Ever heard of King Goujian of Yue? A *very* interesting chap indeed.
He lived in the 5th century BC, during that tumultuous time when “Springs and Autumns” were giving in to the “Warring States”, when the old aristocracy of the Zhou vassal states was fading into obscurity and the once highly ritualized elite warfare had already begun its descent into the Warring States mayhem for real. Goujian was the king in one of the prominent states of that period, Yue. Yue is something of an enigma and it's been noted many times that there seems to have been a distinct vibe of Otherness about it. To quote from Erica Brindley's paper on the topic: „Warring States and Han-dynasty authors viewed the Yue as an identity apart from themselves.“ (See links for more info on that.) There's a distinct possibility Yue culture & rituals might not have been *quite* of the Huaxia variety, or at least not according to the opinion of the Huaxia from the central states. Yue was tangled in a long conflict with the neighbouring state of Wu (possibly of the same not-quite-as-Huaxia-as-central-Huaxia-would-have-it cultural sphere – or, in short, them weird Southerners, kinda like the Chu bunch). And both Wu and Yue at one point or another fought with Chu. In general, there was a lot of fighting going on and it was pretty ugly, the Zhou world was already sliding headlong and with accelerating speed into the Warring States mess, so shit was getting real...
Anyway, back to Goujian (Yue beat Wu and was afterwards destroyed by Chu, by the way; even later Chu got its ass kicked by Qin; and the disenfranchised Chu elites later significantly contributed to the downfall of Qin dynasty; and that's just a fraction of all the incredibly brutal and absolutely fascinating stuff that was going on).
But I said back to Goujian, didn't I... A smart guy, he was. A ruthless bastard, too. (Had an absolutely badass sword. The biggest, shiniest, prettiest Schwarz EVER. And not only it's an awesome looking weapon, that effin' thing is still sharp.) Picked his advisors real well. Was captured and had to serve his enemy, king Fuchai of Wu, for three years. Upon returning home (Fuchai was foolish & complacent enough to let him go – Fuchai repeatedly displayed serious lapses in judgment - just look up Wu Zixu) launched a bunch of reforms to help Yue recover from previous defeats. Lived very frugally, ate peasant food - and tasted bile to remind himself of the years spent in Wu and how much it had sucked. He's known and revered for his perseverance in face of adversity. Waited for ten years to get back at Fuchai and once he did, he did so with style and gusto. When the Wu capital fell and Fuchai wanted to surrender, Goujian refused to accept, thus basically forcing his enemy to commit suicide; Goujian took no prisoners and killed pretty much everybody in the capital who in any way mattered, including folks who'd helped him; I imagine Goujian got to do a lot of self-satisfied smirking in 473 BC. :-)
But who am I kidding, as awesome as Goujian was, what I really wanted to write about were the Yue SUICIDE SQUADS.
This might be exaggeration on part of the historians but hey...
Friggin' SUICIDE SQUADS! Monty Python style!!!!!
Anyway, let Sima Qian describe it for you: 越王句践使死士挑战，三行，至吴陈，呼而自刭。 Translation... "Goujian, the King of Yue, assigned warriors who were willing to die for him to launch a surprise attack on their enemy. Those soldiers lined up into three rows. And as they charged at the Wu soldiers, these men roared and cut their throats." (Apparently, some of these suicide cutthroats might have been criminals sentenced to death.)
Now... This is what I call a surprise attack. What was the Old Chinese for „what the FUCK“, I wonder... Just imagine. There you are, standing on the front line, nervous and eager in anticipation of the upcoming battle – and then a bunch of screaming and yelling lunatics charge against you, spray you with arterial blood and flash you with a rather obscene display of their larynxes... I imagine that might have thrown even a hardened warrior out of equilibrium.
Links: http://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/15382/did-ancient-chinese-frontline-troops-decapitate-themselves-to-scare-their-foeshttp://www2.ihp.sinica.edu.tw/file/1470eFJFTXT.pdf (BTW, the picture and the GIFs are taken from a historical series called 春秋淹城 Chun Qiu Yancheng aka Springs and Autumns of Yancheng.)
