I know that the Tang cavalry wore the Ming Guan Jia, what was the typical Tang infantry armour? Was it the Liang Dang Jia?

Also it was said that chain mail is the most complex armour of the Tang, was it harder to make than the Shang Wen jia and the Ming Guan Jia?

There are no 'typical' form of infantry armour during the Tang. The armour design depended greatly upon where you are.

If you were serving in the modern day of Xinjiang, you would most likely to have been wearing the bubingjia which was a lamella armour covering from head to shin.

if you were serving in more Han dominant areas, you would have been likely to wear the mingguangjia.

Other armour of the time included Guangyaojia (光要甲, Segmented(?) armour), Xilinjia (細麟甲, Small Scale), Shanwenjia (山文甲, Mountain Pattern), Wuchuijia (烏錘甲, Round(?) lamellar) Baibujia (白布甲, Cloth armour) Zaojuanjia (皂絹甲, Silk armour), Bubeijia (布背甲, Back cloth armour) Pijia (皮甲, Leather armour) Mujia (木甲, Wooden armour) and the Suozijia (鎖子甲, Chain mail armour). By the tang dynasty, the liangdangjia was all but phased out. So no, the liangdangjia was highly unlikely to have been seen on tang soldiers often.

According to tang sources, it stated that "甲之精細者，謂之鎖子甲" (The most delicate of armour, was known as suozijia). unfortunately, this the only reference on the matter and as we know that historical sources often conflict each other, the idea that the chainmail being the most complex should be taken as influential but not definitive. I would think that the best would be that someone would dig up a Tang armour production notes detailing the time it took to make/repair a suit of chainmail compared to other forms of armour.

More over, the Tang did not use full body chainmail. these were likely to have been supplimentary protection for moving areas such as the arms and hips.

Wujiang, is the bubingjia similar to the buren jia of the Song? Do you have any pictures of it?

As far as I can see, the bubingjia is the term used to describe armour designs this kind of armour


The Burenjia on the other hand, is describing this


The two are very similar in terms of overall looks but not identical. There are a few minor differences here and there including some of the Song variations using the a leather plate for the shinjia, the tuiqun of the Tang version isn't split down the middle, neither does it have a baodu that all Song armour has, etc. However, I think the difference could be more explained in terms of difference in the age rather than the general idea of things. I believe that the Burenjia was nothing more than an advancement of the Bubingjia.

Overall they share more things in common than other suits.
(1) Lamella based
(2) Separation of Shinjia and Pibo
(3) Shin length Tuiqun
(4) Use of forarm guards.
(5) Even the helmet have similarities, although the Tang version doesn't have Fengqiao, it does have a neck guard that an extention the nap guard which is what many Song examples share (although in this case they seem to be just using animal skin while all Song

A few things we should take into acount here.

(1) Denotationally the two names means exactly the same thing.
(2) We dont exactly have a truckload of images/examples of the bubingjia or if we find more examples, there is a good chance greater variations would exist within the bubingjia during the Tang.

So to answer your original answer,

Yes. but only on a very general level. That would be the trend I will stick to until other evidence surface to contradict it.

check this site for armours ^^ http://www.vbgamedev.com/OTHER/zgjbkj.htm

Yes, I think this guy's art has been discussed before.

Nice stuff, but I do think I've read some posts questioning whether he is 100% accurate or even an expert on the subject at all.