page_title: Military history of the Sui–Tang dynasties
section_title: Organization
hierarchical_section_title: Military history of the Sui–Tang dynasties / Organization
caption_attribution_description: English: The 48 Fanzhen (Military Districts under Buffer Towns) of late Tang dynasty, as of the 15th year of Emperor Xianzong's reign (820 AD).
context_page_description: The military history of the Sui and Tang dynasties encompasses the period of Chinese military activity from 581 to 907. Although the Sui dynasty preceded the Tang, it was extremely short lived, ending in 618. The two dynasties share many similar trends and behaviors in terms of military tactics, strategy, and technology. It can therefore be viewed that the Tang continued the Sui tradition, or that the Sui set the precedent for the Tang dynasty.
context_section_description: The Sui dynasty inherited the Twenty-four
  Armies from the Northern Zhou. The system of recruitment that created these armies would come to be known as fubing, or "territorial soldiery". Fubing soldiers were originally recruits drawn from the old military households of previous dynasties. Unlike the mass conscription of the Han dynasty, these soldiers were promised tangible rewards such as exemption from taxes and labor for their families. Later on, these soldiers were formed into units presiding over a plot of land on which they would farm while off duty to support themselves. At its height under the Tang dynasty, some 600 units of fubing were maintained, each with 800 to 1,200 soldiers. During the Sui dynasty, the fubing answered only to local administration, but the Tang implemented a centralized Ministry of the Army to which fubing units were answerable to. Each unit was further subdivided into battalions of 200, platoons of 50, and squads of 10. They rotated in and out of the capital for guard duty and training depending on their distance to it. Those nearest to it served one month in five, those furthest from it, two months out of every eighteen. Some men were assigned to three year tours in frontier garrisons. Deployment of the fubing units was monopolized by the court through the use of bronze tallies with the names of each unit on them. Half of the tally was kept at the Credentials Office while the other half was kept at unit headquarters. Only when the two halves were joined together could a unit be mobilized.
  Due to the fact that they combined military service with farming, the fubing have sometimes been characterized as a “militia” by Western authors. With its connotations of low quality and ineffectiveness (especially on account of the implied contrast with a “professional” soldiery), this term is rather misleading when used in connection with the fubing. Given their life-long military service and the training they received over that period, it would be more accurate to view them as a special type of professional soldier.
  — David Graff
  While the fubing was well suited to local conflicts and short term campaigns, its shortcomings became apparent in the late 7th century as protracted wars and the needs of permanent static defense took their toll. The initial benefits of entering the system wore off as more men died in wars in far off lands, never to return. The military structure was not suited to properly reward soldiers who performed meritorious service in battle. Many who were supposed to be rewarded and compensated were not. Families of dead soldiers were also not compensated properly, resulting in reduced morale, and widespread desertion as well as dereliction of duty. The geographical distribution of fubing units was highly unevenly distributed, with the northwestern part of the empire shouldering most of the burden, while two thirds of the empire contained not even one unit of fubing. With so many units concentrated in one region, the government found it difficult to find enough farm land for their soldiers, who also competed with regular farmers under the equal-field system.
  The fubing system was gradually replaced with a standing army. First, frontier garrisons were taken over by permanent troops known as jian'er in 677. In 710, frontier forces were bolstered to withstand invasions without the help of levied troops. Nine frontier commands were established, each with their own defense army and military governor, the jiedushi. In 737, the court decided to replace irregular troops entirely with permanent soldiers, recruited from volunteers in the general population. The fubing system was abolished in 749. The shift to a permanent army resulted in a sevenfold increase in the defense budget, from two million strings of copper cash in 712 to twelve million in 742, and then fifteen million by 755.
  The king of India has many troops, but they are not paid as regular soldiers; instead, he summons them to fight for king and country, and they go to war at their own expense and at no cost at all to the king. In con
caption: The 48 buffer towns in 820
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