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Battle
Jing Garrison campaign, circa 827-800 BC

Western Zhou China (Duo You) vs Xianyun (unknown)

Background
The battle takes place in the later period of the Western Zhou dynasty (which fell in 771 BC). The Xianyun are the tribal people of the Ordos region, the great loop of the Yellow River in Shaanxi. Several names – Xianyun, Guifang, Western Rong, "Dog" Rong – are used in Zhou sources for the "barbarians" of this region, and it is not clear if they all represent different groups or are the same people under different names. Jing is a garrison somewhere on the Zhou's Ordos frontier.

Numbers
Uncertain. Probably several hundred chariots on each side.

Source
The Duo You ding, an inscribed bronze tripod vessel dating "to the early years of the reign of King Xuan  (r. 827 – 782 B.C.)". Translation in Edward Shaughnessy, "Historical Perspectives on the Introduction of the Chariot in China" (Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 48.1, June 1988).

Translation
It was the tenth month. Because the Xianyun arose and broadly attacked the Jing Garrison it was reported back to the King, who commanded Duke Wu: "Dispatch your premier troops and pursue at Jing Garrison." Duke Wu commanded Duo You to lead the duke's chariotry in pursuit at Jing Garrison.

On guiwei (day 20), the belligerents attacked Xun, taking captives. Duo You westwardly pursued. On the morning of jiashen (day 21), striking at Mai, Duo You cut off heads and manacled prisoners to be interrogated; in all, using the duke's chariotry to cut off the heads of two hundred and ... five men, manacling twenty-three prisoners to be interrogated, capturing 117 chariots, and taking back the captives (from among) the people of Xun.

And then striking at Gong, (he) cut off the heads of thirty-six men, manacled two prisoners to be interrogated and captured ten chariots. Following in pursuit and striking at Shi, Duo You again cut off heads and manacled prisoners to be interrogated. Then (he) raced in chase as far as Yangzhong, (where) the duke's chariotry cut off the heads of 115 men and manacled three prisoners to be interrogated. The chariots could not be taken and were burned, with only the horses driving the recovered prisoners from the Jing Garrison.

Commentary
Duo You captured 127 enemy chariots and burned an unspecified number. Since there is no indication that he wiped the Xianyun force out completely, this is likely to have been only a part of their force. Shaughnessy suggests that the approximate 3:1 ratio between Xianyun casualties and chariots may indicate that they, like the Chinese, used three-man chariot crews. But this of course assumes an attacking force entirely of chariots, which may have been the case for the sake of mobility, but cannot be certain. The same applies to the Zhou forces; normally chariots were used alongside infantry, 100 chariots with 1,000 infantry being mentioned in one inscription. However it is not impossible that an all-chariot force might have been used in a fast-moving operation against frontier raiders, such as this; certainly the inscription only mentions chariots.

While archaeological evidence makes it certain that the chariot was introduced into northern China during the previous Shang dynasty, they are very rarely mentioned in Shang inscriptions in military contexts, so Shaughnessy doubts that the Shang used "significant numbers of chariots in battle". In contrast, the Shang did record capturing a few chariots from north-western neighbours. The Duo You inscription, however, shows that the age of large-scale chariot battles had begun by the late 9th century.

Fascinating, and an area I know nothing about. Does the nature of the report indicate the bureaucratic nature of Chinese states at the time?  It seems a very similar battle report to those of Mesopotamian and Egyptian monarchs.  Is there a genre of early battle reports? that might indicate something about development of a literary form or connections across the world. Or is it that the Greeks are the first to give us battle reports that discuss tactics and heroism?

Roy

I wouldn't really say "bureaucratic", no: Western Zhou is hardly bureaucratic at all compared to later China or the contemporary NE, though there is the basic level of clerking involved in counting and recording enemy casualties and so on.  Inscriptions like this one are made on ritual bronzes not by the central power but on behalf of an individual warrior-aristocrat, to record his achievements and the rewards and honours he received from his lord or from the king. (I think this inscription continues to list Duo You's reward, but that bit's not translated in the article I used.) The vessels often end up in the tomb of the commander himself or of a descendant.

Incidentally you can see the ding at http://e.sxhm.com/en_product_content.asp?id=34 and http://bronzeschinois.wordpress.com/nourriture-%E9%A3%9F%E5%99%A8/ding-%E9%BC%8E/duo-you-ding-%E5%A4%9A%E5%8F%8B%E9%BC%8E/.