One man's skill at arms and the coordination of a whole body of troops are two different things. Weapons and Formations is about the second: how weapons are combined, how the ranks are drawn up, and how a body of men moves as one.
After the late Shang moved its capital to Yinxu, the bronze dagger-axe became the main battle weapon, chariots and infantry began to fight in concert, and the way of fighting took systematic form.
In the middle of the Warring States period Sun Bin wrote on how formations are organised and changed, and formation tactics rose from experience to military theory.
In the Ming Qi Jiguang created the mandarin duck formation and wrote the New Treatise on Military Efficiency, and by then the formation that combined long weapons, short weapons and firearms within a small unit had reached maturity.
Weapons and Formations is the class in the chapter on Strategies on arms and battle order. It covers how hand weapons and ranks fought together from the Shang on: the bronze dagger-axe and the joint action of chariots and infantry at Yinxu, Sun Bin's writing on formations in the Warring States, and Qi Jiguang's mandarin duck formation in the Ming.
