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- A Short Study on the Development of Chinese Armour as seen on Tomb Figurines
Armour has been in use in China for a long time and has played an important role in warfare. One of the main sources for the study of ancient Chinese defensive armour is offered by clay figurines which were found in ancient tombs. This study will present some of the different types of armour found on the Chinese clay figurines.
With regards to military equipment, ancient China was quite deficient. The early armies were made up of foot-soldiers and war chariots, but they had no cavalry. The belligerent raids of the powerful nomad cavalry from the north and the west forced the Chinese to abandon the use of the chariot with its attractive set of aristocratic skills and codes of behaviour, and imitate the superior tactics of the enemy, namely a horse-borne soldiery. The Chinese also came to develop a highly organized and well-trained infantry, which made up the great bulk of the armies.
It is not clear as to the exact period when armour makes its first appearance in China. The earliest protective gear worn in China was wicker or rattan armour (teng jia) and leather armour (pi jia). Lacquer was added to the leather to make it stronger. Traces of leather armour have been found in Shang Dynasty (sixteenth to eleventh centuries B.c.) tombs at Anyang, Henan.
At first, leather armour was made of a single piece of leather, but later the material was cut into small pieces and joined by leather thongs. From the Shang dynasty through to the Warring States period (sixteenth to third centuries B.c.), leather armour was the chief form of body protection in warfare (fig. i). In conjunction with large shields and bronze helmets, it proved to be an effective defence against bronze weapons. Some helmets, particularly during the Shang, were decorated with animal- head motifs (fig. ii).
In addition to bronze helmets, bronze chest protectors in the form of a monster mask were sometimes worn during the Western Zhou period. A very good example of this type of bronze chest protector, which belonged to a charioteer, was found in Shandong (fig. iii).
Iron weapons and iron armour appeared in the late Warring States period. In 1965, iron helmets were uncovered belonging to the State of Yan (fig. vi). This type of helmet had eighty-nine small iron plates, which were connected to fit the contour of the head.
In 1974, the pottery army of Qin Shi Huang (d. 210 b.c.) was discovered in huge pits east of Xian. Originally, the thousands of life-size terracotta warriors carried real bronze weapons of crossbows, knives, swords, spears, etc. Some of the figures are dressed in elaborate suits of armour made of small linking plates, while others are in thick padded coats tied at the waist. From the detail of the armour on the terracotta figures, it is difficult to tell what kind of material was used for the armour. Some styles of the lower-ranking soldiers were made of small leather plates, while those of the officers may have been made of iron plates. Whether leather, bronze or iron, the armour was designed for flexible and comfortable movement. Each suit of armour has fasteners at the upper corners showing that the armour was put on by slipping it over the head. The plates were joined together by nails revealing that the basic characteristics of China�s iron armour were already in existence (fig. v).
The common use of iron armour was an important development of the Western Han dynasty (206 b.c.-a.d. 8). An army of small Western Han pottery warriors was recently unearthed at Yangjiawan near Xianyang, Shaanxi, revealing that they wore armour of small plates similar to the pottery warriors of the previously mentioned
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