Greetings to you all.
I am in the progress of writing something about Ancient China and the weapons and armors there
and frankly it's giving me grey hair.
The thing is that I can find hundreds of homepages about japanese armors and european armors, but somewhere something must have gone wrong, coz it's close to impossible to find usefull sites about Chinese armors (with the exception of this site )

This also mean that I have some serious doubts the fact in what i have written and would like some of you guys to read it and tell me what you think of it. If you have the time and energy
Here is what I have compiled so far:

Background.
The main difference on Oriental and western armor is that plate armor was largely unused in the orient; instead they used Lamellar, Scale and Brigandine armor.
Perhaps the most important reason for this is the power of missile weapon in the east. The Chinese invented the crossbow in the 4th century BC and with that came the ability to punch through a heavily armored opponent before they enter melee range.
The Chinese also had the Recurve Bow and mounted archers, which combined into a highly maneuverable force with the ability to take out opponents by missile fire without even entering close combat.
The Recurve Bow is not as large as the English one, but it is vastly more powerful. The draw weight of an English longbow averages around 70-80 pounds, whereas the Recurve Bow had a pull that averaged at around 160 pounds.
This affected the shooting range considerably. The English longbow could shoot at distances up to 250 yards or around 228 meters, but the Mongol counterpart can hit its target at 350 yards or 320 meters.

With these formidable missile weapons in use, military tactics centered on mobility and firepower exactly as it did in Europe after the invention of reliable firearms. This means that heavy armor was rarely used since it tend to slow people down and that advanced plate armor simply wasn’t invented. One might speculate why the Chinese didn’t develop plate armor later, since they could have gotten the idea from trading with the west, but the Chinese used guns in warfare as early as 1355 and the Indians might have used it even earlier (according to some sources), so by the time plate armor was perfected in Europe around 1500, they were already obsolete in the east.

Materials we have today on Ancient Chinese armor indicate that armor of the same type is similar in style, measurement, construction and number of chips. This is most likely the result of measurement unification promoted by Emperor Qin Shihuang and continued by almost every dynasty for the next 2000 years, and shows that the production of armor was centralized instead of privately done.
This is especially important, because the armies of ancient china were huge and thus required lots of resources to equip and maintain. The Sui and Tang Dynasties had a professional army of some 600,000 men and in the later Song Dynasty this had risen to 1.25 million men. All of which had to be equipped and maintained and both scale and lamellar armors are cheaper to produce and maintain than plate armors.

Armors in different dynasties

The Warring States Ca 403-221 BC
The most used armor in the Warring States Period was Rigid Leather Armor of Lamellar or Scale construction. As a general rule these leather suits covered only the torso part of the upper arms, but full suits could also have been constructed.
Later in this period iron armor started to show up, using the same construction as with leather, but the design is inferior to later armors.

The Qin Dynasty 221-207 BC
The Qin Dynasty was a transition period for armor suit materials.
The most common armor style was iron Scale Armor or that reached to mid thighs. The length of the armor is equal at front and back, rounded at the lower edges with no additional decoration.

Han Dynasty 206 BC-220 AD
By the Han Dynasty, Rigid Leather armor began to be replaced by the new armor made of iron.
The most common armor style was iron Scale Armor or Brigadine Armor that reached to mid thighs. Army wear of the Han Dynasty were red or crimson.

Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties 220-589 AD
More wars led to even greater development in armor suits. Typical armor suit of this period included the barrel sleeve suit, the double layer suit and the Mingguang suit, though Scale and Brigadine Armor was still in use.
The barrel sleeve suit is normally made iron scales. Protective barrel sleeves are attached at the shoulders. A helmet is worn with ear protectors and decorative tassels.
The double-layered suit is closer in style to the daily wear. It is mostly made with metal although those made with animal skin have also been found. The suit is in two pieces on front and back, covering the chest and the back respectively, similar to a vest that runs down to below the belly. Mingguang suit is one with round metal plates protecting the chest and the back, worn with a leather belt and wide trousers. This type of armor became more popular over the ages and gradually replaced the double layer suit.
Horse armors were also developed in this period and continued to evolve.

Sui Dynasty 589-617 AD
The most commonly used armor in the Sui Dynasty was the double-layered suit and the Mingguang suit. The double-layered suit improved with smaller fish-scale chips, and extended to the belly so that leather armor skirt was no longer necessary. The bottom of the suit was made of crescent or lotus-leave shaped chips for better protection below the waist. The form of the Mingguang armor was similar to the previous dynasties, only with longer trouser legs.
A series of reforms were done on garment styles, including reforms of army suits. There were thirteen types of armor suit designated as official army wear, made with materials from copper to wood, leather and cloth. Iron and leather suits were used in actual wars, whereas decorative armor suits made with silk and cotton, visually pleasing as they were, were used as daily wear or ceremonial suit for generals.

Tang Dynasty 618-907 AD
The armor designs stayed more or less the same, but more decorations were found in the Tang helmet, suit and boots. The chips were better formed for ease of movement and this development resulted in the invention of the Shan Wen Kai or "Mountain Pattern Armor".
At the prime of the Tang Dynasty, the strong national power led to a more peaceful time. The once practical armor suits became more decorative than functional. The suits were painted, and even the inner garments were embroidered with animals.

Song Dynasty 960-1279 AD
In ancient China, greater protection in the armor suit was often achieved by increasing the number of chips. Chips became heavier and heavier through the ages. There were two kinds of armor suits in the Song Dynasty, one for use in actual fight and the other for ceremonial purposes. According to Song History, the entire suit had 1825 pieces of chips that were connected with leather threads. The total weight was approximately 25 kilograms.
As for ceremonial armor suits, the face was made with yellow silk while the lining was made with cotton cloth. Chips were painted on with a yellowish green color, complete with edging decoration of red brocade, black trousers, red leather ribbons and painted faces on front and back.


I stopped with the Song Dynasty, since the Mongolian Invasion pretty much put an end to the development of new armors and because by the time of the Ming Dynasty firearms were already in use which put an end to my interest in the subject

One thing that puzzles me is that that plenty of people talk about chinese lamellar armors, but as far as I can see from the pictures and texts almost all armors are Scale armors. Of cause I mighthave missed something

Very interesting!

A good first post, and accurate in general...

However, I think that your research could be better cited and more in depth.

Qin, I would argue, meshed with Warring States and was too short really to be called a "transitional period" on its own. Brigandine was not used in the Han, so far as I know--popularity came up during the Ming Dynasty (from what I have seen). But kudos to you for such an introduction!

I might need to explain that this is just a quick overview.


Actually you right. I was thinking about the Han Dynasty.


Hmm Both Wiki and some other source (I cant remember which right now) states that Coat of Plates were used in the Han Dynasty. Yes I do know that wikipedia is often not to be trusted, but as it was stated somewhere else as well.

Thank you for the kind words

Opps I forgot the introduction to the armors. I will add it now

Yang Zongbao, you could send Balhirath the Albert Dien article on pre-Tang Chinese armour.



On the contrary. It is in the Ming period that Chinese brigandine comes into its own, partly as a response to firearms.



They're mistaken.



It is actually difficult to distinguish lamellar and scale from pictures alone, and the book Oriental Armour is misleading when it claims the standard type of Chinese armour was scale. Archaeology has proven that ancient Chinese armour was predominantly made of lamellae.

I think that although saying Chinese army did not use mails is totally incorrect, it seems to me (not true may be), that the number of mails used during 2000 years was less than those in Europe and Islamic World. Wonder is this correct??

Hey Yun, I remember you have said in some other threads that the Tang helmet has neck protection. Do you have pictures of surviving artefacts apart from drawings?

But how popular were these armours? Ancient Romans have armours for all their legionaries so the price should not be a problem since ancient chinese were far richer. According to some sources, most soldiers in the Warring States Period and in Song were also very well armoured. But it seems to be me that most Ming's and Qing's foot soldiers depicted in movies look very poor and have no armour at all, and horse bardings are non-existent. So, anyone have more information regarding the popularity of armours?

I've seen images where they appear like hoods of lamellar.


This is government armor sources though, yes? I'd imagine rebels, pirates, private households and such could manufacture their own?

That is not sure at all. How do you discern this?

That probably reflects the movie producers' budget more than it does the budget of the Ming and Qing armies, but the fact is that regular infantry in all periods of Chinese history were supplied with relatively light and basic armour, because they were considered expendable. The suits of Chinese heavy armour that we know of were mostly for heavy cavalry or special heavy infantry units. I think you will find that this was generally the case for European armies too.

Infantry armour and horse armour both became relatively redundant in the Ming period and thereafter, probably because it did not provide any protection against firearms and cannon. Most infantrymen were issued shields rather than armour as protection from arrows and bladed weapons. There was mail and brigandine armour for cavalrymen (with the brigandine worn by the Qing Manchu bannermen being best known), which probably did provide a little protection from bullets, but it was not meant for infantry use.



Chain mail was seen in the Tang period as something exotic and expensive from Central Asia, and never seems to have caught on despite being said to be the best type of armour there was. The use of chain mail increased in the Yuan period, probably as a result of Mongol contact with mail-clad soldiers in the Middle East and Russia. In the Ming period, chain mail was used quite widely, and in the Qing period, the imperial bodyguard was mail-clad.



As far as I know, there are no surviving specimens of the neck lamellae, but there are many Tang tomb figurines in armour that has the neck protector.

Some years ago I saw a test that someone had done on armors and it clearly showed that while mail offers exellent protection, lamellar armor is better against thrusting/puncturing weapons.
Ofcause this is only true up to a point, since a powerful missile weapon will shoot through any kind of armor.
Mail armor is more flexible than Lamellar armor and protect better (Or at least as good) against slashing/cutting attacks, so is you're up against missile weapons that will shoot through any armor you can make, it makes sense to take the better armor

Another thing that must be considered is production. China always had large armies and making chain armors takes longer and cost more than making Lamellar or scale armors. Maintainance and repair also takes longer and cost more for Mail armor.
Trivial as it might seem, these things matters a LOT when you have to make half a million of armors

Speaking of brigandines used by the Qings Mr. Yun mentioned, it seems that
brigandines provided considerable protection against bullets even in the 17th century.

This is what Min-hwan Lee, a Korean lieutenant who participated in the 1619 War against the Manchus,
said about the Manchurian armour he saw.
(The war was a disastrous defeat for the Ming, and he was held captive for years.)


"Their(Manchurians') armours are extremely tough and stiff, and even strong bows aren't
enough to penetrate it. At the distance of more than
a hundred paces(Approximately 120 meters), nothing can pierce it."
(賊之甲胄極其堅緻。除非強弓。必不能貫穿於百步之外.)

- 紫巖集卷之六, 建州聞見錄 -

Since Koreans were employing arquebuses in great numbers, the description could also be applied to bullets.
(Out of ten thousand Korea troops sent for the War, 5,000 of them were arquebusiers.)

Brigandine was also exclusively used by 17th~18th century Koreans,
and there is a record telling us that such brigandine with steel lamallae inside could stop bullets(shot from arquebus)
at the distance of 50 paces.(Approximately 60 meters)