Taxonomy of meanings for 兵:　　

Additional information about 兵

說文解字:

Criteria
• WEAPON
  

  1. The general term for weapons and the military political realm which dominates this semantic field is wǔ 武 (ant. wén 文 "civil affairs") which refers to any military force or weaponry of any kind, defensive or offensive, and the word is very often abstract in meaning, referring to the abstract matters of military policy.

  2. Bīng 兵 refers to warfare as a military practice rather than as a political means to achieve ends, and it is significant that the word has no obvious antonym.

  3. Gān gē 干戈 is a current expression for weapons of war in general.

• CHARIOT
  

  1. The current word for a military chariot is shèng 乘 usually drawn by four horses.

  2. Róng 戎 is a old general word for chariots which was already rare by Warring States times.

  3. Cháo chē 轈車 refers to a high observation chariot.

  4. Qīng chē 輕車 refers to a highly mobile light and quick chariot.

  5. Zī zhòng 輜重 refers to military vehicles used to transport weapons and supplies.

  6. Fén yūn/wēn 轒榡 refers to a four-wheel covered roofed chariot with the baldachin made of ox hide.

  For illustrations of these see　中國古代兵器圖冊 (Huang Jingui)

• ARMY
  

  [ARCHAIC/CURRENT]

  [GENERAL/SPECIFIC]

  [IMPERSONAL/PERSONIFIED]

  [MOBILE/STATIONARY]

  [LARGE/SMALL]

  1. Bīng 兵 "armed force" focusses on the weapons ready for use and may refer to any military grouping.

  [GENERAL]

  2. Jūn 軍 is a complete army as a unit, from Spring and Autumn times onwards, normally attached to an army camp. Complete parts of an army are always jūn 軍, rarely shī 師. Hence the expressions sān jūn 三軍, zhōng jūn 中軍, shàng jūn 上軍, xià jūn 下軍. An army is counted by the number of jūn 軍 in it, where each jūn 軍 is said to be 10 000 men, at least in the Qi system. Systems have varied in different states. For detals of the early history see the monograph by KOLB.

  [IMPERSONAL], [LARGE], [OFFICIAL]

  3. Shī 師 refers generally to troops a military force on a campaign, not necessarily a complete army. ZUO Ding 4.1.6 commentators quantify an armed force as consisting of 2500 men, in one exceptional context. One often speaks of 三軍之師, never of 三師之軍. One asks for troops 請／乞師, and not for jūn 軍 which would be asking for the whole army of a friendly state. The troops of another state one uses are always shī 師 (e.g. 衛人以燕師伐鄭 ), one's own troops can be described as jūn 軍 or shī 師 almost indifferently. One offers food to the enemy shī 師, not to their jūn 軍. (HF 23.27:01) There are ruì shī 銳師 "crack troops" but no ruì jūn 銳軍 "crack army". Similarly, 楚師之良. The shī 師 may be said to hear about something 師聞之, not the jūn 軍.

  [GENERAL], [MOBILE], [PERSONIFIED!]

  4. Lu# 旅 is an archaic word for armed forces in any combatant or non-combatant function, and in ZUO Ding 4.1.6 it is quantified to consist of 500 men, and.

  [ARCHAIC], [SMALL]

  5. Duì 隊 is common in Han texts for a division in the army, the size of this division could vary, but did not exceed the hundreds. SEE ALSO BATALLION

  [SMALL]

• WARFARE
  

  1. The current general word for warfare is bīng 兵.

  2. Róng 戎 refers to military service or military action.

  3. Gān gē 干戈 (ant. yù bó 玉帛 "jade and silk") is a periphrastic way of referring to military affairs.

  4. Wǔ 武 "military affairs" (ant. wén 文 "civil affairs") refers not so much to battles and military action, but to the administration of military affairs in general.

• SOLDIER
  

  1. There is no current general word for a soldier of any rank, and the collective term for soldiers is jūn 軍 "army". See ARMY

  2. Zú 卒 and the archaic tú 徒 refer to an ordinary infantry soldier, and these footsoldiers never ride chariots.

  3. Jiǎ 甲 refers to armoured soldiers riding in carriages.

  4. Jì 騎 refers to cavalry (Han dynasty).

  5. Nǔ 弩 refers to crossbowmen.

  6. Yì 役 refers to a conscript soldier.

  7. Xiǎo rén 小人 (jūn zǐ 君子 "soldier of a higher grade") refers generically to the lower grades in the army.

  8. Shì 士 refers to officers riding chariots in battle.

  NB: Bīng 兵 "soldier" may turn out to be post-Han. I have not yet found a clear example where the word refers to a soldier.

Word relations
• Object: (ARMY)休/REST Xiū 休 (ant. láo 勞 "work hard") refers to brief break in a working process. 1 Attribution
• Object: (ARMY)發/MOBILISE Fā 發 refers to a political act of deploying a military force that is all ready to be deployed. 3 Attributions
• Object: (ARMY)舉/MOBILISE Jǔ 舉 always refers to an administrative official act of raising an army of some size and/or deploying this force. 3 Attributions
• Object: (ARMY)起/MOBILISE The current general term for raising an army was qǐ 起. The army may be of any size, and the person raising the army may or may not be raising the army in an official capacity. 1 Attribution
• Epithet: (WEAPON)力/POWER1 Attribution
• Epithet: (WEAPON)頓/BLUNT
• Epithet: (WEAPON)奇/STRANGE Qí 奇 (ant. fán 凡 "perfectly ordinary") refers to the positive quality of being remarkable and unusual. 1 Attribution
• Epithet: (WEAPON)利/SHARP The most general current word for sharpness both of a point and of a blade is lì 利. 1 Attribution
• Epithet: (SOLDIER)銳/EXCELLENT Jīng 精 (of general application) (ant. cū 粗 "of only rough quality") and ruì 銳(typically applied to military prowess) (ant. dùn 鈍 "of lesser quality") refer to above-average performance without suggestion individual excellence. 1 Attribution
• Assoc: (WEAPON)刃/SWORD Rèn 刃 refers to the blade and generally to the weapons with a blade including sword. 1 Attribution
• Assoc: (ARMY)甲/ARMOUR The dominant general term is jiǎ 甲 and this armour is typically made of rhinoceros leather. [GENERAL] 12 Attributions
• Assoc: (WEAPON)革/ARMOUR7 Attributions
• Assoc: (WEAPON)甲/ARMOUR The dominant general term is jiǎ 甲 and this armour is typically made of rhinoceros leather. [GENERAL] 1 Attribution