an end, to be replaced by the Zhou Dynasty, which then ruled for almost 800 years. 

During their rule, the emperors introduced ideas that still define Chinese civilisation today. Notably, one key idea was the Mandate of Heaven. 

The Battle of Guandu was fought in AD 200 during the late Eastern Han dynasty during a series of power struggles that was tearing the empire apart. 

On one side stood Cao Cao, a warlord who had strong influence over Emperor Xian of Han, which gave him effective control of the central government. 

On the other side was Yuan Shao, a warlord who ruled large areas in northern China.

They had been allies against Dong Zhuo, but different goals set them against each other. 

Guandu was near present-day Zhengzhou in Henan province. On the day of battle, Cao Cao's forces were far smaller than Yuan Shao's army, but they had strong defences, shorter supply lines, and more experienced soldiers. 

Unfortunately, Yuan Shao's officers disagreed among themselves, which stopped them making full use of their larger army once the fighting began. 

At a key moment, after a former adviser switched sides, Cao Cao's forces attacked Yuan Shao's supply depot at Wuchao, which significantly damaged the enemy's supplies and spread panic among the soldiers. 

Yuan Shao's troops were then defeated but they still continued with the war, which leads us to the next battle on our list. 

This is one of the most famous battles in Chinese history because of its very much a David vs Goliath story. 

In the winter of AD 208, during the last years of the Han Dynasty, Cao Cao, the warlord, still controlled the Han emperor and much of northern China.

He turned his attention to the south with an army said to be as many as 800,000 men, although this number is likely an exaggeration. 

To stop him, the southern warlords Sun Quan and Liu Bei formed an unlikely alliance with a much smaller force. They met Cao Cao's fleet on the Yangtze River at the Red Cliffs. 

The allied forces knew local conditions and the fact that Cao Cao's navy lacked experience with the river's currents. 

They sent ships that pretended to surrender but that held flammable materials.

They then set these ships on fire and, using the wind and the river's current, sent them against Cao Cao's ships.

Their target vessels were tied together, which led to a fire that destroyed much of his fleet. 

After this disaster, Liu Bei and Sun Quan's forces attacked on land and pushed Cao Cao's troops back north. 

This defeat stopped Cao Cao from taking control of the south. 

Unfortunately, Cao Cao died a few years later and his heirs could not match his strength.

At this point, China split into three states: Wei, led by Cao Cao’s descendents, and Shu and Wu, led by Liu Bei and Sun Quan. 

This particular battle is still remembered in literature and popular culture, thanks to the success of Luo Guanzhong's novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms. 

The Battle of Talas was one of the rare times a Chinese army went far beyond China's borders to fight foreign forces in Central Asia. 

This battle happened at the peak of the Tang Dynasty, when Chinese power reached as far west as the rising Abbasid Caliphate.

The Abbasids, with help from Tibetan and Karluk Turkic allies, aimed to challenge Tang control of the area of the River Talas in what is now Kyrgyzstan. 

At that time, exact figures for both sides were not known, but many historians agree that the Tang army was smaller. 

During the fight, which lasted five days, some of the Tang army’s Karluk allies actually betrayed the Chinese and switched sides.

With the advantage now with the Abbasids, it ended with a clear defeat for the Tang forces. 

This ended Chinese westward growth, but it did not destroy the Tang Empire. 

Soon after, political and social troubles at home, such as the An Lushan Rebellion, led the Tang to withdraw from Central Asia, which gradually reduced control of the Western Regions. 

The battle also had important effects on the region’s culture. After the Tang army left, Buddhist influence in Central Asia declined and Islam began to spread.

The Arabs are also said to have captured Chinese paper-making methods that had been kept secret up until this point, which led to the spread of paper-making westward. 

Following the rise of the Mongol Empire under its famous conqueror Genghis Khan, his grandson, Kublai Khan, claimed the throne of China and founded the Yuan Dynasty. However, his takeover of China was not yet complete. 

A decisive battle then took place in a bay at Yamen in Guangdong province in southern China.

The native Song forces were reduced to using a mostly naval force since they had lost most of their land to the Mongols.

At this point, they were led by the young Emperor Bing. His trusted commander, Zhang Shijie, ordered that about 1,000 ships were to be chained together to form a defensive line so as to prevent retreat and to discourage desertion among his troops. 

Opposing them was the Mongol fleet, commanded by Zhang Hongfan, who had blocked the bay’s entrance and trapped his enemy. 

Then, in a last ditch effort, Zhang Shijie set his flagship on fire and steered it into the Yuan ships, hoping to break free of the blockade. 

Unfortunately, the wind suddenly changed and spread the fire back to the Song fleet, causing heavy losses. 

After their ships were destroyed, the Song’s final resistance collapsed. Zhang Shijie escaped, but died at sea a few days later.

A loyal Song official took the young Emperor Bing into waiting ship and then out to sea to try and save him.

Sadly, they both drowned, which officially ended the Song Dynasty. 

Following this battle, Kublai Khan’s takeover was complete: the first time a foreign dynasty ruled all of China. 

This clash was an important event in the Second Sino-Japanese War. It is a strong symbol in Chinese history because it was the first major victory for the Communists' Eighth Route Army, which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) led. 

Under the leadership of General Zhu De, and the young strategist Lin Biao, they clashed with Japanese Imperial forces in a narrow pass along the Great Wall.

The Japanese troops were overconfident in their technical and supply advantage, and as such, were unprepared for a serious fight. 

In contrast, the Chinese troops used their knowledge of the local land to launch a series of surprise hit-and-run attacks. 

They managed to cut off the Japanese supply route and forced them into battle. 

By the battle’s end, the Chinese troops had killed, wounded, or captured over a thousand Japanese soldiers and seized a large amount of weapons and supplies. 

The victory gave a confidence boost to Chinese troops and civilians and helped build the CCP forces' reputation, and helped motivate them to win the Chinese Civil War more than a decade later. 

The Battle of Chosin Reservoir took place in the freezing winter of 1950 as part of the Korean War. 

Though it was fought in Korea, is important in Chinese military history because it was the first time the People's Republic of China's (PRC) forces, known as the People's Volunteer Army (PVA), fought in a foreign war. 

When North Korea attacked South Korea in June 1950, UN troops, mainly American, pushed the North Korean army toward China. China's leaders then worried that a hostile force on their border would threaten their interests, so joined in the conflict 

The Chinese forces prepared for the battle at Chosin Reservoir in North Korea's hills. 

The UN troops, under General Douglas MacArthur, had moved deep into North Korea and were surprised when they stumbled upon the Chinese forces. 

Under the command of Marshal Peng Dehuai, the PVA launched the attack on the UN troops around the reservoir. 

With temperatures as low as minus 35 degrees Fahrenheit, UN troops struggled when they became surrounded and outnumbered. 

Still, they mounted a strong defence and managed to fight their way back to the port of Hungnam where they evacuated many troops. 

Chinese forces had heavy losses, with over 30,000 casualties from battle, the cold, and supply problems. 

China's entry in the war and their victory at Chosin stopped the quick unification of Korea under a Western-friendly government, but it also meant that the war would last much longer. 

For China, it was a famous victory that showed their will and strength to defend their interests, even against forces with much better technology.