What does it mean to count temples in ancient China?

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, China's ancient military theory developed greatly, and the strategic theory system was formed. Its important symbol is the publication of Sun Tzu's Art of War, which puts forward the earliest strategic concept in ancient China-"temple calculation". Any concept is the result of abstracting unique attributes from the development of things on the basis of practice, which belongs to the stage of rational understanding. As a summary and generalization of the practice of military decision-making in pre-Qin period, it mainly embodies the characteristics of military decision-making in this period. Since the Xia Dynasty, whenever the country encounters a war, it has become a fixed ceremony to sue to the ancestral temple and discuss it in the temple. The emperor divined good and bad luck in the temple, prayed for the blessing of the gods, and forced people to go to war with witchcraft under the guise of providence. This is the original form of "temple calculation". During the Spring and Autumn Period, the religious view of combining the belief of destiny with ancestor worship was impacted. Cao Cao said in the annotation of Sun Tzu's Art of War: "Choosing generals, measuring the enemy, measuring the land, preparing soldiers, being near and far, and taking risks easily are counted in the temple", and Zhang pre-noted Sun Tzu's Art of War also said: "The ancients promoted teachers." Temple calculation is a high generalization of the combination of form and content after people realize the essential attribute of this activity, so it can be said that when a soldier regards "temple calculation" as a strategic concept, it has no smell of incense, and it has become a theoretical sublimation.

After the Qin and Han dynasties, the old form of temple planning war was gradually broken, and it was no longer appropriate to use "temple calculation" to express strategic ideas. From the beginning of this period, the military books and theories written during this period are all looking for a more appropriate term, that is, using "military strategy" to express strategy. This is the case with the "Brief Training of Huai Nan Zi Bing" and "Three Outlooks" handed down from Qin and Han Dynasties. Therefore, it can be seen that the naming of the chapter "Tactics on Soldiers" in Huainanzi is intended to explain the content of the discussion on soldiers from the strategic height of "preventing chaos" and "using teachers". It can be said that it is a great change in strategic concept from "temple calculation" to "tactical strategy". This change first abandoned the form of "temple" and replaced it with "strategy"