For this problem, the traditional view is that "there were no saddles and stirrups in the Western Han Dynasty, which somewhat affected the combat effectiveness of cavalry", because there was no evidence of objects, sculptures, paintings and so on in archaeology for a long time. It should be emphasized that the "saddle" here and in this article does not refer to all objects used to separate the human body and the horse back in a broad sense. So is the fact really as stated above? Here is a superficial discussion.
Saddles and stirrups are the most important inventions after the whole harness relay horse chewing and reins. In the era without stirrups, people need to ride on naked horseback. Only by grasping the reins or mane and holding the horse's stomach with their legs can they not fall off when the horse flies. However, this method is very unreliable. First of all, it is easy to get tired after riding for a long time, and it is difficult to use bows and arrows effectively in running horses. In melee, the rider can't use a knife and gun at will, and the chopping or assassination fails. The collision of weapons from both sides will make the rider slide off the horse at any time. Therefore, in this period, in addition to the dominant speed, the combat effectiveness of cavalry is far less than that of down-to-earth infantry. Therefore, when cavalry arrive at their destination, they often dismount and enter the battlefield as infantry, as is the case with Macedonian cavalry in Alexandria. Because saddle and stirrup are the premise of cavalry as the main fighting mode, we can find some clues from the use of cavalry in ancient China. It can be considered that saddles and stirrups were not produced in China until the Qin Dynasty. This judgment was made not only because the terracotta warriors and horses in the first imperial tomb had detailed harnesses, but also because there were no Gao Qiao saddles and stirrups. Moreover, in the layout of terracotta warriors and horses, the number of cavalry is relatively small, and it is arranged in the side corner far from the main array. This shows that before the Qin dynasty, the role of cavalry was only reconnaissance, flank, harassment and interception, and sneak attack and pursuit, but it could not become the main fighting force, let alone undertake the whole battle independently.
What can provide evidence for this is Sun Bin's account of cavalry operations: "Riding a horse has ten advantages: meeting the enemy for the first time; Second, use weaknesses to turn your back on the enemy; Third, chasing and attacking chaos; Fourth, after encountering the enemy; Fifth, cover up its grain and cut off its military route; Sixth, strike its Guanjin and build its bridge; Seventh, strike it when it is unprepared and depressed; Eight said to attack its slack and surprise it; Nine, burn its savings and empty its city; Ten days of plunder is a burden to its children. These ten are also the benefits of riding. " It can be seen that cavalry is only an auxiliary task in this period, and it is unlikely to have saddle stirrups.
So what about the fighting situation of cavalry in Han Dynasty in Historical Records?
During the reign of Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty, the scale of participation and the proportion of troops of the cavalry of Han army in a single battle increased obviously, and they no longer only played an auxiliary role. Since the reign of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the status of cavalry has been further improved: "The Han Dynasty sent a general in title of generals in ancient times to ride thousands of miles out of Longxi and over Yanqi Mountain to attack the Xiongnu, so that Hu Shoulu got more than 18,000 ranks, which was so broken that he could sacrifice to heaven and slaughter the king. In the summer, tens of thousands of generals in title of generals in ancient times marched more than 2,000 miles from west Gansu and north Gansu, attacked Xiongnu, crossed Tuyan, and attacked Qilian Mountain. Hu Shou captured more than 30,000 people and benefited more than 70 people under Xiao Wang. " You can see two trends. First of all, the share of cavalry in the total force is increasing. With the gradual withdrawal of chariots from the battlefield, the proportion of two arms on horseback ranges from 100 thousand to several hundred thousand, to 70 thousand to 140 thousand. Cavalry has obviously replaced infantry as the main battle force, while infantry has fallen to the position of "joining the army", that is, following the auxiliary. Therefore, it is not uncommon for cavalry to participate in combat independently. Second, a battle often takes hundreds or even thousands of miles, and the fatigue problem caused by long-term cycling is becoming more and more prominent. If the rider can't fight with abundant physical strength, it is impossible to win large-scale decisive battles such as Hexi and Mobei. Without stirrups, such a battle is almost unimaginable.
During the Western Han Dynasty, bows and arrows were the most important combat weapons of Xiongnu and Han cavalry, and their use was strictly restricted by harness. When there is no saddle, it is extremely difficult to shoot an arrow on a galloping horse, because the rider has to hold the horse's stomach with his legs to keep his balance, and at the same time, he has to pull his bow with his arms to make the shot arrow hit the target as much as possible. Even for nomadic people who have lived on horseback since childhood, this combat mode is very inefficient and difficult to implement. At this time, the best way is to stop the horse from archery or simply dismount and launch; When the Gao Qiao saddle is put into use, it gives the rider a longitudinal stabilizing effect, so that he can shoot an arrow forward when flying. However, due to the lack of effective lateral support, he is still prone to fall when shooting arrows in the left and right directions or even turning back, which is very dangerous. This can be seen from the evaluation quoted by western scholars. However, there is such a record in historical materials: "The Huns chased hundreds of them, widely took Hu Gong, and shot them to eliminate them." This situation of turning around and patting the back shows that saddles and stirrups should have been used by this time. Besides, in the historical materials of the Han Dynasty, except for a few people who deliberately expressed their contempt for the Han army, there was never a record of Xiongnu dismounting and fighting. Without stirrups, it would be a very strange phenomenon.
Although there are so many documentary evidences to prove the existence of saddle stirrups in Han Dynasty, it is an indisputable fact that there is no archaeological evidence. The earliest cultural relics found in China that show Gao Qiao's saddle are works in the late Eastern Han Dynasty, such as horse-riding figurines and painted wood carvings of saddle horses unearthed from Leitai Han Tomb; The earliest sculpture with stirrups was a horse-riding musical figurine in Yongning Tomb of the Western Jin Dynasty in Changsha. Because there is only a triangular stirrup under the saddle on the left side of the horse, which is only half as high as the calf, but not on the right side, and the rider's foot does not step on it, it is considered to be the prototype of the stirrup, that is, the equipment used to mount the horse. As for the earliest kind of double stirrup, it was the gold-plated copper-clad wooden stirrup of Feng Sufu's tomb in Beiyan, Liaoning Province during the Sixteen Kingdoms period. But up to now, there are no objects or works of art to prove the existence of Gao Qiao's stirrup in the Western Han Dynasty and the early Eastern Han Dynasty.
Not finding it doesn't mean not finding it. Since we can infer their existence from history books, we should think about "why these things didn't appear".
It is certain that saddle stirrups originated in East Asia, but did their inventions come from the Central Plains and the Han Dynasty? From the point of view that demand leads to invention, it is hard to imagine that an agricultural people who live on crops will have more urgent demand for it than a nomadic people who ride horses all the year round. Therefore, it can be inferred that the honor of the earliest invention of stirrup should belong to the northern nationalities such as Xiongnu. In this way, to find out why the physical evidence does not exist, we should turn to the Huns.
As mentioned earlier, the Huns who invaded Europe in the 4th century AD used wooden saddles, and the original stirrups they used were only bandages, belts or leg straps made of flax. Because both the native land and the areas passing through on the way west are mostly savanna and desert, lacking trees, which will definitely limit the number of saddles made in Gao Qiao, only for nobles and combat soldiers; At the same time, it is impossible to improve the manufacture of wooden stirrups when there is a shortage of wood to make saddles and bows. As for the metal mainly used to make weapons, it is even more scarce, and it is even more impossible to use it to make stirrups. Therefore, there should not be much difference between the stirrup of Ruanyuan in the 4th century and that of Xiongnu in the Han Dynasty. On the other hand, the double stirrup in Feng Sufu's tomb is already a very shaped thing, and naturally it will not be the ancestor of later generations. Then before that, it must have gone through the original state for quite a long time. Because the "bandage"-shaped soft stirrup of Xiongnu recorded in the west has the function of fixing feet together with the stirrup of later generations, it is more likely to be the true ancestor of the single stirrup compared with the horse-riding figurines in the Western Jin Dynasty tomb in Changsha, and the stirrup used for mounting is only an example to improve the appearance of the real stirrup, because
At this point, we can see at a glance that the original pure wooden saddle and stirrup made of leather and hemp fiber (or just a "strap"), and even the stirrup made of wood without metal skin, are extremely perishable and difficult to preserve. Even if it can be preserved, it is more difficult to accurately judge the purpose of those items whose appearance is only a linen and belt. This is why saddles, especially stirrups, have never been found in the Han Dynasty.
It is an objective reality that saddle stirrups are difficult to preserve, but why are there no saddle stirrups in sculptures, paintings and other works of art in the Han Dynasty? This problem is puzzling, but at least one explanation can explain its reason, and that is aesthetic reason. In the historical tradition, it often takes a long time for a new object to be accepted by people, especially artists, after it is put into use. Many works made before this will still retain its previous appearance, which is the "inertia" in artistic creation. If we look closely, there are many works of riders and horses with or without stirrups in China after the Jin Dynasty.
In addition, it is worth noting that not only China, but also western works of art after the Middle Ages tend to ignore saddles and stirrups. Attila, king of Xiongnu, had neither saddle nor stirrup.
Through the observation of the above-mentioned documents and archaeological relics, we can see that although there are no physical objects and works of art to prove their existence, Gao Qiao saddle and stirrup, two inventions that are crucial to cavalry, should still have been put into use in the Han Dynasty. It was they who made Xiongnu the overlord of grassland, who promoted the political and military expansion of the Han Empire and laid the foundation for the political and cultural influence of the first stable empire in China's history to spread to North Asia and Central Asia. I believe that with the further development of archaeology in the Han Dynasty, the saddle and stirrup of the Han Dynasty will eventually unveil the hazy veil ~